The increasing popularity of Mac's

Hi all. Back when I got my Mac, I really tried to convince the PC users on the forum where I hung out, that this was a so much better OS, but of course they thought it was all just bollocks talk, so now I've pretty much just given up on convincing people. If someone asks for advice on what to buy though, I would recommend a Mac any day.

It seems that Mac's have become more and more popular these last few years (or thereabouts). This is most likely because of Leopard, iPhone, iPod, etc. At least that's my theory. A lot of people buy iPods (at least here in Denmark), but yet they still buy PC's.

What worries me though, is if more people will switch to Mac and OS X, because of crappy Vista. Will this result in malicious vira written for the Mac? I couldn't ever imagine a switch in OS X and Windoze popularity (80% OS X marketshare, 15% Windoze (or whatever it is right now)). I guess this is a fear of mine, but perhaps I'm just too happy about my Mac and how it performs compared to a PC with Windoze. Just don't want that to change in any way.

Out of thoughts right now, but more will probably pop up when you guys and gals come with your inputs.

i completely agree with you why so many people are buying them, and i am very worried that over time mac will be the leading seller and virus' will become introduced largely into the mac world. but the only thing to do is wait. only time will tell what happens. i only hope for the best with apple and the worst for the monopolizing windoz.

David Pogue of Mac Missing Manual book fame and New York Times technology columnist, wrote this on his NYT blog site in 2006.

He had backed the safety-through-obscurity philosophy, then changed his mind and wrote the blog column. (He answers at least one question in the comments under it.)

My two cents?

If you're getting a Mac just because there are no viruses, you're getting it for the wrong reason. A lot of the kids out at my school got one because it "can't get viruses", and well, that's just silly. I tell them "No, it can get viruses, there just aren't any, and the more people that get a Mac, the better a target it is for hackers and coders." They laugh like I don't know what I'm talking about, even though most of them seem to think that OS X is a "kind of Windows".

It can, and most likely will happen, and the more there are using it, the sooner it will happen. It's stupid people like that that will suffer the most, and it almost makes me wish there was malware so that these guys would realize how naive they've been.

I'm just going to wait for it to happen, and then I'm going to laugh. The best anti-virus is the thing between the computer and the chair, i.e. You.

The sun will go nova someday, so I'd better not enjoy a nice day now.

Why would stupid people suffer the most?

"Safety through obscurity". I believe this is part true. If Mac's get very popular, they aren't so obscure anymore and crackers and virus writers (most of them probably being little script kiddies) will look more into them. Or maybe not, but that's just a theory. Hopefully it will never happen and of course only time will tell...

Brown Study said:

The sun will go nova someday, so I'd better not enjoy a nice day now.

Why would stupid people suffer the most?

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For the same reason that people running Windows without any sort of anti-virus, or the people that drive around without car insurance would. They think "Oh, it can't happen to me", and then, well, when it does they get confused and think that it's someone else's fault, even if it's their own for not protecting themselves.

In this instance, I define "stupid" as someone who buys a Mac thinking it can't get viruses, as if that's some sort of guarantee, and when a virus comes along, they think that Apple cheated them out of $1200 because they're supposed to have this perfect machine that nothing can go wrong with. One of the girls I know had her Mac crash once on her, so she took it back to the Apple Store and then went and bought a Dell. I kid you not.

For so many people, they get it because it's trendy, cool, and allegedly perfect, but, when something goes wrong, it's all Apple's fault and they feel cheated. When their hard drive goes because of a manufacturing defect and they lose all their photos, they go into the Apple Store screaming because it's Apple's fault that their Mac didn't back up their photos from spring break automatically, even if they didn't make the attempt to get an external hard drive or burn their stuff onto CDs.

Ignorant would probably be a better word to describe them. They refuse to take any precautions, and when something goes wrong, it's never their fault that they weren't prepared for disaster. If a virus hits, I know most of the people on this forum would at least care enough to either:

a.) Run an antivirus

or

b.) Click links and/or download with more caution.

The same can't be said about these people. They have an impervious system, their data is never at risk, and they're never at fault for anything.

I'm probably just grumpy that people laugh in my face when they say "It can't get viruses" as if it's some kind of super computer. In fact, I'm sure that's what it is. But when the whip comes down, at least I'll be expecting it and ready to deal with it.

I didn't choose Mac because it was pretty, or more expensive, or because it was impervious to viruses. I chose Mac because I like OS X better than any other operating system. Apple just happens to have treated me very well when I needed computer help, so I've become an Apple fan along the way.

If an OS that I like better comes along some day, then by all means, I'll switch. However, that's yet to happen.

Short Version: I am tired of hearing that the Mac is perfect. I am tired of people who don't take any precautions with their system complaining about how it's not their fault when something goes wrong. I am tired of hearing "can't" instead of "has none".

I'm not sure I agree that Mac's don't get viruses just because there are less out there. Though I'm sure it's a large part of it and I don't think that Macs are invulnerable.

But don't you think that there are plenty of Mac haters on the Windows side or even Mac users for the sheer challenge of it that could think it's their mission to knock us Mac users off our virus free horse?

I think everyone agrees that Macs are more popular now than they were 7 years ago right? So how do you explain that Mac Classic had 579 viruses (95% of those were word/excel macros, so even without that it's 26 viruses) when Macs were even scarcer back then than they are now? The fact that in the past 7 years not 1 Mac virus has been successful has to mean something other than just there aren't enough out there.

Most of these hackers are trying to target their efforts where they can do the most damage: the corporate world. And we all know which OS dominates that corporate world. I don't see that changing any time soon, therefore, I doubt any serious threat is heading our way any time soon.

