Should I switch to Mac?

[Small White Car]

There are not many OS-X viruses in the wild, yet. But even though OS-X viruses aren't as common as Windows viruses by a large margin, they are still out there -- and they're multiplying.

Wrong.

There are many forms of Mac security breaches. Mac users aren't immune to problems. But they tend to come in the form of social-engineering hacking, buffer overflow exploits, trojans, and so on.

You're probably confused because the media often calls all of these things "viruses" when they're actually not.

They're still bad things, and Mac users can still get hurt by them, but your statement that OS X viruses are multiplying is a false one.

If you don't believe me, here's a test for you: Try and find me a report of a Mac virus that's not a proof-of-concept or a trojan mislabeled as a virus by an ignorant reporter. I don't think you'll be coming up with a whole lot.

EDIT: Actually, now that I think about it, that article is BOTH of those things. The exploit mentioned in it didn't do any harm, so it's a proof-of-concept. And even if it did do harm, it was a program that had to be installed by the user, which makes it a trojan, not a virus.

 

[Candlelight]

Buy a Mac with XP Pro or Vista or wait a few months for Windows 7 (and Snow Leopard).

Use Bootcamp as your basis then get a hold of VMware or Parallels and the skies the limit.

I've currently got Mac OS X 10.5.7, Windows XP Pro, Windows Whistler Build 2419, Windows 98, Windows Longhorn Build 4074, Windows 7 Pre-RTM Build 7260 and Ubuntu 8.10, plus a couple of other Longhorn/early Vista builds I haven't installed yet.

When I get chance I've got Windows 3.1 to play with too.

 

[FrontLine]

Ok question for the MAC folks. Anyone have any experience running AutoCAD on a Mac? I saw it done once but didn't have time to ask the user any questions. He was running it in an XP window while running the Mac OS. Will the current version of the Mac OS do that automatically or will you have you get a copy of VMware to do that? Also im interested to hear of the performance of AutoCAD in that environment? Does it run with out problems or are there performance hits?

 

[Lindley]

Dunno about that particular program, but OSX does not contain any ability to "seamlessly" run Windows alongside it. You need a 3rd-party program for that (VMWare is one). Since you're then running Windows in a virtual machine, you might indeed see some performance hit.

On the other hand, CAD programs are most often written in OpenGL, and there's really no reason why a VM couldn't just forward OpenGL calls directly; so I doubt CAD programs would take the brunt of any performance difficulties.

What OSX *does* come with is the ability to easily set the machine up for dual-booting. And taking that approach, you certainly wouldn't see any performance issues when booted into Windows, since it's just like running Windows on any other hardware.

 

[DiSiLLUSiON]

I don't maintain OS X. Really. It's running as fast now as it was when I got it. Windows XP/Vista/7 does require maintenance. LOTS of maintenance, and while you can automate it, it consumes system resources and slows the system down a bit anyway.

I believe you; it's certainly possible; but it depends on what you, the user, do with it. What kind (and the amount) of programs you install, how you configure the settings, and such. I've seen 4-yr old Windows machine who run like lightning without any maintenance, and I've seen 1-yr old OS-X machines who could use a complete reinstall of everything.

All I'm saying is that it's still up to the user; using OS-X isn't a magic maintenance-free system.

There are many forms of Mac security breaches. Mac users aren't immune to problems. But they tend to come in the form of social-engineering hacking, buffer overflow exploits, trojans, and so on.

My apologies, you are right. I've searched and only found mention of one or two real OS-X viruses in the wild -- much less then I expected. But, as far as I know, antivirus programs try to protect against rootkits, worms and exploits as well; in that light, is it really such a problem to suggest antivirus software to a Mac user? Next thing you know, they get infected by something because "there are no viruses for the mac so I shouldn't pay attention to anything"... It's just a matter of time -- the more popular Mac's become, the more exploits of any kind you'll see in the wild.

