Entering the 21st Century

[Chad D]

Kevin--  Don't get me wrong, Apple makes a pretty good product, and I'm not dissing it or anyone that chooses it... I just caution anyone that believes the 'message' without questioning it, no matter who delivers it, Apple, Microsoft, Google, etc.  Believing that a software product is invulnerable leads to letting our guard down, which bites us in the ass eventually.  The Internet is a cool place, but there are lots of bad guys itching to pull a fast one, and good guys with bad judgment, so keep your wits about you.

There are other kinds of malware besides viruses, currently trojans and other information stealers are all the rage, the sneaky ones operate flawlessly so you don't even notice that they are running.  All current (and past as far as I know) operating systems are vulnerable to these threats.  Some are patched, but the worst ones are the ones we don't even know about yet, called zero day exploits.

[fe66comet]

You know there is always a kid drinking code red mountain dew and eating  teddy grahams  sitting in front of an alienware around the corner LOL

[lovehamr]

And if you use apple for very long you start to miss all the stuff that is available for windows machines.  Of course apple doesn't want you using these programs on their machines and this little conundrum is what leads to jailbroken apple machines.  If all you ever want to run on it is apple approved then you'll likely have no problems.  Unfortunately the apple world gets small rather quickly.

[amdscooter]

I use IE, Chrome and Firefox. Each has their strengths and weaknesses. IE is actually as secure as the others IMHO though both Firefox and Chrome win the customization battle with their extensions hands down. Honestly though, I've found all three to consume quite a bit of available RAM once a few tabs are open. Myself, I frequently have more than a dozen open in each browser. Luckily the price of RAM is in the basement. My recommendation is if you run a 64bit OS go out and grab 8~16GB if your motherboard can accommodate it.

Probably 99% of security issues with browsers originate between the keyboard and the chair. Word got out I have an IT background and am a PC hobbyist so I end up doing a lot side work for friends and family cleaning up PC's. Glad to see this did not devolve into a PC/MAC flamefest like many of the other boards I frequent. 

[rcodecj]

A little late to the party, but this article has some neat features of Chrome that not everyone who uses it may be aware of.

http://www.guidingtech.com/5319/killer-google-chrome-features/