New York Times Claims People Are Throwing Out PCs Because of Malware

Matt Richtel and John Markoff, reporting for The New York Times:

On a recent Sunday morning when Lew Tucker’s Dell desktop computer was overrun by spyware and adware - stealth software that delivers intrusive advertising messages and even gathers data from the user’s machine - he did not simply get rid of the offending programs. He threw out the whole computer.

Mr. Tucker, an Internet industry executive who holds a Ph.D. in computer science, decided that rather than take the time to remove the offending software, he would spend $400 on a new machine.

Ph.D. or not, Mr. Tucker comes across as an idiot. Annoyingly, the article creates the impression that malware plagues “PCs”, when in fact, it only plagues PCs running Microsoft Windows, an essential distinction.

★ Sunday, 17 July 2005