>> By MATT RICHTEL and JOHN MARKOFF
>> Mr. Tucker, an Internet industry executive who holds a Ph.D. in
>> computer science, decided that rather than take the time to remove the
>> offending software, he would spend $400 on a new machine.
>> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And how long do they have those _new_
>> machines until they also get polluted and have to be replaced? [...]
> If he spends that $400 (actually, $499 or so) on a Mac Mini, he can
> probably go for a good long time. There are no known viruses on OS/X.
> I don't know if anything bad can happen from using IE on the Mac; I
> don't believe so. Safari is not perfect, but it works just fine for
> almost all of my browsing. One thing I like in Safari: there is a
> pull-down option in Safari for resetting *everything*: cache, cookies,
> etc. I do this periodically -- I like to flush all my cookies
> periodically just as a regular practice.
> The only real software people will need in general is Office 2004. For
> most, the student edition should work just fine for their home needs.
> If there is not a lot of need for compatibility, the $80 iWork package
> (Presentation software + Apple word processor) should work just fine.
> The main thing lacking in iWork is a spreadsheet; Apple should address
> that in the next release.
"Open Office" runs just fine on MAC's. (variant of BSD). No need to spend any monies purchasing M$ Office 2004.