BleepingComputer.com: Considering a Mac

So...I am sick and tired of removing viruses, trojans, rootkits, reformatting, updating, patching etc. I have never used a mac. I have stuck with PC's because they always seemed like the better value (better specs for less $) and I am familiar with windows os. I have friends who have macs and they tell me they never have to worry about viruses, spyware, etc. Is this true?? I know very little about computers. I use mine to surf the web, occasional shopping, banking, etc. My kids use it to play WOW, Warhammer, and to download and listen to music, myspace etc. I am very careful about monitoring their activites, I know I am not visiting dodgy sites, but yet I still get slammed with spyware, trojans, etc. It can take hours to correct these problems and at this point I don't really care how much another computer may cost if I can avoid having to deal with these problems. The only thing I worry about is that everyone says you can't play games on a mac and my kids really enjoy warhammer and wow. Is there a way I can outfit a Mac to be able to run these games well? Or do I need to keep a PC around for them to be able to play these games?

Thank you,
Kristi

you can run windows games on a mac but you have to run windows on the apple computer (theres a way to basically to run windows within the mac operating system but I dont know how) and I would imagine it would take someone with a bit of know how of how a mac works to set that up. Mac is far more secure then windows as far as viruses and trojans are concerned, far more secure, but there are still viruses and malware out there. your cheapest and most secure option out there I would imagine, would be linux, its a free download, you can load it onto the PC you have no, and it is virtually invincible. there are a few viruses out there for linux, but the chances of you getting one are so nil its unbelievable, linux is a very secure OS. the problem is you would have to have some sort of emulator to run windows games on it and those can be a pain to setup and arnt always compatible with all games. so whether you go mac or linux your going to have compatibily problems with gaming. what you could do is dual boot windows and linux on your box, tell your kids the windows side is all theirs, they can game on it etc. etc. but its their job to keep it malware clean, while you do all your web surfing via a linux distro like say, ubuntu, on the same computer and not have to worry about any of that. save yourself a couple thousand dollars that way. :D

cheapest solution is Ubuntu linux with wine which will run windows programs pretty decent

It's true that there are no virus for Macs, not yet anyway. There are some Mac Trojans though, but they would have to be installed by you so you should be careful where you download from. Same goes with Spyware, they would need to be physically installed on a Mac in order for them to work.

There are Mac versions of the games your kids are interested in playing. I would suggest you get a Mac with a good/better graphics card just in case (I don't game on my Macs).

The Mac OS is different than Windows, so be prepared to learn about it if you should get a Mac. A good book is The Missing Manual by David Pogue, Get the one for the OS X version e.g. Tiger or Leopard.

Wow, thanks everyone for all the good suggestions. I never really considered Linux before, that is something I will have to look into. One question about Linux I have is if I installed it over windows wouldn't my machine still be vulnerable to trojans, spyware, viruses, etc.? I will definately be doing some research on Linux.

I am glad to hear there are Mac versions of the games my kids play. Right now we have a pretty barebones basic computer and they are starting to have issues with frame rates??? I have no idea what that even means, my son just said we need a better graphics card.

I will definately look into the book you recommended. I have spoken with 2 friends who say the reason they are so loyal to their macs is because everything works right out of the box and they have very few issues. That just sounds so nice right now. I just spent hours removing a rootkit, am not even sure if its gone, and read that i should just reformat anyway because you can never be sure. It seems that malware is getting more insidious and I am definately ready for a change.

Thanks for all the help!
Kristi

actually, Linux is the most secure OS on the market right now, even beats mac. it is next to impossible to get a virus on it, I mean theyre out there just like they are for any OS, but were talking like there is 1 linux virus to every 10,000 windows virus or something like that, and spyware? forget about it, you will be hard pressed to find a more secure operating system then linux, you install it and Im willing those problems will go away completly. However, linux isnt as user friendly as windows or mac, though its getting better, and you will have to learn how to use it, If you want to explore that route I would download various linux live CDs and test those. what they do is allow you to boot up off the cd/dvd drive without actually installing anything on your system, so you really cant hurt anything, and you can play with linux and learn how to run it and see which distro you like before you actually install anything.

I have reccomended Mac in the past to those who can't keep windows running?

http://www.neowin.net/news/main/09/03/19/m...n-seconds-again

Saw no mention of Linux being hacked