What OSX *does* come with is the ability to easily set the machine up for dual-booting. And taking that approach, you certainly wouldn't see any performance issues when booted into Windows, since it's just like running Windows on any other hardware.

One thing people should keep in mind is that, in practice, dual-booting isn't all that handy; you can't run your Windows programs next to you OS-X ones, for example; you'll have to have double of everything you regularly use -- that's a bitch in software license costs.

 

[SmoothieX]

Ok question for the MAC folks. Anyone have any experience running AutoCAD on a Mac? I saw it done once but didn't have time to ask the user any questions. He was running it in an XP window while running the Mac OS. Will the current version of the Mac OS do that automatically or will you have you get a copy of VMware to do that? Also im interested to hear of the performance of AutoCAD in that environment? Does it run with out problems or are there performance hits?

That's why I'll be stuck using a PC for work for the forseeable future. It's hard to play engineer without AutoCAD for drafting and design.

We've got these Dell POS specials here.

What do you use CAD for FrontLine? I use all the Civil add on packages.

 

[kimc]

One thing people should keep in mind is that, in practive, dual-booting isn't all that handy; you can't run your Windows programs next to you OS-X ones, for example; you'll have to have double of everything you regularly use -- that's a bitch in software license costs.

Unless you also install VMWare or Parallels - then you can run your Windows-based programs side-by-side with your Mac ones.

They say there's a performance hit but I haven't noticed one running Parallels. Then again, I've just upgraded from an eight-year-old Gateway.

 

[aftermath]

A Mac is only really worthwhile as a digital lifestyle hub; I use it for my photos, music and movies.

I dual boot Vista for when I need to get real work done. As good as Leopard is, its still a toy OS compared to Windows (and even Linux in some ways).

 

[Lindley]

^Great argument for having a Mac and home and a PC at work, isn't it?

 

[Teelie]

Macs aren't any safer than PC's. They might be less threatened by certain malware but not all malware and certainly not if the person behind the keyboard is ignorant of the dangers or arrogant enough to think nothing can harm them.

Believe it or not, not all malware declares itself openl as malicious. Some of them actually pretend to be legitimate and safe software and people will install it despite the precautions and warnings put into place. And as Macs become more popular, so will finding the holes in security. Nothing programmed at the level of an Operating system is without its flaws.

The false claim Macs are safe is a dangerous one to promote.

 

[Lindley]

[Sarah Connor]No one is ever safe![/Sarah Connor]

But at least Mac users don't have to worry about Malware actively. Fairly trivial precautions will keep the machine clean. It's more of an ongoing battle with Windows.

 

[DiSiLLUSiON]

Unless you also install VMWare or Parallels - then you can run your Windows-based programs side-by-side with your Mac ones.

They say there's a performance hit but I haven't noticed one running Parallels. Then again, I've just upgraded from an eight-year-old Gateway.

That's true. There's quite a big performance hit, but you won't really notice it much, unless you run heavy programs. Something from the Adobe Suite, or Office Suite, for example.

 

[Teelie]

[Sarah Connor]No one is ever safe![/Sarah Connor]

But at least Mac users don't have to worry about Malware actively. Fairly trivial precautions will keep the machine clean. It's more of an ongoing battle with Windows.

If Macs ever hit a popularity level even half that of Windows (somewhere in a 40-50% market share), you'll be thinking twice about it. Macs aren't a target because why go after the distant second place when there are so many more potential victims in the first place OS?

 

[FrontLine]

Ok question for the MAC folks. Anyone have any experience running AutoCAD on a Mac? I saw it done once but didn't have time to ask the user any questions. He was running it in an XP window while running the Mac OS. Will the current version of the Mac OS do that automatically or will you have you get a copy of VMware to do that? Also im interested to hear of the performance of AutoCAD in that environment? Does it run with out problems or are there performance hits?

That's why I'll be stuck using a PC for work for the forseeable future. It's hard to play engineer without AutoCAD for drafting and design.

