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Columnist slams Windows for UI, virus problems

updated 05:05 pm EST, Fri February 4, 2005

Columnist slams Windows

Mark Morford, a SF Gate columnist, asks "" Further, he asks "why does Windows still suck?" Moford is highly critical of Microsoft's user interface, and also points to the ongoing struggle with viruses, spyware, and worms. "Why is there not some massive revolt, some huge insurrection against Microsoft? Why is there not a huge contingent of furious users stomping up to Seattle with torches and scythes and crowbars, demanding the Windows Frankenstein monster be sacrificed at the altar of decent functionality and an elegant user interface?"

by MacNN Staff

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olePigeon
Clinically Insane

Joined: Dec 1999

0

02/04, 05:40pm | report spam | close Reply |
LOL

Funny article. But the reason the don't is because Microsoft was very good at making it so they're the ONLY option for some people. When you're the only option, you can do whatever you want.

Eriamjh
Addicted to MacNN

Joined: Oct 2001

0

02/04, 05:52pm | report spam | close Reply |
Easy...

..because 95% of users out there don't know there is an alternative.

benj
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Mar 1999

0

02/04, 05:53pm | report spam | close Reply |
Why isn't everyone...

Geez, I'll go down to my local Compusa and pick one up, oh wait,
all they have are Emacs! If Apple can turn these out like iPods, I think
they will sell like hotcakes. And if they are successful, don't you think Apple will make an "all silver" one for those who are stressing about server issues?

I'm hoping these will ship in mass quantities soon.

Just as the iPod has accessories, here's another oppourtunity...you know- router, video dock, home management- pick your own halo.

Gorloth
Registered User

Joined: Nov 2001

0

02/04, 06:18pm | report spam | close Reply |
Homerun

He hit it farther than Slammin Sammy

hayesk
Professional Poster

Joined: Sep 1999

0

02/04, 06:21pm | report spam | close Reply |
A bit over the top...

He may be ignored and branded as a "rabid Mac-fan" - his article is a bit much, even if he is correct.

Although it was funny to read "cheapass Dell". :-D

bobolicious
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Aug 2002

0

02/04, 07:04pm | report spam | close Reply |
He should try...

...iSync with a palm pilot (data loss), browsing (incompatible) java based sites, typing in every accounting transaction (windows downloads), dealing with a bad update (windows restore) or generally doing the less glamorous tasks that make a biz run...

I have both. OS-X literally drove me out to buy a pc... They both have good & bad. I've had both online 24/7 for 2+ years & never had a virus...

MarcoM
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jan 2005

0

02/04, 07:28pm | report spam | close Reply |
I had both too

At work I had windows. I could do lots more creative stuff on a mac. I had a powerbook at work so I rarely used the PC.
But for most people games, downloading stuff , browsing, sending funny emails is all they do. So a PC will do for them.

dave a
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jan 2002

0

02/04, 07:44pm | report spam | close Reply |
most people...

...don't know how to deal with the massive amounts of spyware you get even from mistyping a URL. That was his main point. When you start to spend more time cleaning out your system than working, you need a Mac...but bobo has a point too. There are problems on both sides.

Nocturnal
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Feb 2005

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02/04, 08:14pm | report spam | close Reply |
It's useless...

Pounding on the doors at Microsoft with pitchforks and torches won't work. They can't hear you because they are all listening to their iPods....

JeffHarris
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Oct 1999

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02/04, 08:17pm | report spam | close Reply |
Funny & Accurate

It IS an over the top article, but his points are well made.

Yes, there can be problems with OS X. BUT if you are careful when updating or doing major installs... repair permissions, run Disk Warrior... you won't have too many.

As for incompatible web sites... blame Microsoft and their refusal to adhere to web standards. If I run across a site that Safari can't handle (with or without switching User Agents), Firefox usually will solve the problem.

I know quite a few people who have switched in the past few years. As a rule, they've found that they actually ENJOY using their Macs rather than dreading having trouble with Windows and often simply avoiding using their computer rather than open Pandora's (Wintel) Box.

kshkval
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Joined: Jan 2003

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02/04, 08:41pm | report spam | close Reply |
they voted for Bush...

the same people who can't buy a Mac because there is no software that runs on it and for which no games are available, and who believe the Mac user base is so small that vicious little hackers won't write a virus for it... voted for Bush/Cheney, signed off on Condi and Gonzales and feel good about the tax cuts at the expense of affordable heath care. I guess I understand the columnist...

matthewz
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Joined: Sep 2000

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02/04, 08:49pm | report spam | close Reply |
Kshkval

Not fair. Got cousin and his wife, PC users both, didn't vote for Bush, which is interesting, because it goes against his parents stance on politics. Been working on as much mac exposure as possible, get him over here..but don't stereotype based on political views.

