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carterx · Jun 7, 2008, 11:58 AM

Where I live, there is a PC branded store which is now selling/servicing Mac's and I'm getting tired of their radio adds where they claim to be your #1 mac service shop. On their radio add, they have play the whole "Mac & PC" thing where Vista goes into the shop for cleanup and be comes "now more buff machine" from being cleaned up. They play this also that the Mac goes in because "Leopard is Sick and coughing" and that "Mac" should go in to be cleaned of spy/malware, virus's, and general cleanup.

Now, I know I get tones of virus's and spy/malware on my Mac everyday ...... wait, I never get that crap. If I ever have, even without protection, have never had an issue.

Any others getting these shops in their areas?

Chuckit · Jun 7, 2008, 12:06 PM

Never heard such as thing. Most of the Mac shops around here are real Mac shops. Maybe you should call in to explain to them what a load of crap they're peddling.

Railroader · Jun 7, 2008, 12:13 PM

Originally Posted by Chuckit

Maybe you should call in to explain to them what a load of crap they're peddling.

I think they probably know what a load of crap they are selling. The thing is, people buy loads of crap. They are just selling something that foolish people didn't know they needed until they were told they needed it.

Certainly unscrupulous.

carterx · Jun 7, 2008, 12:21 PM

This is our local shop PC Medic

We have a couple Mac only shops in the area but there is now FutureShop/BestBuy and now this shop that is now selling Mac's.

Cold Warrior · Jun 7, 2008, 12:32 PM

Make some transcripts, annotate dates and times, and report it to Apple.

Laminar · Jun 7, 2008, 01:15 PM

The Apostrophe

Railroader · Jun 7, 2008, 01:22 PM

Originally Posted by Laminar

The Apostrophe

This should help:

This too:

analogika · Jun 7, 2008, 01:38 PM

Preying on the ignorant?

That's standard business practice in the tech industries, ain't it?

imitchellg5 · Jun 7, 2008, 02:01 PM

Bust a cap in their grill. Fo sho.

Andrew Stephens · Jun 7, 2008, 03:59 PM

I see so many shiny new Macs where the shop has sold them a nice copy of Norton Anti Virus. Extra profit to make up for the slim margins on the machines and the customers not to know.

It's not as if it's even a good anti virus app.

Railroader · Jun 7, 2008, 04:29 PM

Originally Posted by Andrew Stephens

I see so many shiny new Macs where the shop has sold them a nice copy of Norton Anti Virus. Extra profit to make up for the slim margins on the machines and the customers not to know.

It's not as if it's even a good anti virus app.

Actually, I think I'd rather have virus than Norton AV.

CRASH HARDDRIVE · Jun 7, 2008, 04:51 PM

Why are people surprised? Mac users are known for being ultra-gullible to PC stores. Many times I've seen CompUSA, Frys, and other places charge more for the same stuff in the 'Mac' section of the store, than they do for the same stuff in the PC section. I've seen the same mice, hard drives, add-in cards, peripherals of all types sold for a slight to massive markup to Mac users. Because many Mac buyers are computer-ignorant and have the marketing hype of some mythical "Mac-only" hardware so drilled into their heads many will even expect to pay a premium for it. Some stores just oblige them.

There are many Mac users that have so bought into the "it just works! (without any user knowledge or effort to figure anything out)" nonsense, that, yes Virginia, they'll pay some computer store to fix some minor problem, and probably be convinced that minor problems are these spyware and virus thingies they heard about.

This store is probably just catering to the breed of Mac user that never got the memo that it's still a computer- not a lifestyle appliance, and that it does actually take some level of knowledge to properly use a computer, despite whatever bullcrap that Jobs and co. are slinging.

analogika · Jun 7, 2008, 05:22 PM

You say that as if it's such a bad thing?

I'm the breed of car owner who DOES very well get that it's still a mechanical automobile, but really, I just want to USE the damn thing.

I call my mechanic for minor problems.

I chose my mechanic carefully, though.

AKcrab · Jun 7, 2008, 05:26 PM

Originally Posted by Railroader

Actually, I think I'd rather have virus than Norton AV.

Truth. I had a machine in the shop upgrading from 10.3 to a shiny new iMac. Booted up after data migration, and here come the Norton errors.. Download TWO different uninstallers (plus tried the one that was in the Norton folder) all three failed. So then it was the old hunt an peck through /Library and /System and ~/Library to try and make all the turds disappear...

Norton IS a virus.

Laminar · Jun 7, 2008, 06:11 PM

Originally Posted by AKcrab

Truth. I had a machine in the shop upgrading from 10.3 to a shiny new iMac. Booted up after data migration, and here come the Norton errors.. Download TWO different uninstallers (plus tried the one that was in the Norton folder) all three failed. So then it was the old hunt an peck through /Library and /System and ~/Library to try and make all the turds disappear...

Norton IS a virus.

I've had to deal with that on several machines...definitely a pain.

