With Macs, you spend time working

I've been thinking about how one has to devote time to a WinTel machine versus a Mac. Prior to Microsoft's Monthly Update (where they release patches for vulnerabilities) it wasn't uncommon to find a new patch every few days or weeks. I've been on a Mac since September of 2004 and can count on my hands the number of patches that have been released to address vulnerabilities. The thing I've noticed is that Microsoft releases a patch after a vulnerability has been identified whereas Apple releases a patch well in advance of the public learning of the vulnerability.

I have a background in Enterprise Hosting but on the UNIX side. I've seen so many examples where sites must go down in order to apply a patch to Windows and often, that can cause problems to an application and/or site. Futhermore, when a problem is faced a common workaround is to reboot the WinTel machine ... which in turn causes a site to go down. This is very serious when a customer's business relies on the uptime of their site. In addition, many customers decide to hold off on a patch until they can test it in a staging environment. As a result, some open themselves to the vulnerability and get exploited on their production systems.

The point I'd like to make is that Windows based systems require that you spend a lot of time and effort to keep them secure and operational.

On Macs, you spend your time working and find yourself productive. This is the case with UNIX based systems. Less time is spent securing and protecting the server, your time is focused on the issues that matter most ... work, productivity, and uptime.

Any thoughts or comments?

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