OMG! HP is so stupid...

[Pikmin_Fan]

I did a system scan and guess what?! It found a trojan in the PREINSTALLED HP VONAGE....

Boy, HP is so stupid with computers.....


FYI: Get a Mac or non-HP computer..

[Stookie]

I'm sure it's a false positive. It's more likely the anti-virus program than HP. However, if the anti-virus came with the computer, they certainly overlooked it.

I love my new HP, it's been a lot better than the 5 dell's I've gone through. And it's touchscreen.

[galaxy_storm]

I have owned two HP laptops. While the first one was a nice machine, the quality on the new one has gone down a bit. Even though it's not THAT bad, my next laptop will not be HP for sure, as I think there are now a lot of other brands with more quality products.

I have never bought a desktop PC from any brand, I assemble them myself. This is cheaper and you have the freedom to choose which components do you want.

If the software is crappy, that's another thing, with a relatively simple solution. Format your harddrive and do a clean system install

And finally, never buy a PC from apple, as they cost 50-100% more (often just for the design) for the same performance and the system is extremely non-customizable and incompatible. I know there are some people who like it, but most of the times if you ask them why, they reply "because it's Apple" or "because it's cool" . But if you have the money, and want to just surf the Net and play media, I don't see a problem with that.
On the other hand, one of my classmates has an iPhone and considering it's from Apple, it's not really that bad (except the price of course).

[Principle]

As a Information Technology Support Specialist, I can tell you, Apple computers cost more due to system stability.
Not only is it extremely difficult to code a virus, or malware for the system, it's also secured!

Buying an Apple computer is probably the best investment anyone can make.
Especially now that Mac OS X is based on Unix.

[galaxy_storm]

As a Information Technology Support Specialist, I can tell you, Apple computers cost more due to system stability.
Not only is it extremely difficult to code a virus, or malware for the system, it's also secured!

That's true, I absolutely agree. IMO it is a system targeted to not-so-much experienced users, because they can't mess it up.

However, I have XP on my machine and it runs extremely stable. I just hibernate the PC so I can start it in a second the next time. It has absolutely no problems with running a month without single restart and I get error messages just rarely.
It's all about how you treat your system.

[dingo]

As a Information Technology Support Specialist, I can tell you, Apple computers cost more due to system stability.

Yeah? As a computer science graduate of the University of ***, (with particular interest in Security) I can tell you Apple computers are hyped. Apple doesn't sell operating systems, they sell the hardware (or at least claim to). The apparent stability in Apple machines is purely because Apple only have to write the software for a particular hardware setup (the gear in the box they sell you), whereas Microsoft have to test and target virtually everything out there. Overall, this means the cost of software development of the OS X operating system is LESS than that of Windows. Why do you pay more for it then? galaxy_storm already said: the design (and I suspect the marketing, too).

Not only is it extremely difficult to code a virus, or malware for the system, it's also secured!

OS X is not immune to malware. It's still vulnerable to buffer overflows and other bugs, just as Windows is. Bugs are a fact of any reasonably-sized software, and being based on Unix doesn't fix that. I can't seem to make sense of your statement that "it's also secured." What do you mean by that?

Traditionally, Windows's weakness to viruses was because of its poor single-user security model, but that's been fixed since 2000. The reason we still see malware only on Windows is because Windows has the larger market share. Why would any sensible malware writer target a smaller market than a larger one for the same cost of development? (I also suspect the large fraction of pirated copies of Windows unable to update with the latest patches contributes. But then, with Macs, you have to PAY for your patches!)

Buying an Apple computer is probably the best investment anyone can make. Especially now that Mac OS X is based on Unix.

No, the best investment anyone can make would be to educate themselves about how computers work and what security is. Promoting one operating system over the others is promoting ignorance and monoculture, which isn't going to fix the situation. Ignorance and monoculture is why viruses and malware are so prevalent on Windows systems.

Note: I'm not defending Windows, I'm just pointing out you shouldn't give people a false sense of security with Macs. Not even Linux (which I use) is perfect.

If you're going to buy a new computer soon, look around for the best value hardware you can get, and then obtain the best value software you can get, and keep it UPDATED.

[iNNERvOYAGER]

How's the psychic computer coming along?

[Principle]

You did state one critical key thing, education.

However the average user doesn't educate himself, nor would I expect them to.
Therefore with that said, An Apple may be your best bet, due to it's not as prone to attack, or exploits.

Making it your best investment, because it will probably out-live your PC.

[dingo]

How's the psychic computer coming along?

Lol, I don't think I have time to investigate it.

However the average user doesn't educate himself, nor would I expect them to.

It's not a good idea to have sex until you understand how STIs are transmitted or how babby is formed. Similarly, I don't think it's a good idea to use a computer until you understand a bit about how security works. Just having AV software and a firewall on your PC is not good enough. It's like using birth control without understanding why or how it's meant to be used. The only difference between malware and STIs here, is that the effects of malware are financial rather than physical, which in some cases can be worse... Bad credit rating and continual identity theft can't be got rid of by visiting a doctor and taking drugs - they form permanent scars. EDIT: And malware can be used as a weapon against other people/organisations too, not just against yourself. It's negligent to allow your machine to be used that way.

Therefore with that said, An Apple may be your best bet, due to it's not as prone to attack, or exploits.

Using OS X instead would be like switching to only having anal sex. Yeah you're probably not going to get pregnant that way, but it doesn't make you magically immune to bad stuff.

Cue jokes about Mac users being gay in 3, 2, 1...

[Principle]

I understand your point and I totally agree with you.
Your odds of encountering such an issue are minimized though.

I mean, Personally, I don't even own an Apple computer anymore,
so by no means am I trying to strictly promote them.

But yeah, the average computer user is totally oblivious.
Even with the example you gave of birth control, Yes, that's exactly how the average computer user functions, lol.

[Stookie]

A lady at my work told me she had a virus on her work computer and I asked why she thought that. She said she got an e-mail that said she had one and she needed to go a to a website to download a program to get it off. I thought, "oh god, if she doesn't have one now, she will soon enough".

Everyone HAS to use a computer for their job, but they don't necessarily know how to use one past power-point and word. When I ask a client to send me a jpg, a lot of times they open it in power point, save it as a power point file, and then send that to me. Geez!

[CFTraveler]

Sorry, I couldn't help myself...

[dbmathis]

Regarding the apple discussion, VERY funny.

I like apple simply because of OS X and it will run on Intel based processors. I don't have a mac or a PC running OS X because I am a minimalist that just bums computers from work.

I did build my own PC for my wife about 3 years ago and spent about 300 dollars. I run XP on it and have never really had any problems.

I think if I wanted to go the OS X route I would just install Fedora instead. I currently work on like 250 different Linux machines continously each day for like 12 hours a day coding perl and have just fallin in love with the CentOS / Redhat distro. I use Ubuntu at home for my Linux web server, however I am about to change over to Fedora.

Viruses, I remember those back in 95 on all of my friends Windows 95 machines LOL.

[Principle]

Ubuntu <3

[woop]

Ubuntu <3

Yea ubuntu is really good but i use many of years the windows so i cant be with ubuntu becouse they are to hard for me