I am putting together a CD (of various Web pages,downloadable programmes and, hopefully useful information), which will be distributed free of charge to about 1000 members of a fairly prestigious institute.

Most of these will be Windows (XP and, increasing Vista) users and the CD, which is primarily concerned with computer security, will be divided, so to speak, into issues which affect these users.

In the past, issues which have concerned Apple Mac users have simply been ‘tagged onto the end’ of Web pages which have Windows users (I am one myself) as their main focus.

However, I want to give Mac users their own space on the CD so that a Mac user browsing through the CD can see clearly which issues affect him. At the beginning of the CD, for instance, there will be three logos (Vista, XP and Mac) and the Mac user who clicks on that latter logo knows that everything in that section will be, or might be, of interest.

I do have a couple of problems, though. As a windows user I am not particularly aware of security issues which affect Macs (the focus will be on OS X machines). For instance, in my Windows sections, I will have links to download programmes such as Sophos, checking firewalls, how to disable file sharing, removing Norton and so on), but apart from a couple of programmes for Macs such as ‘MainMenu’ and ‘VigiMac’ (for stolen Macs), the information I have is quite scarce.

Any suggestions, therefore, from contributors here, would be welcome.

Thanks.

Steve

It’s not like we don’t mind criticizing Apple or the Mac when needed, it’s just that it isn’t necessary too often. We’re not religious zealots at Mac360, and we don’t think you are, either.

So why do we (including you) have this passion for Apple and Macs? Why do we buy the products and follow every move the company makes?

It isn’t just that the Mac has made Apple what it is. It’s a part, but not the whole story. In fact, it may be a ”story” that brings together all the pieces that make up Apple to a whole greater than the sum of the parts.

Historically, Apple looks at products differently than mainstream tech companies. They’re always looking for a better way to do the obvious while hiding the technical complexity required to get there.

That alone attracts plenty of followers, hence the Think Different advertising campaign back in the last century. But it’s the ”story” of Steve Jobs fall and resurrection that may weave all the pieces into a fabric which makes Apple different in many respects, and better in other respects.

Hey, Steve Jobs was iconic, demanding, visionary (pirates can be visionary), and fell from grace. Though nearly losing is fortune on NeXT and Pixar he toughed it out, took advantage of opportunities, was raised back to a position of glory and influence and wealth.

In the meantime, Apple survived, began to prosper, took advantage of opportunities (the iPod, iTunes, now iPhone) in the technogadget marketplace. Whether it is software or hardware, Apple makes a lot of products that over 100-million customers truly love. How many technogadget companies stir that much positive passion?

OK, why? The Steve Jobs and Apple story is interesting, intriguing even. Is that it? Not quite. Products. Apple dares to be a little different. I say ”little” because I don’t think the company is daring to be different as much as it could because it needs to deal with cell phone companies and movie companies and cannot fully dictate all the details.

Products. Apple makes slickly designed, attractive, highly functional products-- hardware and software-- that users really love to use. And it isn’t just the techno geeks like us who love their products. Average, everyday people from all walks of life make a choice to use Apple-- Macs, iPods, now iPhone. The numbers are staggering. Even more so is the passion customers have for their Macs and iPods.

Name another computer or consumer product that elicits that much unreserved passion as a Mac user or iPod user.

There’s another ”key” element. We, the customers, the users, the fan boys, love to use the products. We enjoy it. Mac customer satisfaction has nearly always been higher than competitors. iPod customer satisfaction borders on fanatical. The iPhone? Even with some obvious faults, it’s being hailed as the most satisfying new product ever in electronics.

Why? Why do other companies not have that same panache? Maybe Sony had it at one time, but certainly no more. Creative people were honored by Apple in the Think Different advertising campaign for a reason. Base customer. We’re willing to make a choice because we think Apple provides a better solution for our needs.

Microsoft and Windows own the desktop not because they provided a better solution. They applied market muscle to a mediocre product and dismissed all competitors. Except Apple. But Apple owns the portable music market because it does have a better solution.

Do you have a Mac or an iPod? Do you follow Apple happenings regularly? Why?

The answers are surprising and varied. What’s the most important application on your Mac?

Before you answer, let me outline some of the results of my informal, unscientific research, and add a caveat or two.

Not surprisingly, what I hear most when I ask that question is, Email (whether Apple’s Mail or something else doesn’t matter). Then, Safari (sometimes Firefox).