Macs may seem to be exploding in popularity, but their marketshare is only about 6 or 7 percent. And I beleive all other OS's hold a 1 or 2 percent share, which means windows still controls 90% of the market. Unless Apple pulls a miracle product out of it's butt, or some scandel or something happens at MS, I wouldn't worry about viruses for a very long time.

There is so much I could say but all it would do it bring down the forums and that I will never do.

I will just say this then, ANYONE who thinks anything made by human beings is perfect will be very disappointed down the line. Nothing is perfect on this earth.

At the same time if any one who believes OSX or any BSD or any Unix based OS is not overall more secure than Windows is very mistaken.

Remember, I did not say perfect, I did not say never could never get a virus, never get attacked.

What happened at that hacking contest does not change that in any way.

Yes, it can happen though Derek. There I agree completely with you.

Although Most of it is the person sitting in the chair running the system.

i still think osx is more secure than windows because on windows programs can install and run without your knowledge delete rewrite on a windows machine everything gets admin rights on osx it does not on osx you can not get anything to install without the user knowing about it

I never got a virus for windows ever since i got my first pc back in 2000 i think (windows 98) now i got vista. It takes more than having just a av it takes smarts just surf smart don't download of suspision ( spelling? lol) sites and take everything like those ads with a pinch of salt. SURF SMART

GLeN said:

I never got a virus for windows ever since i got my first pc back in 2000 i think (windows 98) now i got vista. It takes more than having just a av it takes smarts just surf smart don't download of suspision ( spelling? lol) sites and take everything like those ads with a pinch of salt. SURF SMART

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DING DING DING!

There ya go! The weakest link in any computer system is the thing between the computer and the chair, and I'm not talking about the desk.

Also...

As I said on another thread, viruses, trojans, etc. can do nothing on their own. Whether it be clicking on a link in an email or surfing malicious sites, they always take someone's initial, deliberate action. After that, especially on a Windows machine, anything goes. So don't go clicking on email links unless you are 100% sure of it's origin and, as GLeN said, SURF SMART!

Yes, I am agree that Mac's popularity is growing...
Well, my hypothesis is that this happens due to Virtualization Machine Technology.. Using such soft as Parallels Desktop, VMWare Fusion and Boot Camp people 1) get 2 in 1 machine 2) get an easier way to switch from PC to Mac. Nothing can't stop them from switching to Mac anymore as they always can run habitual Windows while getting used to the new Mac environment... Virtual Machines do nice job for Apple's Mac I suppose...
Microsoft should do something with that to hold its market share. All that Microsoft has done by now is doubtful Vista...

kkelly122 said:

i completely agree with you why so many people are buying them, and i am very worried that over time mac will be the leading seller

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I wouldn't worry about that for a long, long time. Apple's definitely gaining popularity in the dekstop market, but they don't have the business software that Microsoft does. Everyone uses office, office apps, MS Server apps, and other work place related MS software. Apple would have to bring out a program/server suite that just walked all over Microsoft for the entire business world to change. Plus they would either have to produce competetively priced hardware or allow you to run it on 3rd party hardware. That's the real kicker.

I wonder what a cluster of 5 Apple servers would cost compared to an equally spec'ed cluster from HP or Dell?

The argument of human error is key. Again so many people just have no clue and are completely ignorant of what's around them. Why is this? Could it be some people are complacent? Foolish? Or just plain stupid?? Any tech item has the ignorant people problem. It's sad actually, people just expect said device to work, they have no clue what goes on when they press buttons. Its all quite sad.

Chimpur said:

The argument of human error is key. Again so many people just have no clue and are completely ignorant of what's around them. Why is this? Could it be some people are complacent? Foolish? Or just plain stupid?? Any tech item has the ignorant people problem. It's sad actually, people just expect said device to work, they have no clue what goes on when they press buttons. Its all quite sad.

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But good for productivity. Could you imagine the how much more it would cost to train a person if they had to understand how and why the data they were entering into a program got in there and how it worked rather than just having them understand that they type the numbers they see then hit enter and when something breaks, they call the three or four people on site that know how and why it works and how to fix it? /holy run-on sentence Batman.

I work in the IT deparment and I get people with broken monitors (the power cable is loose in the rear), keyboards that just won't work (because they came unplugged from the usb connection), and other horrible disasters that are just too dangerous for the average person to attempt to correct. It's ok though. It keeps me in a job and they remain blissfully ignorant.

The one thing I can't stand though is when people ask me for help with their home computers. I got this question the other day, "How come when I receive certain e-mails the fonts are huge?" What program are you using? Of course, one I've never used...What settings did you change recently? None? Of course not...

I'm not a miracle worker...well, I guess you could say that I am to the un-assuming. I guess that's why people think I'm arrogant. I work with this stuff. I understand most of it. Some one start's going on this ten minute explanation of how their first cousin's daughter was making cookies and how it eventually caused their monitor to stop working. I want to know, what you were doing just then and what happened. Odds are with ten to twenty seconds worth of words I can fix most of the problems in my building because I've probably fixed that same problem a million times already...you're not the first person to experience this crisis and certainly not the last.

/rantishly type speech.

I guess what I'm getting at is common sense stuff. Car doesn't start? well is their gas?? Macbook wont boot? is it plugged in? Does the battery have any charge? I'm not saying I expect every computer user to be able to write their own apps and diagnose crashes from crash logs or anything. But there was examples above about a person returning her mac because it crashed once "macs Never crash" Well not as often as some windows computers, but common sense would tell you that like again previously said nothing is perfect. Just maybe in combination of ignorance and unrealistic expectations that people may have about their tech devices is what eats me.