Sigh... Even though this is the umpteenth glowing review and, dare I say, recommendation for switching to a Mac machine, PC fanboys will still find someway to denounce it and legitimize their uninformed opinion.

It's simply TRUE that CR has always been hard on Macs... they've recently slammed Macs for lacking floppy drives, and they dodge the issue of OS X vs. Windows entirely.

It's good to see that starting to change, though. (Even if OS X's security is not ONLY due to obscurity.)

Also, you ARE safer from Classic viruses when running Classic, than you were booting OS 9. And even OS 9 viruses were virtually unheard of--assuming you bother to install Classic at all--and assuming you have it actually RUNNING.

"It's good to see that starting to change, though. (Even if OS X's security is not ONLY due to obscurity.)"

How many times does it have to be said that the Mac is more secure by design. No matter how popular it gets, the Mac will not lose its design advantage over Windows. Do some real research on Windows vulnerbilities. You will find that similar features of the Mac and other operating systems are much more secure.

As for the 60 Mac viruses, some report that only 24 are Mac-specific. At any rate, a high percentage of those date back to System 6. IIRC, no more than one Mac-specific virus has escaped into the wild since the release of MacOS 9.

For years, Consumer REports has either ignored the Mac or worse, tends to tend the most expensive Mac desktop against the cheapest white box seller at the time - whether it be Gateway, Tandy or Dell so it's a HUGFE STEP FORWARD.

You have to consider who reads Consumer Reports. It's fuddy-duddy people who believe that specs and price trumps all else. They always recommend the cheapest choice based on their skewed specs ... for intance, in a coffee maker, they'll pick one the cheapest one with the best safety plug. WTF? So, for them to recommend a Mac is like them recommending a BMW over a Chevy - hallejuah - they are sure to get a few facts wrong here and there - after all, it's a motley collection of 72-year olds in some tiny NY state town - what do you expect? This means the senior market for the mac will edge up 20% and people will see the headline in bookstores - all good news. Let's not quibble over details.

And of course, the strangest irony is that CR is published on Macs but apprently their production department is not alowed to talk to their testers or writers ... at least that's the evidence but if CR is willing to consider macs, great!

Now, we have CNET. I'm sure there headline will read.

CONSUMER REPORTS and 60 Mac viruses.

I think 60 viruses TOTAL have been found for the entire Macintosh platform over the entire life span of the platform...that's uh, what... 20 YEARS?
The equivalent for Windows is about 60 viruses per DAY, right?

Basically, it all adds up to FREE PUBLICITY targeting the Joe Six-Pack crowd. Y'know, the folks who think that Sears makes high-end appliances.

Funny jbelkin -it is easy to criticize but hard to achieve. CR is more influential than you think it is - it can make and break products. Despite its badmouthing of poor products, it has never lost a lawsuit in this litigious country. So, when the time comes to judge the credibility of CR's opinion and versus that of jbelkin's, there is no contest.

Suprize, suprize, good reviews in CS can be bought just like any other media outlet. About 30 years ago, I think they had some integrity, but not anymore. Advertising sells - and buys! There wouldn't happen to be any iPod ads in that issue of CS, would there?

I love Macs, but the job market for Mac lovers sure sucks. If I had an MCVR cert (that's Microsoft Certified Virus Remover), I could be raking in the big bucks!

I cannot factually comment on throatmonster's claim that CR can be "bought," but it should be pointed out that there are no ads -- for iPods or anything else -- in CR (not CS, btw). That's kinda their big point.

Maybe you should actually read the mag to find this out before claiming that their ads make them vulnerable to being "bought?"

OK, a magazine article comes out and basically states "On the virus front, Macs are better. While there have been over 60,000 viruses for the PC (and more coming every day), Macs have had a total of 60. Sounds like a clear winner..."

So what do the Mac fan-boys do on this site. Cheer CR for pointing out something they've been trying to get out for years? No. Cheer CR for actually understanding a Mac isn't just another Windows machine. Not quite (though you've tried, I'll give you credit for that). No, you all blast CR for somehow stating there have been 60 viruses on the Mac! How dare they include viruses from the 80s and 90s (even though that Windows number includes viruses from the 80s and 90s).

Do you all want to know why people won't switch. Because when someone thinks about it, one of their friends points them to a forum like this and go "Do you want to be one of those kool-aid drinking geek wads who aren't happy enough to have 99.9999% fewer viruses for their computer platform, they start complaining because someone has dared say something that could be interpreted as bad? They actually are angry at a glowing review!!" and the people look and go "No".

And all Macs shipping now still support classic, some still come with it installed, and all come with the ability to install it.

I for one still run classic on a OS X primary machine. Four reasons: LogoMotion 2 (still no 3D app as simple and easy to use for logo animations), Illustrator 8 (because sometimes my previous artwork in AICS can't be opened because it has "too many points"), Quark 5 (to convert to v4 documents, and whenever Quark 6 doesn't like a font I previously used, which happens much more often than I'd like to admit), and ATM 4.6 (to manage such said fonts for Quark 5 to use).

Just because the Classic apps don't have the Aqua gooeyness, doesn't mean they're worthless. In fact, the performance of those mentioned apps is on par with their OS X native counterparts when running in Classic.

I sometimes feel like Luke Skywalker when I read these posts... I want to do rash things like slam Consumer Reports for a "bad" point, or go save Han and Chewy, but there Testudo is, reeling me back in, to face my fears and deal with my own problems, making me a stronger Mac Jedi.... For this, I thank you for your wise and appreciated input Testudo...

(hopefully I don't scarea away any PC converts with this post)..