After those two, both of which are somewhat expected, even from the average Mac user, variety sets in, often determined by job requirements.

For example, if you asked Kate and Bambi, they’d both tell you Microsoft Office, as the suite is mandatory for business compatibility.

Ask a digital photographer, and you’re likely to hear Photoshop or any one of half a dozen photo manipulation tools. A Mac web designer might say Fireworks or Dreamweaver.

A Mac programmer might use BBEdit even more than Mail or Safari. Regardless, Mac users have both favorite applications and necessary applications. For some of us, the choice might include iTunes or iPhoto, or another in the iLife suite.

See how this works? Mac users are a varied bunch and there are hundreds and thousands of Mac applications and utilities which keep our Macs going, and keep us going on our Macs.

Here’s an opportunity for you to chime in to my decidedly non-scientific, totally informal, and utterly pleasant research project.

What are the Top 5 Most Important Applications And Utilities On Your Mac? The caveat? Don’t put Mail or Safari on the list. Everything else is fair game.

What’s the difference between an application and a utility? Definitions may vary, so let’s keep it simple. An application on a Mac creates a document or a file of some sort, while a utility makes changes to settings or performs a specific task, but doesn’t generate a file for future use.

There are probably a few exceptions which we could debate until the cows come home and leave again, but the query stands. What are the Top 5 Most Important Applications and Utilities On Your Mac?

Word? Excel? Powerpoint? Photoshop? iChat AV? Skype? Final Cut Pro? Super Duper!?

There’s no need to rank them, just list each. Add a reason why, if you choose, though for some applications and utilities the reason may be self explanatory.

Yes, it’s OK to list Microsoft Office as a single item on the list. Ditto for iLife, iWork, Photoshop CS2, and so on. It could be argued that iCal and AddressBook are the most valuable.

Perhaps it’s Mac OS X’s Keychain, as that’s where your passwords and login ID’s will be stored (I’m giving out some hints).

That’s sufficient for a quick start with nominal prodding. Show us your goodies. What are the Top 5 Most Important Applications and Utilities On Your Mac, and why?

Yes, there’s some danger in gloating, some danger in saying “I told you so,” and some danger in trying to shave a bobcat in a telephone booth. But if you could pull off the latter without a scratch, wouldn’t that be cause for celebration?

And maybe a little gloating? And perhaps a snickery ‘See, I told you I could do it...”

So it is with the Mac. It’s back and the proof is irrefutable for everyone except White House press secretaries. For a long decade, Mac users endured status as a second class citizen in the computer world. No more.

Gone are the days of 2-percent or 3-percent market share numbers, constantly compared to Windows 95-percent share. If Google is a verb, then Windows is a really nasty cold sore.

Here’s what’s happening and why Mac users are having to learn how to exercise restraint as Windows brethren suffer through PC malady after malady.

We’ve preached true Mac Math at Mac360 for years. Market share numbers, in the general sense, are not valid indicators of what is happening to Mac sales (though, 15-percent overall worldwide share would be nice).

A brand new research report from Toni Sacconaghi of Bernstein Research shows the Mac’s market share ranges from 45-percent to 2.7-percent. Start waving your Gloat Towels, someone has seen the light.

Wait. Is that right? 45-percent? No, it’s actually 45.8-percent, but I thought that rounding down would show a little humility. Smart researchers with a penchant for truth, justice, and the Appian Way, have sliced and diced the numbers and the Mac is looking healthy.

Worldwide Mac market share is 2.7-percent, up about 30-percent in the last year or so. US market share is over 6-percent and growing at a rate of over 30-percent per year. Here’s where the fun begins. Notebooks rule, and Mac notebooks rule absolutely. 8.3-percent of the US notebook market is Mac.

Small? Not quite. Notebooks, like any other piece of consumer or business technology, is sold in different market segments. Let’s say, under $1,000 and over $1,000. Bernstein’s bear researchers identify the latter as the Top Price Quintile, where the Mac has a whopping 29.4-percent market share. And growing.

Take out sales of notebooks to business, and just count the typical consumer notebook buyer, and the education market, and the Mac hits 45.8-percent of the Top Price Quintile. That makes the Mac the #1 notebook in the US, asterisks not withstanding. In that market segment, no other notebook manufacturer tops Apple.

