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Home > Security News > Mad as Hell VI -- Thinking MacTel |
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Disgusted by security issues and poor performance, Winn Schwartau makes the switch from Windows to the Mac and details the bumps in the road along the way in his "Mad as Hell" series.
Thinking MacTel. On an airplane, over Montana perhaps? I read it too, and I knew about it as a rumor months ago. Hell, this is the Internet! REPEAT:
I just said that I felt that Mac was more security attuned than WinTel for all sorts of reasons that we are talking about here. One of the main reasons is that the Mac integration of OS, HW and BIOS provides additional security over the open architecture approach of many different vendors attempting to build to a set of standards. After years of engineering, I subscribe to the philosophy: Simplicity yields security. I also know that some folks have trouble wrapping their brain around this for their particular needs, and I nod agreement in their general direction. [For the gent who said he has been running NT 4.0 for several years: 1) He admitted rebooting regularly to keep things clean. 2) He also subscribes to my theory of simplicity. See upcoming Mad as Hell rant about this exact issue!] Nonetheless, I am focusing on the needs of Ma&Pa and those corporate enterprise users who demand reliability, a reasonably headache-free experience and perhaps a substantial savings in cost of ownership. Consider VCRs: Back in the 80s, a battle raged between the technically superior Betamax and the winning, yet inferior, VHS. Imagine that instead of purchasing a fully integrated VCR with hardware and software all provided, pre-built by GE, Panasonic, Sanyo -- no matter -- imagine if you had to pick hardware and the appropriate software from some sales guy at Best Buy. Now, take all of the pieces you just bought home with you and make your new VCR work. CD/DVD players today. Same thing. Comparatively low-tech to PCs, but the same premise nonetheless. Palms, PDA and smart phones are purchased fully integrated yet have limited capability [vis a vis PC]. However, there is a lot of punch for the fruit juice in there. I always liked Windows CE because it gave me reliable, interoperable functionality with the WinTel world. PDAs? Sure, you can add more, but if you just want it to work for what you bought it for, you can. Now for MacTel. Some readers have sent me notes: "You are such a schmuck… see what happened?" Others have said that Apple is opening itself to much of the same criticism I level at the WinTel world. "So there, Mr. Smartypants! What do you think of that?" Others, more courteous [I don't play flame games] have asked, "Does this affect your opinion? Did you waste money?" What I think is this: I don't know for sure, but I have some ideas and a pretty strong prediction.
What about security? Here are my best guesses. Apple will tightly integrate the already proven OS to the hardware -- at first. [More later.] If they do this the same way they did the PowerPC and OS X, I would hope and indeed expect them not to screw the pooch. Do it right. Will there be an oops? Sure. Catastrophic? No. The single vendor integration of HW/SW is still superior to multi-vendor specsmanship and home users turning their boxes into doorstops. I stand by that, even though I still use WinTel for some applications. Mac is not everything and not perfect. In Mad As Hell Part VII, some absolutely, 100% sure-fire predictions for 2007. About the author
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