We've got these Dell POS specials here.

What do you use CAD for FrontLine? I use all the Civil add on packages.

Last time I bought I just went with some HPs at Best Buy. The only downside is that since they are consumer models they dont really have good docking stations.

I'm using AutoCAD Architecture (formerly Architectural Desktop). We laser scan buildings to great as-built floor plans and then do among other things area calculations to the ANSI standard (I'm co chair of one of em ). We build 2D and 3D models based on our scans. I'm thinking about switching to Revit eventually since everything seems to be moving that way.

But back OT, Im interested to see AutoCAD running in a VM window and finding out if there are any performance hits and if there are just how bad are they. From a practicality stand point there is no need for me to switch, but the uber geek in me wants to see it.

 

[kimc]

Unless you also install VMWare or Parallels - then you can run your Windows-based programs side-by-side with your Mac ones.

They say there's a performance hit but I haven't noticed one running Parallels. Then again, I've just upgraded from an eight-year-old Gateway.

That's true. There's quite a big performance hit, but you won't really notice it much, unless you run heavy programs. Something from the Adobe Suite, or Office Suite, for example.

I run Dreamweaver but it's an older version from before Adobe bought the suite. In fact, not wanting to pay to replace it with the Mac version was one of my main incentives to run Parallels. That and Mac doesn't have a decent version of Quicken.

 

[DiSiLLUSiON]

I run Dreamweaver but it's an older version from before Adobe bought the suite. In fact, not wanting to pay to replace it with the Mac version was one of my main incentives to run Parallels. That and Mac doesn't have a decent version of Quicken.

Dreamweaver isn't heavy at all - even if it were the newest version. It's nothing but a glorified notepad with a browser window. I was more thinking about the lines of Premiere or After Effects; they tend to be very heavy.

 

[Lindley]

[Sarah Connor]No one is ever safe![/Sarah Connor]

But at least Mac users don't have to worry about Malware actively. Fairly trivial precautions will keep the machine clean. It's more of an ongoing battle with Windows.

If Macs ever hit a popularity level even half that of Windows (somewhere in a 40-50% market share), you'll be thinking twice about it. Macs aren't a target because why go after the distant second place when there are so many more potential victims in the first place OS?

That's obvious. It's also irrelevant though, since Macs will never have marketshare that high.

 

[mrcoaster]

I switched a couple of years ago, and have been very happy with it. I didn't switch because of any particular need, disgust with Windows, viruses, or anything like that. I switched just because I thought it might be interesting to try a Mac for a change. I've always been computer savvy, so I haven't had any problems on my any of my pcs. Though I have fixed/cleaned other people's computers over and over again ("why is this happening to me again???"). With things like Boot Camp allowing me to boot to Windows for gaming (the only thing I really use Windows for on my machine), and programs being more available for Mac than ever, it was easy to make the move.

There are very few programs that I'm interested in that I can't find a Mac equivalent for these days. Windows 7 looks pretty good, and you can get a free upgrade to it when it comes out if you buy a Windows machine now (currently with Vista). If you get a Mac, I think you might find it to be a great machine. Once you get used to doing things the Mac way, it's really quite simple to use, and OS X runs great for me. Go with whatever you feel will work best for you (or whatever pulls you in that direction). If you are leaning toward switching, you just might want to give it a whirl. I wouldn't hesitate to make the same move again myself.

 

[Gepard]

I dual boot Vista for when I need to get real work done. As good as Leopard is, its still a toy OS compared to Windows (and even Linux in some ways).

I've always been curious--in this context, what is "real work" supposed to mean?

 

[Amaris]

I dual boot Vista for when I need to get real work done. As good as Leopard is, its still a toy OS compared to Windows (and even Linux in some ways).

I've always been curious--in this context, what is "real work" supposed to mean?

It's a good question. I do all of my work on my Mac. I use my Windows partition for gaming.


J.