TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Re: Corrupted PC's Find New Home in the Dumpster

Re: Corrupted PC's Find New Home in the Dumpster

Tony P. (kd1s@nospamplease.cox.reallynospam.net)
Thu, 21 Jul 2005 18:52:52 -0400

In article <telecom24.331.2@telecom-digest.org>, pae@dim.com says:

> On Sun, 17 Jul 2005 04:49:13 -0400, Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
> wrote:

>> By MATT RICHTEL and JOHN MARKOFF

>> Mr. Tucker, an Internet industry executive who holds a Ph.D. in
>> computer science, decided that rather than take the time to remove the
>> offending software, he would spend $400 on a new machine.

>> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And how long do they have those _new_
>> machines until they also get polluted and have to be replaced? [...]

> If he spends that $400 (actually, $499 or so) on a Mac Mini, he can
> probably go for a good long time. There are no known viruses on OS/X.

No known viruses per se, but plenty of hacks. I know at least two
people who've had their Mac OS-X machines hacked to the point that
they were no longer usable without re-installing the OS.

> I don't know if anything bad can happen from using IE on the Mac; I
> don't believe so. Safari is not perfect, but it works just fine for
> almost all of my browsing. One thing I like in Safari: there is a
> pull-down option in Safari for resetting *everything*: cache, cookies,
> etc. I do this periodically -- I like to flush all my cookies
> periodically just as a regular practice.

Or just configure Firefox not to allow cookies and immediately flush
history.

> The only real software people will need in general is Office 2004. For
> most, the student edition should work just fine for their home needs.
> If there is not a lot of need for compatibility, the $80 iWork package
> (Presentation software + Apple word processor) should work just fine.
> The main thing lacking in iWork is a spreadsheet; Apple should address
> that in the next release.

> With the dropping cost of hardware, more and more people should
> clearly look at this option. As an aside, I've been surprised that
> Apple hasn't been more aggressive in getting the Mac Mini into Kinkos
> stores so people can "test drive" them there. The current Apple
> machines in Kinkos stores are crappy old G3 machines. According to the
> local Kinkos shop, Dell has been very aggressive getting their
> machines in Kinkos stores. Apple: are you listening?

Apple is clearly moving toward marketing the OS as platform
independent. It is FreeBSD after all. I'm running it on an Intel
platform.

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