Thread: Unix Popularity
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Old 2nd July 2008
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scottro scottro is offline
Real Name: Scott Robbins
ISO Quartermaster
 
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: NYC
Posts: 652
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In answer to Oko's question as to, Why a Mac? I know that I've given this reason and others have said, 'Yes, me too."
In my case, I use Linux and FreeBSD for my desktops. (With a Win2k VM, only used to access my company's VPN.)
However, I steered my wife towards a Mac, despite the extra cost, because it's easier to support than is Windows--fewer viruses, trojans and the like. In this case, the extra cost probably saves me hours of time.

It's not completely safe of course, but it is still safer than Windows as malware writers still aim at MS targets--which makes sense, since it's almost certainly still 90 plus percent of the desktop market in the US.

Mac is making inroads and Vista is hurting them, but they are still the dominant desktop, as you've mentioned in your posts.

The only thing that really bothers me about Mac is that people forget their basic geometric proofs, if A=B then !A=!B is not necessarily correct. That is, MS is evil, Apple isn't MS, so people think Apple isn't evil. In some ways, they're even more evil than MS, they're just not as skilled at it, and are a bit better at hiding it.

For instance, their lower echalons are all quite nice and helpful--when we went to get her Mac, (at a flagship NYC store) we got a personal shopper, Mike, who was extremely helpful. The personal shopper was free of charge.

So things like that help their public image, though, as they increase in popularity, people are realizing it. Still, whether they're evil or not, it's (in general) easier to support a family member's Mac.

No, I don't have the time or energy to try to turn her towards Linux or BSD. Every time something didn't work, it would have been a major issue---as we all know, family members are the worst users.
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