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Another Reason Why I'm Glad To Be A Mac User

SummerBreeze

SummerBreeze

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 11, 2005
593
0
Chicago, IL
A friend of mine got a new P.C. at roughly the same time I got my new PowerBook (a few weeks ago). She wouldn't switch despite my best efforts and instead bought a 17" HP laptop running Windows Media Center. She laughed at my 12" PB (which I plug into a larger monitor when I work in webdesign) and went on and on about how cool Media Center is.

She started encountering problems with her computer as soon as she took it out of the (less than eye-catching) box. The first time she ran anti-spyware software she was caught tons of instances of spyware, slowing the thing down so that she couldnt even tell that she was had a gig of RAM. I, on the other hand, was merrily tweaking my system preferences and enjoying how fast Photoshop and the rest of the Creative Suite ran.

By the end of the first week, spyware had taken over her entire system. She no longer had admin privilages and couldn't add or remove programs, or connect to the network. She attempted to run ad-aware only to find that the system would stop it from running. She called HP, but they just explained what a virius was and then called the problem resolved.

At this time I had successfully connected to both the network in my apartment and the one at school, taken my PowerBook to class with me in order to take notes, and gotten all my data beautifully organized.

This weekend, my friend's only option is to do a complete reinstall on her less than one month old system, losing all of her data. When I told her how ridiculous I thought that was, she just told me that computers worked like that, and sometimes they just crash and it is no big deal, you just have to spend a few hours and sometimes you can even keep some of your data. I told her that I had never experienced this on a Mac.

I'm definitely glad I'm a Mac user.
 
SummerBreeze said:
When I told her how ridiculous I thought that was, she just told me that computers worked like that, and sometimes they just crash and it is no big deal, you just have to spend a few hours and sometimes you can even keep some of your data...
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Rather than admit she bought a lemon...

Why do people have problems admitting that they made a mistake? Scared of looking stupid? Sorry, but you look stupid enough already.

Let her get on with it — hope that one day she sees the light.

Enjoy your Mac... but I guess you will anyway. :)

Oh... and only rub it in when she asks your advice or help. It's only then when they're most vulnerable. :D
 
SummerBreeze said:
...

This weekend, my friend's only option is to do a complete reinstall on her less than one month old system, losing all of her data. When I told her how ridiculous I thought that was, she just told me that computers worked like that, and sometimes they just crash and it is no big deal, you just have to spend a few hours and sometimes you can even keep some of your data. I told her that I had never experienced this on a Mac.

...
Click to expand...

That's untrue, and a sad sign of the times. In my opinion we have wonderful companies like M$ to thank for that (among others.)

If she's arrogant then let her be. If she asks for help you can always refuse... ;)
 
All the reasons you cited are good enough for staying away from the PC platform, but another reason not to be overlooked in the slightest is the fact that Mac users have an outstanding support system as evidenced by this forum ... 'nuff said. :)
 
SummerBreeze said:
.... she just told me that computers worked like that, and sometimes they just crash and it is no big deal, you just have to spend a few hours and sometimes you can even keep some of your data....
Click to expand...

It always amazes me how pc users actually do believe this. They really don't mean anything by it, they actually believe that it's all part and parcel of owning a computer.

Yet here we are happily getting our work done on our Macs.
 
Well, my PCs have been virus and spyware free for over fifteen years (at least, according to the virus checkers and spyware checkers I've been running on them), so if you're careful it's not a given that your PC will become bogged down requiring regular OS reinstalls.

Of course, while you read that last paragraph, the phrases "virus checkers", "spyware checkers" and "if you're careful" should have jumped out at you (especially since I bolded them). Although there doesn't have to be a problem on PCs, Windows makes you jump through hoops to keep your PC safe. And I'm just fed up with it, so the next computer I buy will be a Mac.
 
plinden said:
Although there doesn't have to be a problem on PCs, Windows makes you jump through hoops to keep your PC safe. And I'm just fed up with it, so the next computer I buy will be a Mac.
Click to expand...


Yeees YEESSS welcome to the light side!

MUAHAHAHAHAHA!

:) You'll like it over here.



**EDIT**
OT: running spyware checker after a week? And it got really bogged down during it? sounds like it CAME with spyware!
Well, can Win XP be considered spyware?

~cue paranoid XP user with the "crash reporter" thing.~
 
katie ta achoo said:
Yeees YEESSS welcome to the light side!

MUAHAHAHAHAHA!

:) You'll like it over here.
Click to expand...
Well, I've been on the light side, in spirit anyway, for some time - in fact about 18 months ago I had a 15" PB in the Apple store cart ready to replace my 5 year old IBM Thinkpad 600E, when the b*stards at work gave me a new Centrino Thinkpad. I wasn't able to sneak a new PB past my wife when I had a new PC on hand.