If you must, remember, Dubya uses a mac..

ecrelin
Junior Member

Joined: Oct 2000

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02/04, 09:16pm | report spam | close Reply |
now now�

People get their hackles up when there is an intimation that they may not be doing the smartest thing. In general the avarage 80% idiocy rate that occurs in the human populace cuts across all lines of social strata, including computer users. The term users is also overly optimistic. I have been doing technology for ever and it comes down to this, most Mac users love their machines (of course, they are "insanely great") they may not really know how to use it super effectively but they are usually game to browse through their hard drives and try stuff out, with confidence, most windoids feel empowered that they can turn it on and live in the start menu because if it isn't there they don't know how to find it (what's a C drive?), they are more likely to be afraid of messing with anything because its working. Arguing goes nowhere, all these people need to find out for themselves (like the guy from BW earlier today who is so suprised at how well Apple did with the new mini and all the "new" software). We don't want everyone to order one today because Apple can't make enough. So the shiny object people will go to CompUSA and when they can't walk out with a Mac they will get a Dell and remain clueless and indignant that Apple can't provide product. Fine, the wait for Longshot will eventually cure a lot of these boneheads, and then the delivery of Longshot will too. Luckily most of the time what goes around comes around and although Bill will die rich he will go down in history as a scumbag not a wizard. Let's bide our time�

beeble
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Joined: Mar 2004

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02/04, 11:14pm | report spam | close Reply |
Kshkval

Don't forget Maharushie himself is an avid mac fan and praises his G5 or iSight from time to time on his show. That's an awful lot of free advertising that Apple is getting for free. His show is the biggest radio show in the world and his listeners are from both sides of the isle, from all walks of life. That's a big endorsement no matter which way you look at it, whether you agree with the guy or not.

And of course, as matthewz, pointed our W uses a mac and made the White House IT dept. support it (like they had any choice in the matter). Lots of members of Congress on both sides use macs but have a great deal of difficulty getting support from the in house IT people who are the usual Wintel drones who couldn't tell a class B subnet from the backside of an Andrew server.

My point is simply that Mac use has no reflection on ones politics. It merely demonstrates that they either have someone to give them sound IT advice, or they are enough of a thinker to discover macs for themselves and make the switch.

No while I'd love to debate some of your other "interesting" statements with you, this forum is not for that purpose. It would be nice if the management of MacNN would remove these constant off topic posts that keep coming up on both sides of politics. This isn't the place and, frankly, it's annoying. It's like having a group discussion and some moron keeps pestering everyone with some political drivel that's totally off topic.

If you hate Bush, take it somewhere else. If you love Bush, take it somewhere else. If you love/hate , take somewhere else. Leave these forums for on topic discussions.

beeble
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Joined: Mar 2004

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02/04, 11:16pm | report spam | close Reply |
That last line...

That list line was supposed to say

"If you love/hate {insert name of political identity}, take is somewhere else."

It didn't like the greater/less than signs. You'd think they'd get their forum script to deal with this. It's rather easy to do.

chadpengar
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Oct 2001

0

02/04, 11:52pm | report spam | close Reply |
run my business on OS X

I run my business on OS X. I have a WIndows PC. It rarely gets turned on. The only issue was shipping with Fedex and I wrote my own software to do that (I should be ready to release it for sale soon...). My credit card authorization, my accounting, everything is on OS X. And I have never lost data synching to a Palm either.

rkadowns
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Aug 2001

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02/04, 11:57pm | report spam | close Reply |
Thank you beeble

I for one am a Mac using Bush voter. Proud of it too. So again, so much for the stereotype.

As for the opinion piece, I find that while funny and written for a third grade audience, I also found it tasteless. Was the profanity really necessary? Did God have to be summoned as well? I always thought that one's use of profanity was a direct reflection of one's intelligence. I guess this writing proves it.

This is not at all surprising knowing that it's coming from San Francisco. Many things there I find tasteless.

Michael Savage excluded.

me_94501
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Dec 2003

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02/05, 02:07am | report spam | close Reply |
Aigh!!

Can we leave politics out of a discussion for once??

