I received my first computer back in 1994 when I was a senior in High School. It was a Packard Bell Legend 1956 Supreme, 486/DX2 50 MHz. Although advertised as 50 MHz, it was actually 25 MHz with DX2 technology, effectively doubling the processor speed with some type of voodoo.

That Packard Bell was running Windows for Workgroups 3.11. At a cost of around $2,200.00, it was the best model Sears had at the time, with a whopping 400 MB of HD space and a punchy 4MB of RAM. Jumper settings, IRQ and DMA settings were horrible. It would sometimes take a half-hour of trial and error to find the right settings for your sound card when installing a game. The good old days.

The World is a Vampire

Now, the world is a bit easier. We have plug and play, USB, and a host of other technologies to make our lives easier. Microsoft has played a giant roll in that progression. From old DOS prompts to the Windows start button– oh, how time has changed.

Microsoft now controls about 95% of the world’s computer market. This means that only 5% of the worlds computers are secure. All that great innovation and progress has led to some of the biggest security holes this side of the galaxy– and that’s just starting with their web browser, Internet Explorer.

For those of us (former) PC users, we have become accustomed to that fact that our on-line lives are never safe, our private information is never secure, and our time is obviously better spent rooting out virii, spyware, adware, malware, trojans, worms, exploits, d.o.s. attacks, and a host of other exploits that threaten to bring us to our knees on a daily basis.

And all that time spent doesn’t include regular “maintenance,” like defragging your hard drive, using disk cleanup, or cleaning out your registry. To sum up the Windows experience in one word? WORK.

The Mac, on the other hand, is heaven. Not only do you get to look at a gorgeous GUI, but you get to use the world’s most advanced and secure operating system that any end user can purchase. In short, you spend your time and money on productivity, rather than trying to stop the world’s haxorz from invading your soul.

The Long Good-Bye

After using a PC for 10 years, and just recently switching to a Mac, I can’t understand why anyone, outside of playing games, would ever want to use a Windows machine. It befuddles me. I can do everything on my Mac that I previously did on my PC. The only difference now is that I don’t have to do many of the things I did before, like all that maintenance.

I would be lying if I said I didn’t get some satisfaction when I read of a new Windows security exploit. I for one am glad that Microsoft continues to keep a product alive that is the sole purpose of being for the jerks who write computer viruses. Microsoft is doing Apple and I a favor in keeping them away from my Macintosh. Thank you Mr. Gates, from the bottom of my heart.

This article was written by Bryan Los on Sunday, August 21st, 2005 at 3:09 PM and is filed under Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.