I needed a new computer back then, before getting the new PC, but don't need one now.

However, I've worn my wife down enough that she accepts that any personal purchases from now on will be Macs.
 
I have to admit, when I owned and used PC's, I really felt the same way she did. Every few months, no matter how hard I tried to avoid it, and no matter what I ran to stop it, I had to erase my hard drive and reinstall Windows. I just figured this was part of the price for owning a computer.

But since I started using my old Macs again... I'm never going back. No way. The only major problem I've ever had was Filevault eating my Powerbook, but even then I saved all my data and didn't need to erase or reinstall anything, Disk Utility did the trick.
 
SummerBreeze said:
She started encountering problems with her computer as soon as she took it out of the (less than eye-catching) box. The first time she ran anti-spyware software she was caught tons of instances of spyware, slowing the thing down so that she couldnt even tell that she was had a gig of RAM. I, on the other hand, was merrily tweaking my system preferences and enjoying how fast Photoshop and the rest of the Creative Suite ran.

By the end of the first week, spyware had taken over her entire system. She no longer had admin privilages and couldn't add or remove programs, or connect to the network. She attempted to run ad-aware only to find that the system would stop it from running. She called HP, but they just explained what a virius was and then called the problem resolved.

...

This weekend, my friend's only option is to do a complete reinstall on her less than one month old system, losing all of her data...

I'm definitely glad I'm a Mac user.
Click to expand...

Frankly, your friend must be a complete moron, or you have overexaggerated the story. What is she doing, signing up for "FREE IPODS!!" while downloading porn? You can avoid 99.9% of spyware, adware, viruses, etc with some common sense, which your friend appears to not have.
 
On the list of top 10 downloads this week from download.com

:rolleyes:
 

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Verto said:
Frankly, your friend must be a complete moron, or you have overexaggerated the story. What is she doing, signing up for "FREE IPODS!!" while downloading porn? You can avoid 99.9% of spyware, adware, viruses, etc with some common sense, which your friend appears to not have.
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Try to be nice. Her friend truly needs help. Hopefully now you can convince your friend to switch now?
;)
 
5300cs said:
On the list of top 10 downloads this week from download.com

:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Yep, that's how it is on the darkside. I have a Windows computer and even though I only have it plugged into the internet when I can't help it, and even though I use firefox and have a firewall installed, I still have to run AdAware once a week and I still get thirty or so instances of spyware.
 
w_parietti22 said:
You make it sound like she has a emotional problem or something. Lol.
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I was referring to the comment by Verto. I sure that her friend is just as nice as SummerBreeze.
 
Just out of curiosity, what does your friend do with her computer? I run a PC and have had, I believe, 3 viruses, none of which were ever noticable. I don't do much to monitor what I do on the internet (like avoiding websites), other than the fact that I have a firewall, and that is simply because I have a router. I run adaware and a few other programs occasionally, but those are just out of curiosity, never because I feel the computer slowing down.
 
Some malware infections actually start downloading other malware themselves. Some time ago, I read about an experiment someone did, where they used a new clean computer (connected unprotected to a broadband connection) and went to some site like yahoogamez, then tracked what was installed on his computer. It was an interesting read. Within a couple of days, his PC was unusable.

I've also heard of HP computers being infected out of the box, but that's just hearsay. I don't know how reliable those reports were.

Interesting aside: I haven't been able to find a link to the spyware experiment I mention above, but while searching I came across the website www.pchell.com. devoded to helping people living in PC Hell.

I notice there's no www.machell.com.


Edit: found the link to the spyware experiment - http://isc.sans.org/diary.php?date=2004-07-23

Scroll down to "Follow the Bouncing Malware - Part I"


Edit 2: Here's a better link http://3nailsministries.org/?p=165
 
wdlove said:
Try to be nice. Her friend truly needs help. Hopefully now you can convince your friend to switch now?
;)
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Sorry if I came across as rude, but what has happened to your (his) friend is something that is for the most part easily prevented (through methods other than switching to OS X ;) ) Avoiding questionable sites; protecting yourself through programs like Spybot, Ad-Aware, firewalls, Microsoft AntiSpyware, etc. A huge drop in these kinds of problems can be achieved by simply switching to Firefox.
 
gco212 said:
Just out of curiosity, what does your friend do with her computer? I run a PC and have had, I believe, 3 viruses, none of which were ever noticable. I don't do much to monitor what I do on the internet (like avoiding websites), other than the fact that I have a firewall, and that is simply because I have a router. I run adaware and a few other programs occasionally, but those are just out of curiosity, never because I feel the computer slowing down.
Click to expand...

She doesn't do anything too out of the ordinary, but she has been known to use file-sharing progams often. That's probably most of what killed her computer.
 
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