And there are many tasteless things in every major city.

vickys-box
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Apr 2004

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02/05, 02:07am | report spam | close Reply |
My Experience

When people complain to me about their PCs I simply state that the downtime I've had in the last 13 years due to a virus or disc corruption is 1 hour. In MacOS 9 and earlier there were issues with pesky conflicting extensions too but this is all history now for me.

One guy I know who uses PCs extensively and has been avid in his dislike for Macs finally switched a few months ago. He was fed up with viruses and other problems he had. He is now a babbling Mac zealot, has a couple of Macs at home for his family and shortly his whole company will be Mac-based. (Apart from a PC to run Sage, but we don't talk about that!)

scottgfx
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: May 2000

0

02/05, 04:38am | report spam | close Reply |
Re: Thank you beeble

Quote: "I for one am a Mac using Bush voter. Proud of it too. So again, so much for the stereotype."

Ditto.

Simon
Posting Junkie

Joined: Nov 2000

0

02/05, 04:53am | report spam | close Reply |
OMG

> This is not at all surprising knowing that it's coming from San Francisco. Many things there I find tasteless.

Oh yeah, drugs, liberals, jews, spics, j***, niggers and, g** people, yuck! I'm so glad I can go back to good old Alabama, vote for good conservative white folks, be a self-righteous b****** with a big gun and still feel good about myself when I sit in church on Sunday. Hallelujah.

rkadowns, thanks for insulting the city of San Francisco. Hitler offering his opinion on Jerusalem wouldn't have been better.

psu03bob
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Apr 2001

0

02/05, 08:23am | report spam | close Reply |
New Mac Mini Comercial

All this political talk gives me an idea...

Scene: Oval Office
Man with large cowboy hat at fancy mahogany desk sitting with back to camera. Computer screen turns blue.
Man: Fatal exception in what... @#$%%!... I need to bomb something!
Man reaches for big red button at top right of desk an african-american woman with strange hair cut walks in and slaps his hand with ruler and takes red button.
Man: Hey! Thats my...
Secret service agent walks in puts Mac Mini on right corner of desk, connects keyboard, mouse and monitor; presses on button.
Mini Mac: DONG!
Fade to Apple logo.
Man: Condi! Get that Kimmy-Jong-Illness guy on the phone I think we can work this out!
Text: Mac Mini: Creates world peace.

bobolicious
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Aug 2002

0

02/05, 09:32am | report spam | close Reply |
Ironically...

...I find one of the most problematic sites browsing with Safari is Apple's own... Images routinely fail to show up, even on refresh - it loads almost instantly & completely on my PC - one time I tracked it at about 5:1 page speed IE vs Safari on the same network... And then there's eBay...

I would say that when I tried a G5 browsing speed seemed much better, but that won't help the G4 types...

rkadowns
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Aug 2001

0

02/05, 11:21am | report spam | close Reply |
Re: Ironically...

I had the same problem. I trashed the Safari prefs and cleared the cache and haven't had the problem since. Might have been a residual problem from prior versions of Safari

macimmortal
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Aug 2001

0

02/05, 11:32am | report spam | close Reply |
Safari

I use Safari for ETrade as my streaming quotes won't work in Firefox. For everything else, Firefox is a much better browser, hands down.

OtisWild
Junior Member

Joined: Feb 2005

0

02/05, 12:42pm | report spam | close Reply |
Firefox is ugly.

Go with Camino. There's actually work being done on it these days!

Firefox on OSX is just hella ugly.

adamschneider
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Dec 1999

0

02/05, 01:07pm | report spam | close Reply |
politics

I wonder if anyone's done an actual survey about political affiliations of Mac users, because it does seem, anecdotally, that they'd come out significantly more "blue" than Windoze users. (Macs are used much more by the oft-cited "Creative Class" that typically inhabits left-leaning cities and states.)

PubGuy
Dedicated MacNNer

Joined: Aug 2002

0

02/05, 04:15pm | report spam | close Reply |
politics

I think you'll find that Mac OS X users are probably evenly distributed between both major US political parties ... its just the conservatives don't wear it on their sleeve randomly tossing out political insults.

JEB
Junior Member

Joined: May 2001

0

02/05, 04:55pm | report spam | close Reply |
whooooo

hooooooooooooooo'

telling it like it is . . .

macimmortal
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Aug 2001

0

02/05, 06:02pm | report spam | close Reply |
Re:Firefox is ugly.

