Family Man Librarian

I couldn’t agree more with David Pogue’s description in his New York Times column of the “stealth benefit” of the new iMac G5, OS X, as “rock solid.” Mentioned in MacMinute. It really amazes me that more people aren’t clued into the fact that OS X, as Pogue says, is “100 percent free from viruses, Trojan horses, spyware and all the grief that comes with them.” Even in my own small academic library, the grief of dealing with Windows is very real and ever-present. The amount of effort and upkeep it takes to maintain our PCs (even just our library staff PCs) on Windows XP is absolutely ridiculous. Why should I have to worry about (and spend my time or a student’s time installing and updating) third party software to detect and remove spyware, adware, and more? And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Another example is the infamous WinXP Service Pack 2. Don’t get me started on that one…

What annoys the heck out of me is that our university’s IT department is completely sold on Windows and it seems like if they had their way, all Mac computers would be banned from campus. I fully understand the desire to maximize limited resources by trying to be as uniform as possible with a computing platform, and I also understand that Wintel equipment is significantly cheaper to buy and all, but just about everybody I speak with in that area is totally ignorant about Mac computers and OS X in particular. In fact, anyone with whom I’ve ever spoken about the Mac (yes, I do try to evangelize) is openly hostile to Macs. Another example: I’m on a university-wide strategic technology, planning, and assessment committee. Recently this group went through a prioritization exercise to determine what issues should be top priorities for the near future. One of those issues on the lengthy list of possibilities was Mac support. The end result of the survey? Mac support came in dead last. I think I was the only one in the group who put it in the top ten.

OK, sorry, rant over. But wait, there is one more thing that I can’t resist mentioning: I can run just about any WinXP program on my Mac (using Virtual PC) — and easily communicate and play nicely with our Windows network at work at the same time. Top that, Microsoft.