beware of .jpeg's windows users

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms04-028.mspx

Yet another security hole...

Pretty soon it's going to be: Windows users beware, turning on and actually operating your computer could infect it with a virus that will erase all of your data and send your credit cards to a russian hacker. To avoid being infected with this virus, turn your computer off, unplug it from the wall, and put it in the closet. Oh wait, that already happens...

God, I wish macs where cheaper than they are right now, i would already own one! I hate all this virus/hacker bull crap. Pisses me off

[QUOTE=x_fusiun_x]God, I wish macs where cheaper than they are right now, i would already own one! I hate all this virus/hacker bull crap. Pisses me off[/QUOTE]

This exactly describes one of the situations that people who claim Macs are too expensive fail to take into account.

Nearly everyone I know who runs Windows systems spend stupid, untold amounts of time making sure they're up on the latest news about security holes, and then doing what they must to repair them. Only the people who taker NO outside files, or who have machines that have Zero access to the outside world seem secure in using them. And that's not very many users these days.

Try to put a money amount on all those hours of hassle, and add it into the cost of running a Windows system or a network. It adds up pretty dang quickly over the life of an average system.

Macs ARE NOT more expensive, if you factor this in (or out, actually) In fact, they're probably cheaper. I've have spent maybe a sum total of 5 hours, at the very most, on security worries, spread out over many work and home Macs over the past 8 years.

What kind of money amount can you put on that sort of comfort?

Pretty dang priceless, if you ask me and most Mac users.

Well in a company it is cheaper to run windows. Doesn't matter what you are running as desktops you still need a sysadmin to run the network, and one at least that knows security. Fact is a large sum of servers on the market are running Unix, BSD, or Linux of some sort and they are targeted by all kinds of script kiddies and crackers. Doesn't matter what is going on internally.

The only savings you would have is not having to worry so much about updates and patches all the time. But in a large company only an idiot would manually update each computer. The admins run scripts to update whole networks. So you aren't really saving any time that way.

Smaller companies where you don't have a dedicated sysadmin will take the brunt of the cost and those tend to be the ones that get wacked by the viruses and worms. Now this isn't always the case, but in those cases where large companies were hit by a worm and took out their networks, they should have kept their networks up to date. That is where having a staff of admins that are not over worked comes into play.
Now saying Macs are cheaper, maybe in a small company or home company in the long run it might be more efficient to buy macs if you have the initial capital, but being I can pay about $8K Canadian for a Mac G5, fully loaded, or get a pc that is around the same specs for about $3K Canadian, where is the savings when you have to upgrade 40-100 machines?

Personally I'd would switch in an instant if they would drop their prices. I think more people would as well. But right now they are expensive. A base G5, lower end, starts at $2800 CA. But this has an ok video card and 256 Ram. Add a monitor, make it 1Gig ram, and put a decent video card in there and now its $5400 CA. I can buy 2 pcs within similar specs for that price.

But in all this whining, I still would like to be running OSx as a desktop on a nice shiny G5 - =)

not another pc/mac thread. The window's sucks things getting pretty freaking old. Get over it.

Not to mention the update took 2 buttons to install, and you most likely don't even need it. Oh thats right, windows users like to jerk off to updates. That why we download them!

Macs definitely aren't cheaper. You can talk about security updates and reformats and stuff all you want, I still don't think they'd ever be cheaper. Like Rodder said, even though there are a ton of updates, you can just have them install automatically at 3 in the morning and not even worry about it. The thing that really eats up time is when you get adware or something on your machine, and have to close pop-ups 2,000 times a day. But if you aren't using IE and downloading kazaa-type apps, that shouldn't be a problem. I have a 3ghz Dell at work with 2gigs of ram and it's quite a nice machine. I ran all the patches as soon as I started it up (no one had used it before), opened IE long enough to download Firefox, and I haven't had any trouble with it. It runs smooth and quick, quite enjoyable, except for the normal Windows quirks and things.

That being said, I own 3 Macs and they are worth every single penny.

One thing you Mac people fail to realize is that if the Mac OS were as popular as Windows and used by as many people, then you better believe all the hacking that is now directed at Windows would instead be directed at the Mac and it's OS. And you'd see a similar situation as you do now with Windows. There'd be updates and fixes and patches coming out on an ongoing basis. You're fooling yourself if you think otherwise. It's just reality. The biggest, most visible players in any arena are always the most targeted.

Not my intention to start another Mac/PC thread.

That being said here are some random thoughts.
I have both... I like both...
I like the fact that on my Mac I don't really worry about security issues. I like the way it runs. I like not having to deal with a registry. I like being able to just drag an application to the trash if I no longer want it. I like a lot of things about it.

I hate when people say Mac's don't crash. Well they really don't crash but they freeze. Resulting in my mouse just sitting stuck and no force quite options working, meaning I have to hold the power button in until it turns off. Then you get the occasional grey screen of death when booting up. Or once in the great while your program will just go away, hopefully after you just saved your file. I hate the Flash player on Mac. It out and out sucks. I hate that if I want to make a new partition I lose my data.

PC. Love it just as well. Have to have virus software running at all times and keep it updated. Worry more when I get one of my 20 or so a day virus emails with attachments (no I never open them). Hate seeing the blue screen of death. It locks up on "rare" occasions too. Like the fact that if I want to partition my hard drive I don't lose any data. Like that fact that there are more programs available for it, or at least more choices of good app's for certain things. Real audio and windows media actually play in the browser and stream (imagine that).

I could go on and on but you see my point. "Both" have their pro's can con's... I'm upgrading the main machine next year. Honestly I'm not sure what I'm going to get. The whole reason I was driven to Mac in the first place is because of my horrible episode the last time I upgraded machines.
Sony VIO- 1 day, graphics card broke and the DVI stopped working.
Dell- 2 weeks and the hard drive blew. Went around with them and their supposed support and lack of their claim of "in house service". Got my full amount refunded after a lot of headaches and crappy customer support.

Tried a Mac and have not had one serious issue other than what I mentioned above. I'm sure macs have hardware failures as well. I was just really disappointed that 2 PC's out of the box from 2 different vendors went to crap. Seems like everyday I change my mind about what I'm going to get. Mac one day then PC the next. As of right now I'm still thinking the dual 2.5 gHz mac is going to be the fastest. Maybe by next year they will dual 3's out. But, maybe by next year Intel or AMD will have their dual core processor's ready to go? IBM may beat them to the punch. Who knows. Why doesn't somebody just build me a super computer and mail it to me and solve my problems once and for all.

I've rambled enough.

Yeah, im not saying that I hate windows or that I like one better than the other either, I just see the problem with making windows as secure as OS X for example.... i mean they have probably thousand of people working a microsoft 20x more poeple the apple probably does working for then, yet they dont find all of these problems until, more often than not, the problem has already affect a lot of people.

Problem being right now is SP2... i dont know weither to download it or just hope nothing bad happens to my comp while im stlil running SP1. I think microsoft should have waited to release this pack and make sure that their OS wouldnt be worse off.

I do think mac prices are a little steep, but I guess its what you gotta do for the hightened secureity and personally a much better looking OS.