This was just a response to a question on Ryan D's blog but I thought I would post it on mine as I believe this is solid information, that I believe PROTECTS VALUABLE information. I was a huge advocate of PC and not switching to a MAC. Mostly because that is what I have always used and am of the mindset that most viruses/malicious programs ARE created for PCs simply because more people own PCs, and when MACs increase in popularity as we have seen with the ipod, that hackers would write code for MACs as well. This may still be true, but my opinion has changed since my girlfriend got a MAC laptop and I tried it out. My biggest thing was that I didn't want to relearn all the short cut commands ... but it hasn't been that big a deal. She hasn't had any real problems either. It was running a bit slower one day until I deleted all the cookies. (She did not have them blocked or disabled.) As always you still have to either block or periodically delete cookies and cache as they slow down your browser and some cookies are malicious. (Blocking is best but checking them on a regular basis is necessary because some sites are able to disable browser cookie blockers/pop up blockers and those are usually the ones that are looking to cause problems or highjack information.) Also if you are using a PC and are not already using Firefox as your browser, switch, it is far less vulnerable than Internet Explorer. Back to my theory about hackers writing more malicious programs/apps for MACs, even if they do I now believe that MACs will still not be as vulnerable as PCs. The nice thing about MACs is that they do not automatically run programs/applications upon start up .. whereas PCs do and this is why viruses often attach themselves to as many of these startup programs/applications that they can. So when you think you have gotten rid of the problem and restart your system they re-embed themselves and or at some point your system will not even start unless you try it in safe mode and at some point that won't work either. I have had to wipe out hard drives and start over on several different occasions because it was easier and less costly than TRYING to eliminate ALL of the virus components. The big downside to this is that you will lose all of your information. In my case I have been able to back up important stuff and transfer it. (which was a huge pain in the ass) BUT I have also had TWO PC hard drives die on me with all information lost. One was a laptop the other was a desktop. I think I am going to switch to a mac now though. I will let you know when I purchase a new laptop in the near future. Thought this information may be useful to some of you. Eric

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