When Google announced recently that they will begin phasing out Windows at their corporate offices, I was very happy.  This move represents something that a lot of people working in I.T. have known for years.  Devotion to using only one platform, Windows in particular, presents many security risks.  Mac OS X, and Linux are not immune to security issues; however, these two UNIX based platforms tend to offer better security, as well as better reliability, and stability.

Many business users will still argue that Windows offers more applications, specifically in accounting, than are offered for Mac and Linux.  They’re right, but this assumption is misleading.  Most business applications today have a Mac equivalent, or a version written for the Mac.  Microsoft Word, and Excel actually shipped on the Mac BEFORE they shipped for Windows.  Today, Microsoft Office 2008 is a great business software suite that provides Mac users with seamless compatibility with their Windows using couterparts.  There are also several application suites available for Linux that also provide compatibility with Microsoft Office documents.  Companies like Intuit, and other software vendors who make accounting software have largely marginalized Mac and Linux users.  That’s starting to change.  The latest versions of Quickbooks for the Mac have been vastly improved.  Intuit has also started offering an online version of their Quickbooks software, which allows any user with a supported web browser to access their company’s Quickbooks data.  This means that Windows is no longer mandatory for accounting.  Still, a lot of businesses who wish to move their computing to the Mac may still be hesitant.  Why not keep the Windows PCs for accounting, and other specialized tasks, and go Mac, or Linux for everyone else?  Also, keep in mind that, since 2006, Macs have been able to run Windows side by side with Mac OS X using either Parallels Desktop, or VMware Fusion. I’ve used both of these products.  They’re both great solutions for Mac users who want to run Windows applications while still enjoying all of the features and benefits of the Mac.

A little over a week ago, I spent a few hours with my good friend Andrew to help him renew his Apple certifications.  We went to a really nice coffee cafe near White Rock Lake.  While Andrew worked on his certifications, I used the free Wi-Fi to surf the web, and keep track of some auctions on eBay.  While enjoying the free internet goodness, I noticed that several other customers in the cafe were using PCs with file sharing turned on.  Out of curiosity, I clicked on a few of the PCs that were showing up on my Mac.  Out of the 3 that were visible to my Mac, 2 had file sharing with guest access enabled.  One had accounting information in an unsecured folder!  Not wanting to violate someone’s privacy further, I did not open any of the files that I saw, but I did save a text file onto this person’s computer to let him/her know that I was able to get into their computer easily, without any trouble.  This is actually something that I notice every time I am on a public Wi-Fi network at Starbucks, the airport, and a lot of other places with Wi-Fi.  With all of the identity theft going around, why do so many people fail to do anything about securing their computers?