I read somewhere today that Firefox has been gaining a lot of ground at the expense of IE, especially in Europe. It’s weird that Europe and Asia are always at the cutting edge of things even though some (if not most) of those technologies are often originated from the other side of the pond. As a web developer, this is a welcome news. And it should force Microsoft to do some introspection (if that’s even possible) on finally adhering to some industry-wide standards and really innovate. There are days when I can’t believe I still argue with people as to why they are still using IE if they are not being forced to use it for compatibility reasons (i.e. “my bank only supports IE”… my answer would be, “what kind of idiotic bank is that?”).
In other news, it seems like people are running to the Macs these days. Jason is at the brink of getting one pending certain conditions are met (though AJ already has my old PowerBook G4). Many friends who used to laugh at the idea of using a Mac are now hardcore Mac users (albeit some are using the hardware to run Linux). But overall, just within my own sphere of influence, people are getting fed up with having to install multiple virus scanners (seems like ONE just doesn’t cut it anymore), 3rd party firewall software and still getting their computers ruined for one reason or another… Just within the past 3 months, I’ve already heard multiple instances of people getting their Paypal/bank accounts exploited, files infected and OS blue screened, all happened behind the comfort of those so-called virus/malware/spyware scanners. They must make tons of money from those licenses. I almost want to think that THEY are the ones coming up with them… 😉
In comparison, it’s comforting to know that there still isn’t a single spyware/virus in existence for any version of the Mac OS since 2000. With the addition of Little Snitch on top of Mac’s built-in firewall, my Mac is in good hands even if there were any written for the Mac. I found it funny that some people tried to argue about certain exploits found on the Mac… but little did they know the context in which they were found — because the sponsor had to lower the threshold (un-checking some out-of-box preferences) in order for those exploits to even work. In other words, straight out of box, Mac OSX is rock solid against those exploits (which have since been patched anyway). Nothing is water tight… But at least it’s tighter than the leaky bladder that is Microsoft Windows….
Some people buy cheap PCs with Windows for the “biggest bang for the buck”. But the way I look at it, even if I had to reinstall the damn OS even once (or to put Linux on it), my time spent doing that already far exceeds the cost of the stupid hardware (let along its inferiority being a bargain basement hardware). As a freelancer, my time is money… In the 6 years I started using Mac full time, there was no time I’ve had to reinstall the OS for any reason. And I’ve only experienced kernel panic, at most, 3 times. When Grace was still using XP, I’d easily have to reinstall the OS every 6 to 8 months despite all the protective software I’d installed for her….
Enough rant on Microsoft today….
