Well this is interesting.    Mac commercials are out doing what Apple did in the late 70's.   Give half truths and lie.

 

1) Macs don't get viruses.

 

There are a number of reasons this is held to be true.   The simplest one is lack of legacy support.   Many older Mac applications do not run on a Mac at all.      Although the platform is a different base (Unix I THINK BSD's design); a lot of older stuff is not meant (and won't) run on the Mac. 

 

That is the PC's strength AND weakness.    To this day, you can still run DOS applications on a PC.   Which also means a whole whack of trojans written in the late 80's will still run on them to do this.     The OTHER reason you will see viruses on a PC is availability.   You can go down to Goodwill, Salvation Army, a garage sale; and get any old PC.    It is EXTREMELY difficult to get a used Mac at such places and be able to write applications that will work present day on it.

 

2) Macs don't crash.  

 

ALL COMPUTERS CRASH.   The hard drive, the ram are 100% equally likely to fail in a Mac as much as they are in a PC.    If Apple EVER opens up it's licensing so competing companies can make Macs, then you will see a pile of MDG shoddy Macs on the market.   Ignoring that, keep in mind that the hard drive in a Mac will crash JUST like a PC drive (KLICK KLICK KLICK), Power supplies in equallly designed machines will fail just as often.    EVen the allmightly ram will just bugger off.   It happens.

 

3) Macs are better than PC's.

 

Well it depends on what you want to do.    For the longest time "Creative" software started on the Mac/Amiga worlds and "Business" software started on the PC.    Those gaps are closing.    Sometimes it is a matter of "What car do you like to drive".    I have run into clients who run Macs, Linux, PC and a few other beasties out there.     Different computers are best for different people.    There are some "Creatives" who prefer a PC, and some "Business" who prefer a Mac.   I've even run into a client who was willing to buy an iBook, ERASE OS/X and install just Windows XP on it.  "WHY?" you ask?   He liked how the iBook worked but didn't like OS/X.

 

The thing is I like working on all computers.   I have Macs, PCs, Linux old Commodore equipment forever floating about (Although my wife has made me clean out most of the Commodore stuff).    I find them all fascinating, all amazing.   In some respects I like working on a Mac, in other respects the PC is cool.   And even Linux gets a thumbs up.

 

But I am in PC world right now.    There are some things that are holding everything in PC world that will NOT READILY CHANGE.

 

1) Blackberry.   Although there are many excellent 3rd party solutions,  the Blackberry's are running in PC land right now.   Same as Windows Mobile phones. 

 

2) The Law Community.   Lawyers are running in application in 98^ of the firms out there called "PClaw".   There is NO (Nor is there planned to be) a MAC version.     So the guys that write all the licensing agreements are running on a program firmly embedded in the PC for their accounting.   That is VERY unlikely to change anytime soon.    Also in Ontario all transacations for RealEstate are performed through a progam called "Teraview".   There is also no planned Mac version for that (and they are completely unwilling to make a change)

 

Now does that mean there is no room to co-exist?  Of course not.   But c'mon Apple quick giving just "half" the story on the Commercial.

 

No computer is perfect.  Accept it people.   Computers are fantastic devices created by the most intelligent people on the planet.   But computers are always going to be imperfect to a certain degree.