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Mac OS X Dissapointing: Back to Windows

M

MacVirgin1985

macrumors newbie
Original poster
I purchased a Mac Book about 3 months ago for a little under $2,800 AU.

When i first purchased it I really enjoyed the novelty and flashy sleek looks, everywhere I went I was instilled with a sense of fashionable pride and digital decor.

In the first 3 weeks I was constantly tweaking and playing, I really enjoyed some of the features, I was of course elated to hear macs are apparently virus free, an unconditional selling point with no reservations what-so-ever. The absolute clincher for the sale though was the slogan "They just work" no.... that drew me in, I was like a wounded gazelle on the Serengeti, these words were crumbling away my resolve and as a resolute consumer who's staunch anti-sales attitude repels the slipperiest of salesmen, I felt confident it was a sure buy.

As said, I enjoyed 3 weeks of absolute bliss, having spent one or two hours a night on the rather intuitive purchase I reached day 24-25 and than one fateful night I sat up in my bed happily tapping away and than what do you know my internet stops working and the Mac Book locks up. I turn it off and on but nothing seems to help, after accessing the internet my Mac Book locks up and I have to restart.

In the morning I was quite puzzled as the slogan pitch for the product was "It just works". After a quick trip to the apple store I dropped it off and spent a refreshing week on my windows desktop. Problem free as well, that machine has slogged on for almost two years now, no viruses, no crashes... nothing.
After 8 days I was recalled to the Apple store and on further inquiry I learned I was the victim of a virus. Yes, a virus! It hi-jacked my browser and locked up my pc. I got my laptop back and after 4 days on/off it locked up again.

I have to say, im a patient guy, but to sell me a product on the merit its hassle free / bug free / virus free and than for me to have it less than a month and a half and it crash from viruses twice (twice more than my pc)... sorry folks im over it.

My laptop sits on my nightstand now, I haven't used it in almost 2 weeks. I got it back after the second virus was cleared and to be honest I wanted to game with a few buddies from work. Unfortunately my mac book wont run 98% of the games out there so I ended up lugging my pc over to the nominated house.

Summing up,
There are viruses and bugs for a mac, less than a pc but theres less macs than pc's. To believe the opposite is just playing ignorant. If you play games with friends dont buy a mac. I can see people who want one for school or office use / video & graphic editting etc.. It would be perfectly viable but for me it didnt work out. I gave it a shot fellas but at the end of the day windows turned out to be less of a hassle which is kind of ironic.

Cheers
 
I'm sorry that you are having issues but I see absolutely no evidence in your post of a virus. That part appears to be blatant scaremongering.

For reference a virus is a self-replicating software program that can infect other machines without human interaction. Exactly what proof do you have of a Mac virus?
 
The guy at the store called it a trojan. I wikipedia'd trojan and it refers to the trojan as a virus. Im sorry if it was a baseless assumption but I thought trojans were viruses.
 
Did you think it possible that perhaps, just maybe, your specific computer had a problem with it? That this isn't really a reflection of macs in general? No one claims that Macs are perfect, not even Apple. "It Just Works" is a phrase, not a 100% guarantee. I can tell you that Macs "Just works" a heck of a lot more than windows boxes.

And I would also like to see proof of this elusive 'mac virus' that only you have ever caught.
 
Trojans are not viruses, but they are part of a wider category called malware. A Trojan is a piece of software than requires user interaction to install, usually by pretending to be something that it isn't. Unfortunately Trojans rely on user stupidity basically. No OS in the world can protect the user if the user is willing to download software from the internet and type in the admin password when it asks.
 
I've had an iMac since March, and just recently a Macbook. No tweeking needed at all. Started them up, answered a few questions, ran the updates, rebooted once, done.

I have a Windows PC at work, and count on the "Tuesday" update blitz...install, reboot, install, reboot. Then having to look at the God awful interface...blah...
 
MacVirgin1985 said:
I gave it a shot fellas but at the end of the day windows turned out to be less of a hassle which is kind of ironic.
Click to expand...
What's ironic is that you had to give the Mac trojan your password in order for it to make changes to your Mac system, whereas the same type of trojan for Windows needs no password to make similar changes to a Windows system (when run as how much users have them configured, where the default user is an Admin). At least the Mac requires your explicit permission before the trojan is allowed to dink your system up.

http://www.macnn.com/articles/07/10/31/new.trojan.targets.macs/
 
robbieduncan said:
...No OS in the world can protect the user if the user is willing to download software from the internet and type in the admin password when it asks.
Click to expand...

And I wouldn't want it to. At least not on my machine. I don't want my computer constantly second guessing me, popping up UAC windows telling me that Mac OS X wants to do something.

Thanks goodness for Macs.

EDIT: My reply may have come out like I was criticizing you. I'm not, just using your statement to make a point. 🙂
 
The thing I find funny is instead of you asking me about my problem and trying to figure it out, you attack my credibility. This was just my personal experience, its not a general reflection on macs, just my personal opinion on the experience I had.

You can of course sit back and criticize what I say, which is what your doing or you can take what Ive said for what it is, a recount of my experience. I havent claimed anything other than what I have been told.

The man at the store said that I had a trojan that was stealing my internet, he assured me it wouldnt happen againand put some software on my Mac Book which my wife paid for. It did happen again, so Im naturally angry, it was almost $3,000 and I got barely a month of use out of it.

Im fairly sure you will reply with aimless criticism so I shouldn't even really bother typing this.
 
MacVirgin1985 said:
Yeah of course there are apple stores here, there has been one of the main street near me for almost 3 years.
Click to expand...
When people say "Apple Stores" on this forum, they're referring to an Apple-owned and operated retail store.

I think I read that Apple's in the process of opening some, but there aren't any yet.
 
MacVirgin1985 said:
Im not sure what you mean, all they sell is Apple gear. It was all new looking gear, fancy stuff. Now that I think about it the name of the Store wasnt Apple Store... was something fancy. Ill have to look next time I wonder past it on the way to work.
Click to expand...

An Apple Store is just that, a store ran by Apple with Apple trained staff. If you took your MacBook to anyone one of these 200 stores around the world, I'm willing to bet not one of them would tell you you had a virus.

If you think people are unfairly bashing you, it's because you've said you took it to an apple store and they said you had a virus and neither is really true.
 
MacVirgin1985, you do need to try to sort this out rather than give up on Macs.

As pointed out the Trojan needed your permission to install and thus bugger up your computer. Take a deep breath, reinstall (erase and install) and start again. Try to remember exactly what it was that caused the problem and avoid it.
At the moment Macs can shrug off viruses, but if you give something permission then you're asking for trouble. I'm sure Windows woould have been caught out the same way.

Despite first appearances this forum is probably the most helpful out there for problems and help. Yes, you get some knee jerk reactions when newbies mention the dreaded 'v' word, but try to ignore the non helpful posts and you'll get good advice.
 
MacVirgin1985 said:
The guy at the store called it a trojan. I wikipedia'd trojan and it refers to the trojan as a virus. Im sorry if it was a baseless assumption but I thought trojans were viruses.
Click to expand...

No, a Trojan is a piece of software which allows someone to access your computer by a backdoor (the name is based on the Trojan horse story). Trojans are not viruses, a virus in the computer sense is the same as a biological virus in that is replicates itself and attempts to take over the computer (much as a human virus replicates and takes over the hosts cells by injecting its RNA into the cell).
 
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