MrJohnson said:
What the hell are you talking about? I've used Windows XP sine it's came out and have never gotten a virus. I've done this simply by not opening attachments that seem fishy. And Spyware? Now that Firefox has near 10% marketshare there is no reason to even use Internet Explorer anymore. And if you absolutly need IE then Microsoft also has their own Anti-spyware that's FREE from their webpage, and it's actually very good.
But not only that but Most Dell's come with free firewall/virus software.
Here is a quote from the Microsoft website " You need to be running a version of Internet Explorer 5 or higher in order to use Windows Update." So, it is not true that "there is no reason to even use Internet Explorer anymore."
And anybody who knows anything about security will tell you to use more than one anti-spyware program anyway.
The problem with windows xp is that even with sp2 unwanted programs apparently can just get privileges over your system and then not just slow down your system but worse.
I use Netscape 7.2 and recently noticed a slowdown. I found 54 spyware programs using spybot and then afterwards I used ad-aware found 14 more.
I don't use firefox yet because there are still certain problems with the browser:
see "Top ten Firefox browser annoyances" from the inquirer.
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=22634
The security and anti-virus from Dell is free for 90 days and sometimes even 15 months, but then you must pay $60-80 per year to be secure. It depends on the system you purchase.
And even with all the security software, you are not always secure, because you must patch for all your different security programs.
It's great that you never got a virus, but I got 2 in 4 years and they were caught by a virus program. There are over 72,000 viruses for XP (I think that's the number) and recently I read there may, perhaps be 1 for OS X. You do the math.
But hey, I'll let Dell speak for me. The probability of these things happening is significantly less on a Mac:
"Viruses. Spam. Hackers. Spyware. Identity theft. Worms. As the volume of threats to your PC rise, it becomes increasingly important to get protected and stay that way.
Dell understands that keeping your system safe is critical. We've partnered with two of the world's leading manufacturers of security software to provide you with affordable products to guard your PC from the various threats that currently exist.
Downtime. Lost productivity. Corrupt data. With Internet threats on the rise, the right protection has never been more critical. In the event of an infection, remember Dell does not provide support without an additional fee. However, McAfee and Symantec offer industry-leading software protection compatibility tested to work with your new DellTM system to help protect against these threats.
If you choose to not subscribe at this time, your system will automatically ship with a 90 day trial of either Norton Internet SecurityTM 2004 or McAfee SecurityCenter. To insure that your system stays protected beyond this period, Dell recommends that you sign up now for one of the security subscriptions to help protect your system against security related issues. In the event of virus or security related problems, Dell can provide telephone support and troubleshooting for an additional fee.1 The cost of these services can range from $39 per incident plus the cost of security software at $50 to $69.) Therefore, purchasing security software with your computer purchase can prevent your system from ever being infected with many known viruses, and thus result in lower long-term costs while helping protect your PC from prevalent threats."
