by Christopher Dawson
November 19th, 2008 @ 10:38 pm

Every week, more and more bits of malware seem to be making their way past commercial anti-virus, firewall anti-virus, and ISP anti-virus software. New patches and downloads abound, and I’ve still re-imaged 3 computers in the last 2 weeks due to massive infestations.

This is to say nothing of the home computers about which my users are complaining (I feel like getting one of those ThinkGeek T-shirts that tells people, “No, I won’t fix your computer.”) I’m well aware that if Linux or Mac had greater marketshare, then they would be far more vulnerable to malware attacks. That being said, right now, none of the computers in my house (four of them, all Mac or Ubuntu) have had even a blip of malware.

My students who have switched over to Linux? No problems. Teachers with Macs at home? No worries. Schools with Macs in them? Not a single issue. You don’t notice people reimaging their MacBooks because of a trojan. There are plenty of reasons to use Windows PCs. Games, proprietary Windows-only software, generally low acquisition costs; the usual arguments apply.

However, as I have to turn more of my attention to ensuring that my Windows PCs stay malware free and I watch my *nix computers hum along happily, I’m struggling to see a good reason to stick with the Windows platform. Right now, I have a significant investment in a Windows back office. In just over a year, though, all of that equipment will go off lease and I’ll be refreshing a lot of Windows servers and PCs.