Top 2 Computer Repair Myths about "Going Apple"

By Steve Honesto

While there are situations where Macs are justified, the steamrolling in the media by the Apple-centric movement to “iEverything” helps fuel a majority of this misconception surrounding the Apple brand.

I’ve done quite a bit of research on many of these myths over the years and have formulated educated responses when my customers, friends and family ask for my professional opinion. I’m not an Apple hater, but I do want to better educate my customers and dispel the myths that never seem to die. Techs like us are considered the technology expert by our own fellow customers, so it’s a good idea to have a rounded consideration of the other side of the fervent pro-Mac argument. I like to present my customers with the real facts and let them decide on which route they want to go.

Let’s have a look at the 2 most common myths that I hear from customers:

Myth #1: “Macs don’t get viruses; hence they are the most secure computer.”

As long as computers and software are made by humans, they will be insecure. Let’s not kid ourselves. While the above argument would have been slightly more plausible in the remaining stretch of Windows XP’s heyday (2004-2007 or so) when viruses and malware were just destroying the aging OS (operating system), the times have since changed. It’s 2013 and malware writers have finally noticed the Mac market as being sizable enough to matter.

I guess therein lies the other misconception about Windows machines – that they are innately insecure because Windows is a poorly written OS, Microsoft doesn’t care about us, etc. Surprisingly, the opposite seems to be true according to numerous reports. Security vendor Secunia came out with a study that said Apple actually has the most holes of any major software maker, and white hat hacker and security research team lead at 3Com Tippingpoint, Aaron Portnoy, told Computerworld that Windows 7 was much safer than Apple’s Snow Leopard OS from his findings during exploit hunts.

Myth #2: “Everyone says Macs have a lower total cost of ownership (TCO).”

One thing business owners love to discuss with me is TCO. Seeing that many of them are average consumers as well, they’ve heard the tagline of Macs costing less to operate in comparison to PCs. I then start to run the numbers with them compared to their current environment. Let’s say a hypothetical business owner runs an office of 6 machines. He is considering moving to all Macs. They use a scattering of programs including Access and Quickbooks. The cheapest Mac desktop they can purchase is the $1200 iMac. There’s no Mac version of Access, and they don’t want to use a watered down edition of Quickbooks on the Mac, so they decide to go the Parallels route for each workstation.

Not only do they need a copy of Parallels for each machine, but now a legal copy of Windows 7 is necessary for every Mac to run their business programs. Add in antivirus solutions for both the native Mac OS X and virtual Windows environments and software costs just skyrocketed. And let’s not forget that workers will likely need to be retrained on how to work a multi-OS Parallels environment – tacking re-education costs onto the final transition bill. Similar conditions can keep the tab on a consumer-oriented migration high as well, namely in re-education and dual-licensing scenarios. And remember that Macs start at $1199 USD. Comparable high end PCs could be had for a few hundred less, and more cost effective mid-range PCs go for nearly half that price. In this economy, that initial cost difference is a tough sell for some.

You can see where the path is headed. Every time I have a discussion like this with a business owner, they quickly realize that Mac isn’t always the nirvana of cost reduction everyone claims. 

These are just the top 2 most common Myths about Macs. I actually have 5 of them listed on my blog. If you would like read about all 5 myths and even have a chance to comment and voice your opinion, please visit my blog www.mycompit.com/blog.