This column by Walt Mossberg perfectly captures the problem with all of the many different warnings that a properly protected Windows user receives all the time -- and why I'm glad to be a Mac user. I use a Mac most of the time for most of what I do as a desktop user, and I don't get warnings, alerts, errors, etc.Every week or three, Software Update alerts me to some new software which I download when I have time. It's rarely anything earth shattering, even when it's a security update. Most of Apple's security fixes address problems that haven't yet been exploited but were found by the open-source community or Darwin developer community. I have my firewall set minimally because Apple keeps all of its ports closed by default. I have a few layers of spam filtering which work better or worse, but which I have set to silent. My Mac isn't a nattering pile of warnings -- it's generally quiet.
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