I’m in the process of switching from Windows to the Macintosh, and today realized what Reason Number Two is for me doing so.

Despite using two spyware programs that actively scan for intrusions, PLUS Norton’s Internet Security Suite, the browser on my Windows laptop was hijacked a couple of days ago. I’ve been pulling my hair out trying to figure out what hijacked it and how to un-hijack it (since the security programs STILL don’t pick up the problem), and then I accidentally tripped over it this morning. While running an Ad-Aware Professional spyware scan, I happened to see a path I didn’t recognize, inside my Windows user folder. Sure enough, there was a folder in there innocuously called “complete”, but hidden from view as it was flagged as a System folder. It revealed a small package - just 2.6 GIGS of crap .zip files that point to all sorts of BS on the Internet - ads for software, services, prescription drugs at a discount - you name it, it had it.

Its going to be really nice to work on a machine that’s not being so heavily targeted by the crap-eating dogs that develop spyware and viruses. Oh, I know - to plenty of folks the Mac is just that much more inherently secure than Windows, and I believe that to a degree, but lets face it - the sociopaths writing this slime are going after the big hits, and with Apple being the BMW of the personal computer industry with around 5% of the overall market, part of the pressure on Windows has to be related to big bang for the buck.

See… size does matter. In this case, smaller is better. Buh-bye Windows, hello Mac.