Interestingly, a case can be made that some vehement Windows advocates are less than objective in their reasoning: http://www.macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/490/

When you pay that much for a computer you better believe people will give it high marks because they don’t want to admit they have been fooled. That’s where the arrogance is born. I call it sour grapes.

I’m not in agreement with your strawman “mac lovers” who supposedly claimed that it is a wash.

I’d still buy a Mac even if it depreciated as rapidly as a non-Mac. However, being able to reclaim some money on the back end is a nice bonus.

I will maintain that anyone who purchases a computer with ‘resale value’ as a determining factor is uninformed at best, and an idiot at the worst.

Considering the cost of entry in Macdom, any percieved resale value is hardly the wash you mac lovers would like it to be.

Compound that with the hard fact that an old, outdated computer is still and old, outdated computer no matter what you paid for it, and once again a ’strong point’ for the mac argument is up in smoke.

I stand corrected. There’s one in every crowd. Sorry it had to be you.

I should have said something along the lines of “Statistically, users of Macintosh computers report higher satisfaction than users of non-Macintosh computers”.

At least when you get rid of your Mac, you will find it actually has some resale value (unlike a typical used PC).

Agreed, but could I have an example where Apple makes outright claims of total immunity to all manner of malware from now until eternity?

The truth is that in comparison to Windows, real-world Mac exploits have been practically (if not actually) non-existent. So, when Apple implies as much, they are certainly not exaggerating.

It’s odd that a member of The Microsoft Majority is so concerned with lowly Apple’s advertising ethics, when Microsoft itself is a shining example of underhanded dealings. Where is your web page decrying the misleading “Vista Ready” campaign? Customers were actually burned by that. I’m sure that if you wanted to, you could think of plenty of other examples of MicroShafting. But where are the disgruntled Mac customers who were mislead by false advertising, and now find themselves besieged by malware? There aren’t any. Mac owners are the happiest computer users on earth.

You can try to rain on our parade all you want, but your outrage is laughable and misplaced.

As always your comments are appreciated, and have a valid point. I have running a PC since 1990, and have never had any issues with malware either. Granted, I incorporate a comprehensive and FREE security suite (AVG, Windows Defender, etc) that has never let me down.

I think the biggest reason people jump on Apple when they see a flaw, is because of their flagrant and blatently false advertising. For years, we’ve seen commercials claiming Mac’s are virus-free and PC’s are malware invested cesspools of technology. It’s just not true – Mac AND PC’s can both be trouble-fee environments.

Mac users will still have a security advantage as long as Macs remain in the minority (10% marketshare means 1/10 as many exploits to worry about). I don’t expect Apple to overtake Microsoft anytime soon. Do you? And that’s fine with me.

It’s pathetic how the anti-Apple brigade tries to seize on every little thing in an attempt to denigrate the Mac. All the rhetoric in the world won’t make my use of the Mac any less pleasant, or improve the MSWindows experience for those who choose that path.

Regardless of what happens in the future, I don’t regret having chosen to use Macs since 1984. In all those years, I’ve never experienced any malware that caused data loss or required reinstallation of the OS, while my PC using friends have not been nearly so lucky. Many PC users simply junk their old infected computers and buy new ones when they inevitably grind to a halt. It’s beyond their ability or not worth the time and expense to troubleshoot. So It’s a good thing that cheap PCs are available. Like a battered spouse, they keep coming back for more.

I see no reason for me to dump the Mac because (maybe someday) I might actually have to worry about viruses. Switchers can expect an immediate improvement in the security department once they run a Mac. It will be years (if ever) before malware causes Mac users as much concern as in the world of MSWindows. If worse comes to worse, dealing with the problem the Mac won’t be any worse than what PC users already accept as the status quo.