Yea...I love pretty browsers that don't display HTML properly. As long as the interface is nice, I guess the actual functionality of the HTML rendering doesn't matter.

technohedz
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jul 2000

0

02/05, 07:38pm | report spam | close Reply |
Designed by Apple in???

CALIFORNIA. Get over it. Don't slam SF while claiming you have some psycho-political relationship with your Mac and voted W04. Camino's great, iSync rocks, and my pc makes a nice space heater. Maybe the article was over the top, but making blanket statements about SF and the coastal political views when your talking about Macs is just wrong. Look on a Map. Circle Cupertino 'Coo-purr-tee-No', San Francisco (I'd get hooked on phonix w/ you, but you'd probably call it frisco), now look for Palo Alto..Now do a search on that stock you just bought beginning w/ a G oops...look for that too... actually...what's the point. Some people are just ignorant.

macnews
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jun 2004

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02/05, 11:20pm | report spam | close Reply |
right...

I work at a mainly windows university. Standard procedure is to install antivirus, latest windows updates and anti-spy/adware before ever connecting a windows machine to the internet. Oh, HOW do they do this? They have a standard CD they use and have to keep updatting every month. They actually TRAIN people to NOT hook their windows maching up to the internet before they use this CD to install everything. For the unlucky professor who gets his/her machine and thinks they can just plug it in and start running, they get yelled at by IT for being "stupid" (yes, actually heard them say that).

Interesting part is the IT people did a test three months ago, a brand new computer hooked up to the internet to 3 mintutes to start getting sniffed by hackers. In ten minutes it had been compromised. Did they open email, browse to a website? Nope, didn't do anything but plug it in to the internet. I will take my mac any day.

K++
Senior User

Joined: Jan 2002

0

02/06, 09:29am | report spam | close Reply |
Mac Probs

"...iSync with a palm pilot (data loss), browsing (incompatible) java based sites, typing in every accounting transaction (windows downloads), dealing with a bad update (windows restore) or generally doing the less glamorous tasks that make a biz run...

I have both. OS-X literally drove me out to buy a pc... They both have good & bad. I've had both online 24/7 for 2+ years & never had a virus..."

First of all, the Palm Pilot isn't support by iSync, so when you lose data you have no one to blame but yourself for using an unsupported device with unsupported software in order to use iSync.

Incompatible Java Sites?! We are talking about the cross platform technology for programs to run across platforms right? If the site's Java doesn't work that isn't Apple's fault that is the fault of whomever wrote such awful java in the first place.

Every Accounting Transaction? I'm lost as to what your referring to here. If your lacking software that does what you want, that isn't the Mac's fault. It's your job to make sure a platform is useful for you. Same as making sure that the Palm Pilot works with iSync.

Dealing With a Bad Update? If it ain't broke, don't fix it. That said, if you already installed an update and it broke something for you, you should have considered how much what that update offered was necessary for you.

localnet
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Joined: Feb 2005

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02/06, 01:19pm | report spam | close Reply |
My Story

For me, the article hit home. Sure, it was a bit sophmoric, but boy could I relate. Here is my story.

My mother had to have a PC, so I reluctantly bought her a Toshiba laptop with wifi this past december. I spent quite a bit of time setting it up, much more time then the usual few minutes it takes for a new Mac. It had all of the anti virus, firewall, adware, etc., stuff installed and running. Within a few days, it was taken over by God knows what. I spent 2 weekends trying to make things right to no avail.

I finally gave up! And yes, I do own a newer P4 3.?mhz PC laptop running XP Pro, so I know a little about Windows, but perfer not to use the archaic clunky thing.

My solution? I jumped in my highly modified 03 Dodge Ram Diesel 550+ HP fuel swilling pick-up, threw the hand gun on the dash, set the beer in the cup holder, hit the garge door opener and headed for Ann Arbor! I was going to buy a Mac!

I went to my local CompUSA, told Colin the Apple guy what I wanted, IBook's, Apple Care and memory. I whipped out my Platinum card, and walked out with 2, yes 2, 12" iBook G4's! One for my mother, and one more for me, tired of fighting with the wife over using "Her" iBook. Them beer bottles hurt, man can she throw!

Greeted my mother with the secret conservitave handshake/hug and presented her with the new iBook. She opened it up, all excited like a child at Christmas! (Can I say Christmas?) I installed the memory upgrade and she was online in a matter of minutes, getting updates of the happenings of our local white supremecy group that hangs out at the local golf course. Bunch of old white guys that chew on ceeegars. Family has been in the golf business for years, need to stay on top of things. You never know when the next meeting/putter/driver burning may be. Boy those are fun!

