Family and friends often ask me what kind of computer they should buy (and it’s usually scoped to something like “Dell or HP?”). I’ve just given up. Why should I even try. If it’s me, or rather, if I have to be the “IT department” for it, I’m getting a Mac, purely for the reduced operating cost (read my time). So I mumble “get a mac” knowing they will ignore me. Because, what do they say? These people that turned to me, as the supposed expert with 25+ years experience in the industry, they then turn back at me and tell me all the reasons why the Mac sucks, is too expensive, yada yada. Then, ok, so why ask me? You already know everything, apparently. So they buy their Dell, or HP, or whatever, and of course a few days later, they ask me things like “what do I do when that thing comes up that says ‘Update’?” “What do you do?” they ask. So now what am I supposed to do? What can I do? I mumble “get a mac” but they prattle on about what Virus scanner should they get, what should they use for Spyware, and etc. and so on. What do they want from me? The whole reason I told them not to get a Windows box was because I didn’t have time to fix it for them. Not my problem. Figure it out. You’re the one that said Windows was so much better cheaper.
A New WMF Exploit that looks really nasty. This is a totally new bug, separate from one that looked similar, reported just a few weeks ago (See WMF “mtNoObjects” Header Remote Exploit) The new exploit effects most anything that displays images, including Firefox, Opera, Outlook and (as usual) Internet Explorer and it applies to fully patched Windows XP (i.e. there is no fix, currently). That is, there is no fix, short of NOT USING WINDOWS, as I told them in the first place.
Look, I’m not a Mac fanatic. And I suppose, in theory, there’s nothing fundamentally better about the Mac in terms of these issues. But practically speaking, there is no comparison in terms of “system maintance” overhead.
I heard this one on the radio one morning driving into town: "Why are the older experts always so grumpy? It comes from that many more decades of saying ‘Well, I told you so!’"
My advice (like you’ll listen) is simply this: Say, "Beat’s me!" and shrug and then go back to enjoying your life.
As a "computer professional" for 25-years and an avid mac-user (yes, I earn my living with it, not playing with it). I too have grown VERY tired of folks asking me what to buy, then squawking, "Mac?? Aren’t they almost out of business?" Yeah, right…$565 million net profit THIS QUARTER. I guess most Accounting 101 grads would agree that this is not "almost out of business".
Oh, well…people buy Chevy cars too.
Happy Computing.