I saw one of Apple’s (presumably) new PC vs Mac ads today. (Some of you are going to say “that’s not new”. I don’t watch much TV, so it may as well be.) The ad in question is the one with the guy that plays Putty in Seinfeld.
A girl is looking for a new computer. She lists off a bunch of features she wants; Putty (the PC) says he has them.
Then, the kicker: “I don’t want to have to deal with thousands of viruses.”
Putty says “Oh. Well all PCs have that.” Unsurprisingly, she says she’ll just get a Mac.
What’s wrong with this picture? Oh yeah. “Thousands of viruses.” Really? When was the last time you encountered a computer that had thousands of viruses on it? Even if you can think of a time, I’ll bet the user was doing something completely and utterly moronic (like installing every pirated program in sight, or surfing porn sites, or opening every spam e-mail, or… you get the idea).
Guess what? Macs won’t protect stupid users from doing stupid things. There are viruses out there for OSX, using the same tactics that they’re using for stupid PC users.
My Windows machines never get viruses. Sure, I run Avast! Antivirus, but I doubt I need it. It’s more a formality than anything. Want to know my secret?
I’m not a moron. I don’t follow links in spam e-mail or seedy websites. I don’t visit porn sites. I don’t install pirated software. Basically, I employ a little thing called “common sense”.
I can’t say I blame Apple for exploiting America’s obvious lack of this essential skill, but I’m still allowed to be annoyed by it. My rage is more directed at American stupidity than Apple’s slightly deceptive or misleading advertising.
I agree with you that stupidity is usually the cause and the Mac is not immune to viruses, but Windows truly is less secure *by default*. The default user in Windows is an admin so if the user allows something to run (accidentally or out of stupidity) it can do anything it wants to do. This is not true on a Mac, the user is not root. And IE has had too many security holes in it for too long.
FWIW, I am a geek and I used to work at Microsoft (on Office, not on Windows) and I don’t run antivirus software at all. But even I have had a virus on a Windows machine a couple times. You may call me stupid, but I prefer to say that I am not perfect and do make mistakes. I’ve never had a virus on a Mac, though, no one I knows has had a virus on a Mac and even my dad, who had tons of viruses on his Windows PC, has yet to get a virus on his Mac. So I think there is some truth to the ad.