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We are sick of the filth that pours into our computers from spammers and porn sellers. A computer that solves this problem and is both easy to use and free from Windows viruses is a godsend.
  technofile
Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983

T e c h n o f i l e
Windows users beware: 'Switchers' need your tolerance


Feb. 19, 2003


By Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2003, Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2003, The Post-Standard

   Ever since I revealed that I'm a "switcher" -- someone so fed up with Windows that he switched to an Apple Macintosh -- I've had to create a separate folder in my e-mail program to hold all the comments I've been getting from readers and friends. Most of them have congratulated me, but many others said they were afraid I've abandoned them.
   I'd never do that. I'm just telling it like it is.
   If you're a Windows user, you need to read this. You need to open up that door just a little.
   I'm telling it like it is. I'm telling you you're not stuck with Microsoft Windows. There's a new kind of computer out there. It's easy to use and extremely powerful. It's ideal for the normal tasks you and I do with PCs -- Web browsing, e-mail, image viewing, music listening and word processing. It's superb at such things as video editing and DVD creation, too.
   This extraordinary new computer represents the rebirth of Apple's Macintosh, running a Unix operating system called OS X. It's not like the old Mac at all. It even scoffs at Windows computer viruses and worms. When you switch to an Apple Macintosh, you no longer care whether your sister-in-law sends computer viruses to you every day. Your Windows virus worries are over.
   On its own, that counts for a lot. Windows viruses and worms are a scourge. The latest variety steals e-mail addresses and uses them to fake the source of subsequent mailings. It mails itself out from infected Windows PCs while making it appear that the virus is coming from somewhere else -- from your Windows computer, maybe, or from my Mac. Those who receive these infected mailings cannot tell; they have no way to know that the infections didn't come from you and me.
   Think about it. You and I know that future versions of these worms and viruses could send out things that are much worse. I can't even hint at what I am referring to. I don't want to give ideas to the wrong people.
   This is a problem that needs to be taken seriously. Yet Microsoft continues to sell the Windows operating system without any built-in protection against this threat. Microsoft employs 20,000 computer engineers. You and I know they could work on this problem if they were ordered to do so. Surely this is a danger severe enough to warrant a fix and a recall.
   Mac users do not have to worry about another threat, either. As long as they use the mail software that comes free with their OS X 10.2 operating system, they are protected against nearly all unwanted commercial junk mail, known as spam.
   The Mac OS X spam blocker is the best I have seen. It works without any hocus-pocus. You end up with more free time and none of the embarrassment that Windows users suffer when they're forced to cope with spam that tries to sell them "enlargement" pills or herbal stimulants. Mac OS X users are much less likely than Windows users to receive mail that tries to lure their children to porn sites, too.
   This counts for something. Let the cynics have their day. The rest of us, parents and grandparents, sisters and brothers, are sick of the filth that pours into our computers from spammers and porn sellers. A computer that solves this problem and is both easy to use and free from Windows viruses is a godsend.
   My enthusiasm for this alternative computer is obvious. A wholesale switch from Windows to Macs would give all of us a break from tedium, spam, porn and lost productivity.
   But that's not going to happen soon. Many of you can't or won't switch. You have your reasons, or maybe you just have your inertia. I can understand that.
   And there is another side to Windows. Some of the best software I've ever used was written for Windows. I'm even a big fan of the old DOS command line and the ancient DOS batch-file language. Both of them still work under Windows 2000 and Windows XP.
   So I'll keep writing about Windows just as I've done in the past. My Windows articles appear in Stars, our Sunday magazine. I've written for Stars every week for 20 years.
   Those who have already switched know that Microsoft has its own agenda. Those who haven't switched need to be patient with all of us who have. Each day brings word of new switchers. These former Windows users are doing what they feel is the right thing.
   If you're never going to switch, the right thing might be something as simple as tolerance. Cut us some slack. We're not really as bug-eyed as we seem. We're just hyped up on something too exciting to keep quiet about, and we like to spread the good news.