Mom is now a happy mac camper, club burning is next week! My wife is happy, and I no longer have to dodge flying beer bottles! Thank you Apple!

Well, that is my story from the back woods of conservative, gun toting, beer and fuel swilling, hicksville, conservative Michigan. Yes, we are everywhere, and perfer our Macs. Now if we could just get rid of that tax raising demoncat gubner of ours. Who voted for her anyways?

Mike
(Feeling a bit sophmoric)

Liberlism is a mental disorder!

chas_m
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Aug 2001

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02/06, 06:28pm | report spam | close Reply |
re: My Story

Mike:

If all conservatives/Republicans were as funny as you, I'd be proud to count them among my friends.

If "liberalism" is a mental disorder, I have news for ya: the lunatics have taken over the asylum. Large majorities consistently vote "liberal" on the ISSUES. They tend to vote conservative for PEOPLE because they like getting lied to (hey, we ALL like hearing what we want to hear).

Left-leaning people have their faults, but I have to say that Republicans CONSISTENTLY fail to deliver on their promises like no other party I know. Compare their rhetoric to the reality -- the Republicans have been the MAJOR force in policy since 1994, yet:

1. Roe V. Wade still stands
2. Taxes are still higher than almost anywhere when you factor that we don't get free health insurance like the rest of the world
3. Never got a "peace dividend" of any kind whatsoever
4. Spending ourselves into the poorhouse financing Iraq -- when we're done bombing it, we'll have to rebuild it ya know, so that's at least another 10 years of multi-billion $$ drain on OUR money!
5. Running HUGE deficits and trade deficits -- I thought Repubs were gonna FIX all that?!
6. Drugs and drug-related crime going up again
7. Guns still heavily restricted, ditto tobacco and liquor -- what happened to "the free market rules all?"
8. Our kids are stupid as rocks. Thought Republicans were gonna fix that??

In short, OK we're letting you guys run everything now -- where's the benefits?? How is this better than when the Dems ran everything??

umijin
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jun 2004

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02/06, 08:16pm | report spam | close Reply |
Perception is Everything

I think it's clear that the pervasiveness of Windoze, and the fact that it is just good enough for usage, along with the availability of software (read: Games) make that platform an easy choice for most.

Programming seems to be easier for Windoze from what my coding friends tell me. Maybe because there are better tools for programming?

But lets face it, if 51% of the country can vote with little reservation for Bush, then it isn't so suprising they would make the wrong choice for computing platform.

Blanchard
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Feb 2003

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02/06, 10:13pm | report spam | close Reply |
conservitave disroder...

Oh yeah, "the secret conservitave handshake/hug"

mental disorder you said?

climacs
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Sep 2001

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02/07, 01:33am | report spam | close Reply |
Catchy tagline

"If you must, remember, Dubya uses a mac..."

Hey now there is a catchy tagline...

"The Apple Macintosh... so simple, even a chimpanzee can use it!!!"

climacs
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Sep 2001

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02/07, 01:37am | report spam | close Reply |
Napster

Oh by the way, the absolute worst ad in the Super Bowl has to be the Napster spot. Geezus was that an ugly graphic or what??? Did they put it together at the last minute in PowerPoint???

localnet
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Joined: Feb 2005

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02/07, 09:03am | report spam | close Reply |
I know what you mean!

Just a little lite hearted humor. I don't want to get into politics here, just read some of the rabid lefties here and ran with it. Those guys have no sense of humor.

Macs and windows? I like things that work. What more can I say, Macs work with the least hassle. Why should I waste my time trying to fix something that is already broken, and not created by me? I'd rather spend my time doing something fun, or getting work done around the house. Wasting 2 weekends trying to get a brand new money pit of a windows laptop working the way it was advertised, is not my idea of fun. Someone at MS needs a good flogging, no more of this time out c*** in the corner till it's fixed.

As far as Bush, he is to much of a leftist for me, what you gonna do? We know live in a democracy, mob rule, the last step to full blown socialism/communism. I miss our Republic.

Mike

jimothy
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Joined: Sep 2000

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02/07, 09:29am | report spam | close Reply |
Once you go Mac...

...you never go back.

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Columnist slams Windows for UI, virus problems

updated 05:05 pm EST, Fri February 4, 2005

Columnist slams Windows

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