runninmac said:
some of my schools computers were this year untill january!
They were so slow and bogged down with viruses and ad aware. Now we use WinXP and there still as slow as hell.
One of the reasons that Windows is vulnerable to viruses and worms is that programmers store the user preferences in the Program Files tree, which they were never supposed to do. Users have to have administrator access to change them, so that means most user accounts on Windows are administrators (with the power of root users in Unix), and that means that viruses and worms can go anywhere they like, even into system files.
When the programmers started this bad habit (which even Microsoft did on several versions of Money), it was largely harmless. After that the relentless attacks on Microsoft began and now they absolutely must go by the rules.
Microsoft is taking two initiatives to combat this. First, they are educating developers to put user preferences in the Documents and Settings tree, where they belong. This involves an extensive education program and a certification program to motivate programmers to comply. In Longhorn, they will have to comply. Next, they plan to put a "My Programs" directory in each user's Documents and Settings tree. (It will probably have a different name because the "my" prefix drives non-narcissists bats. That was a well-intended attempt to get chummy with the user that backfired.)
The result is that a least-priviledged user will be able to run all applications and even install applications, but those applications only have free run of the individual's Documents and Settings tree.
By the time Longhorn is out this problem should be solved. Adminstrators will be able to set up least-priviledged use accounts for users and that will go a long way--more like a quantum leap--to protecting the system.
This is a combination of Microsoft's oversight and programmer laziness, but it is not a state of affairs that will last very long.
So crow while you can.
The main difference here is that Windows is primarily a business OS and Macintosh is primarily a consumer OS. No one in all these gadzillions of postings had talked about their employer's strategy for implementing Macs, or the difficulty they have had convincing their employer to update their workstation to Tiger. There is nothing analogous to that sort of discussion you'd find about Windows. All of you guys are either geeks or consumers like me. Apple, as I said before, has to become price competitive so that it can move into the workplace. Then they will really cash in.
