Windows desktop stranglehold slipping

[Mac Reporter]

THERE are a few straws blowing in an increasingly strong wind for Apple Computer. Straw 1: When the White House's former top cyber-security and anti-terrorism expert, Richard Clarke, visited Australia and new Zealand recently, he carried an Apple Macintosh, not a Windows machine.

Clarke, who served under four presidents but is no friend of the Bush administration, says he chooses a Mac because it protects his data from more than 99 per cent of all known viruses, worms, network attacks and spyware – issues that plague the Windows operating system daily.

Straw 2: Daryl Forrest is a US-based developer of software for Microsoft Windows. Here's what he recently told USA Today newspaper: "I have moved all non-work-related computing to a new Apple Power Mac G5. I like Windows XP, but the risks are too high these days. It's sad that it has come to this."

Straw 3: Walt Mossberg, the veteran IT writer for the Wall Street Journal, tells his readers: "If you use a Windows personal computer to access the internet, your personal files, your privacy and your security are all in jeopardy. An international criminal class of virus writers, hackers, digital vandals and sleazy businesspeople wakes up every day planning to attack your PC. The most effective way to avoid viruses and spyware is to simply chuck Windows and buy an Apple Macintosh."

Straw 4: In the past few months the share price of Apple Computer has soared to near-record levels.

Read more at Australian IT.

[berniej]

Why am I not surprised?

My sister (who works with a school in Laguna) told me that they removed all Windows software from *all* the PCs in their school and they opted to use Linux (though she can't say what distro they are using). They did this because: (1) the downtime caused by virus/trojans/malware and (2) they can no longer afford the license fees for Windows.

They are having a hard time adjusting but they had to bite the bullet.

A local insurance company has migrated 98% of their MS Office to OpenOffice.Org. This migration gave them a staggering 10 Million Php in savings though they had to spend around 3 Million Php in re-training their staff. A real savings of 7 Million is not bad considering the economic slump our country has been experiencing nowadays.