"Do Not Be a Hero" · 306 words posted 05/02/2006 10:21 AM
Apple has released a new series of ads directly comparing Macs to PCs (via kottke and many others). That’s smart: for most users in most circumstances, Mac beats PC hands down.
In one ad, John Hodgman of the Daily Show is a PC with a nasty virus (watch Do Not Be a Hero on YouTube).
PC: [Sneezes three times].Mac: Gesundheit. Are you OK?
PC: Noooo, I’m not OK. I have that virus that’s going around.
Mac: [sympathetically] Oh…
PC: You’d better stay back, this one’s a doozy.
Mac: Thank you, I’ll be fine.
PC: No, no. Do not be a hero. Last year there were 114,000 known viruses for PCs.
Mac: [shrugs] PCs. Not Macs.
The response is pitch perfect: notice that Apple doesn’t claim Macs have zero viruses. It doesn’t have to.
It’s probably a coincidence that the ad started running a day or two after CNN reported Viruses Catch Up to the Mac. But Apple is smart to head off this meme. This summer, as Apple takes on Microsoft more directly, you’ll see articles arguing that Macs are no longer secure; that Macs have viruses too; and that if Apple’s biggest selling point is security there’s really no reason to switch to a Mac.
Don’t believe the hype. Norton currently lists over 72,000 PC viruses in its definition file. Let’s assume virus writers turn their industriousness to focusing on cracking Macs instead of PCs and release 1,000 Mac viruses over the next year. That would bring the number of Mac viruses from approximately zero to 1,000, or 1.4% as many viruses as Windows users face—assuming the number of Windows viruses stops growing (it will not).
Mac’s aren’t perfectly secure; no computer is. But they’re substantially more secure than PCs running Windows and will remain so for the foreseeable future.
Update: Here’s Apple’s page for the new ad campaign.
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