As usual, numbers can be good and bad. Apple rules with the Mac in the premium Top Price Quintile (I just love saying “quintile” as if I just came home from my first semester at college). With numbers like that, it’s tougher for the Mac to grow share in that pricey segment. On the other hand, it’s easier to grow share in lower price segments, but expect Apple to do it slowly, rather than, say, tomorrow afternoon at 2:00 PM. Things don’t work that quickly.

Is it time to say, ”I told you so?” Yes. It’s time. But let’s remember to show a measure of decorum, taste, and class, and not shout so loudly that Windows PC users continue to hate Mac users but for different reasons. Maybe we Mac users should just get together and all of us say “I told you so” at the same time, just once, and it’s done.

You know, it would be like if all of us flushed our toilets at the exact same time. No one knows what exactly would happen, but it would be cool to find out.

I’m not right about things so often that I’ve ever worn out my ”I Told You So” Quota, but this time we’re ready. Mac users have known for a few years, probably since Panther and the first aluminum PowerBooks, that the Mac was on the way back. Now there is numerical proof that goes beyond Apple’s wild profits. It’s news. It’s factual. And it will get better.

Why do Mac users love to think, “I told you so?” Because we can. Let’s practice what we preach and share the ”news” with our digitally deprived kin, the Windows PC sufferers of the world. They need us.

My first answer, after having used various beta versions of Firefox 3 the past few months, yeah, OK, so what? It’s fast, though not as fast as some recent beta versions of Safari. Firefox is certainly better looking and has more features than previous versions.

Better looking? If there’s a big complaint that many Mac users have with Firefox is that it’s not a Mac-like, chic, attractive web browser, and it’s user of font rendering is put to shame by Apple’s own Safari.

Firefox has always suffered from ‘that Windows look.’ I’m happy to report that Firefox 3 for Mac seems to have shed the legacy ‘Windows look’ and now feels more like, well, a blend of Safari and Camino (Firefox in Mac clothing). Toolbar buttons are rounded versions of Safari’s soft rounded rectangles.

Is there more? Not much. Everywhere else Firefox acts like, well, Firefox. Bookmarks are handled the same way, a clumsy and complex implementation of Safari’s bookmark elegance.

Buttons and features options are scattered everywhere in the bookmark area, though I admit that I like the backup and restore feature.

Extensions make Firefox a valuable web surfing tool, Mac or Windows, and so far, Firefox 3’s handling of my dozen or so extensions has been spotty. Three don’t work at all, another seems to cause a conflict somewhere when I use, but not when I don’t.

I can crash Firefox 3 any time I choose, just by loading a web page and then moving through the menu structure quickly. The beach ball of death begins to spin, and Firefox cascades into a pile of digital rubbish before crashing.

Firefox 3 still has the busiest interface this side of Windows Internet Explorer 6.x. There’s the Tool Bar, which actually looks good. Then the Menu Bar, which is fully self explanatory, and like Safari, extends itself if you have plenty of bookmarks in the bar (is there really anywhere else to put bookmarks?)

Below that are the Firefox extensions area, then tabs. The former of which can fill up quickly and create a very visually busy and complex Firefox UI. Tabs can be rearranged, ala Safari, though not as smooth with the drag and drop and rearrange.

My implementation of 1Password seems to work well, allowing Firefox to share the same login ID and password information as Safari and Camino, though password management in Firefox is also improved.

The feature list for the new version is extensive, though mostly evolutionary, rather than revolutionary. There’s more built-in malware protection, with an attempt to warn users when they land on a site on a restricted black list. SSL error pages are easier to understand.

The Star Button in the location bar makes it easier to add bookmarks with a single motion click. You can also add key words to your bookmarks and set up topics to sort bookmarks. Remember the term bloatware?

That said, I do like the new View Menu > Zoom feature, if anything because it kinda sorta replicates what Mac users already have with Control-scroll using a mouse. It’s nice, but the cursor doesn’t move the screen as Apple’s implementation does.

Firefox 3 also features add-on and plugin version checks, and will, thankfully, disable older versions. Add-ons have to provide updates in a secure manner. OS X’s spellchecker is now implemented-- it red underlines misspelled words and makes suggestions in the right-click context menu.

I’m hard pressed to see much about Firefox 3.0 that makes it a full point version above the current Firefox version, which has been very stable in my daily use. So, I have to ask myself, ’Do I really need another browser with more features than I can remember?‘

Still, a little competition for Safari and Internet Explorer is not a bad thing.

Finally, share with me and our readers why you use Firefox, why we need so many browsers, and which Mac browser is your favorite.