CRASH HARDDRIVE · Jun 7, 2008, 08:08 PM

Originally Posted by analogika

You say that as if it's such a bad thing?

I'm the breed of car owner who DOES very well get that it's still a mechanical automobile, but really, I just want to USE the damn thing.

I call my mechanic for minor problems.

I chose my mechanic carefully, though.

Car analogies generally suck, but the better one would be if you were sold a load of hype about your make of car 'just working' and didn't focus much on actually knowing how to drive it, and maintain it. If you then have mechanical and other problems from not knowing a thing about how to take care of it in the first place, then you'd be at the mercy of mechanics more than willing to charge you for it. And yes, I think marketing hype bred user ignorance is generally a bad thing.

Big Mac · Jun 8, 2008, 02:03 AM

I haven't seen any ads quite that bad, yet, but recently I saw a TV Windows repair ad that showed a couple of iMacs. But I guess the spot could be accurate if they were running BC.

Tiresias · Jun 8, 2008, 04:42 AM

I still don't get this. Why don't Macs get viruses anyway? Is it because:

a) A virus is always designed for a PC because there are more of them.
b) Macs have never-fail built-in virus protection software.

If a), isn't it only a matter of time before Macs start getting targeted as well? If b), why haven't Microsoft caught on to (reverse-engineered, ripped off) what Apple are doing seeing as it is working so well?

Andrew Stephens · Jun 8, 2008, 08:12 AM

Originally Posted by Tiresias

I still don't get this. Why don't Macs get viruses anyway? Is it because:

a) A virus is always designed for a PC because there are more of them.
b) Macs have never-fail built-in virus protection software.

If a), isn't it only a matter of time before Macs start getting targeted as well? If b), why haven't Microsoft caught on to (reverse-engineered, ripped off) what Apple are doing seeing as it is working so well?

because

a) 95% of all the PC's in the world are Windows so a successful windows virus will have greater effect

b) Writing viruses is actually quite hard. Most pc viruses are slung together by kids using virus making "kits" which are only available for windows machine. To write a Mac virus you would actually need to be able to code from scratch a working virus. Much harder.

c) Mac users are nicer, kinder, fuzzier people who would never act in such a malicious way...

Laminar · Jun 8, 2008, 09:01 AM

Originally Posted by Tiresias

b) Macs have never-fail built-in virus protection software.

Also, it has to do with things like requiring an administrator password to change anything at all in the System and Library folders. It was a big deal when someone discovered that you could alter the Quicktime folder without authentication. In Windows, you can (or at least could, I can't speak for Vista) do whatever you want pretty much where ever you want. You can even go through other users' Documents and Settings folders, which isn't possible in OS X without using root privileges.

It's not so much that OS X uses some great anti-virus "software," but its virus-proof nature is inherent in the way it's built. The only real Mac virus I remember hearing about required an administrator's password to be entered before it could be installed. Cool virus.

Tiresias · Jun 8, 2008, 09:09 AM

Originally Posted by Andrew Stephens

c) Mac users are nicer, kinder, fuzzier people who would never act in such a malicious way...

What's to stop a Mac-hating PC user from designing a virus for Macs?

I'm surprised Microsoft hasn't secretly built and released viruses in an elaborate a cloak-and-dagger operation to sabotage Mac's "virus free!" market appeal.

carterx · Jun 8, 2008, 11:45 AM

Originally Posted by Tiresias

I still don't get this. Why don't Macs get viruses anyway? Is it because:

a) A virus is always designed for a PC because there are more of them.
b) Macs have never-fail built-in virus protection software.

If a), isn't it only a matter of time before Macs start getting targeted as well? If b), why haven't Microsoft caught on to (reverse-engineered, ripped off) what Apple are doing seeing as it is working so well?

I think it was a year or so ago someone created a virus where it did something completely useless and was a few days later someone found in the source code that the person who created said that they would never create another Mac virus as it was so hard to make and in the end did nothing.

Originally Posted by Tiresias

I'm surprised Microsoft hasn't secretly built and released viruses in an elaborate a cloak-and-dagger operation to sabotage Mac's "virus free!" market appeal.

haha, this is true, surprised that this has never happen lol

analogika · Jun 8, 2008, 12:05 PM

Originally Posted by Tiresias

What's to stop a Mac-hating PC user from designing a virus for Macs?

I'm surprised Microsoft hasn't secretly built and released viruses in an elaborate a cloak-and-dagger operation to sabotage Mac's "virus free!" market appeal.

They'd have to figure out how to write a *nix virus first - though, in all honesty, Office 2008 is too ****ing close to one for comfort (and certainly for installation on *my* machines).

BTW, there's been plenty of discussion on whether Macs could *theoretically* be susceptible to viruses, and the structural differences that make it *extremely* difficult (though not entirely impossible) to write a Mac virus over in the Mac OS X forum.

OwlBoy · 12:07 PM

miss post.