Security Issues Plague Windows-Based PCs, Impairing Ease of Use
Thirteen years ago, this column was launched with the opening sentence: "Personal computers are just too hard to use, and it's not your fault." Since then, I have periodically stepped back to look at the progress of the technology industry in making computers easier to use.
Obviously, we've come a long way since 1991. Personal computers, software and peripherals are much more stable and far simpler to operate. New products, like digital cameras, PDAs and music players, have come along as welcome additions, often integrating with computers.
But for the vast part of the public whose computers aren't bought and deployed by corporate computer departments, things have gotten much worse lately. For these consumers and small businesses, the burden of using personal computers has grown dramatically heavier in the past couple of years because of the plague of viruses, spyware and other security problems that now afflict the dominant Windows platform.
To cope with this assault from an international criminal class of virus and spyware writers, hackers and sleazy businesses, average users have had to buy and monitor an arsenal of add-on programs. They have been forced to learn far too much about the workings of their PCs. And too many users have had to take drastic steps, like wiping out their hard disks and starting all over.
So instead of being able to view their computers as tools for productivity, research, communication and entertainment, consumers have been forced to devote rising amounts of time and money just to keeping the machines safe. The PC has, in many cases, gone from being a solution to being, at least in part, a problem.
A big reason for this slide backward is the failure of Microsoft to cope adequately with the security crisis. The software giant, which has reaped tens of billions of dollars from its Windows monopoly, first designed the operating system with too little attention to security. Then, it failed to move quickly enough or comprehensively enough to respond to the security problem. As a result, most of the gains in ease of use that the company delivered to users in 2001 with the sleek, stable Windows XP operating system have been reversed.
This year's big move by Microsoft was to release a massive security fix for Windows XP. This patch, called SP2, closed some of the holes in Windows that had been exploited by the criminals. But SP2 didn't include the capability to specifically detect, block or remove viruses, spyware and spam. Its firewall, aimed at barring intruders, is inferior to others on the market. And its built-in "Security Center" does almost nothing to enhance security.
So consumers and small businesses are still on their own, forced to buy programs from security vendors that still insist on designing separate remedies for each type of threat instead of an overall solution that will simply keep outsiders from invading PCs.
To be fair, Microsoft has made some contributions to ease of use in the past couple of years. Its Media Center interface, which allows a computer to be controlled with a remote from across a room, is beautiful and functional. Its new MSN search service can do things Google can't. And its OneNote program for organizing research is terrific.
But the company's dominant Internet Explorer Web browser has fallen way behind smaller rivals in features and functionality. Its free Outlook Express e-mail program hasn't had a major upgrade in years. And it won't have an all-new version of Windows until 2006.
Meanwhile, the company's historic rival, Apple Computer, has been making giant strides in ease of use. The Macintosh, with its OS X operating system, is rock solid. It is elegant, and -- when you do a feature-by-feature price comparison with Windows competitors -- it's surprisingly affordable.
The Mac is also packed with extras that Windows lacks. It has a suite of easy, free, multimedia programs that can't be matched on Windows at any price. It has a better free browser and e-mail program than Windows . It can read and create PDF files without requiring the purchase of any extra software.
Apple upgrades its operating system far more often than Microsoft does. The company's new iMac G5 model is the single best desktop computer I have ever reviewed. And Apple is the only computer company whose business is focused on consumers and small businesses.
Best of all, the current Mac operating system has never been attacked by a successful virus, and almost no spyware can run on it. This is largely because the Mac's small market share presents an unattractive target for digital criminals. But it's partly because the Mac operating system is harder to penetrate. I'm sure there will eventually be viruses that afflict Mac users, but nowhere near the 5,000 new Windows viruses that appeared in just the first six months of this year.
In terms of ease of use, Apple has opened a greater lead over Microsoft than at any time since the late 1980s, when the Mac was pioneering the graphical user interface and Microsoft users were stuck with crude, early versions of Windows .
Microsoft and the PC hardware companies that use Windows need to do much, much more to solve the security crisis and rescue the gains in ease of use they made in the 1990s.
安全问题困扰Windows电脑
13年前，在开辟这个专栏的时候，我用了以下这句话作为开场白：“个人电脑的确是太难用了，但这不是你的错。”从那以后，我就一直在留心电脑技术的发展在让电脑操作变得更加容易方面所取得的进步。
毫无疑问，电脑行业自1991年以来取得了长足的发展。个人电脑、软件、电脑外设都变得更加稳定，也更加容易操作。像数码相机、个人数字助理(PDA)及音乐播放器等广受欢迎的新产品层出不穷，并与电脑密切地结合在一起。
不过，对于那些个人购买电脑的广大非企业用户来说，他们在使用电脑过程中碰到的麻烦越来越多。由于目前在市场上占主导地位的Windows操作系统不断受到电脑病毒、间谍软件以及其他一些安全问题的困扰，在过去几年中，这些电脑用户以及小型企业用户在使用电脑过程中越发觉得不堪重负。
为了应对全球各地病毒和间谍软件写手、黑客等的袭击，普通电脑用户不得不购买和安装大量的附加程序，被迫学习许多有关电脑运行的知识。很多用户最终被迫采取了极端的措施，像格式化硬盘，重新安装程序等。
因此，电脑不再是人们提高工作效率、进行研究工作、以及沟通、娱乐的工具，电脑用户被迫花费越来越多的时间和金钱来确保电脑的安全。在很多情况下，个人电脑从一个解决问题的工具变成了需要解决的问题，至少从一定程度上讲是这样的。
造成这种状况的一大原因是微软公司(Microsoft)未能充分地解决好电脑安全问题。Windows每年能为公司带来几百亿美元的收入，而微软在最初设计Windows操作系统时几乎没有考虑电脑安全问题，在出现安全问题后，微软又未能做出及时、充分的反应。所以，在微软2001年推出更为流畅、稳定的Windows XP操作系统时，它在简单易用方面取得的成绩因此被大打折扣。
今年微软的一大举措就是推出Windows XP的安全补丁程序。这个名为SP2的补丁程序填补了曾被犯罪分子利用的一些Windows安全漏洞。不过SP2不能明确地发现、阻断或是移除病毒、间谍程序或是蠕虫病毒。SP2有用于阻断入侵者的防火墙，但其功能逊于市场上的其他同类产品。它内置的“安全中心”(Security Center)几乎对安全性没有任何改善。
因此个人电脑用户以及小型企业用户依然只能依靠自己，他们不得不购买安全软件开发商生产的软件产品，这些软件开发商仍坚持就不同的病毒开发不同的软件，并没有一种全面的解决方案，让用户只使用一种软件就能够把入侵者都挡在电脑之外。
公平地讲，在过去几年里，微软在推动电脑简单易用方面也做出了一些贡献。它的媒体中心界面既美观又功能齐全，使得用户可以在房间另一端对电脑进行遥控。微软新的MSN搜索服务能提供Google没有的功能，而其OneNote程序组织整理研究资料的功能也非常地强大。
不过公司在市场上占主导地位的Internet Explorer网络浏览器在其功能和特点上要远远落后于一些小的竞争对手。公司免费的Outlook Express电子邮件程序近年来也没有大的改进，公司要等到2006年才会推出全新的Windows操作系统。
而与此同时，公司的宿敌苹果电脑(Apple Computer)也在推动电脑简单易用方面取得了巨大的进步。苹果的Macintosh操作系统牢不可破，它的界面优雅美观，如果与Windows按功能逐项对比，它可以说是惊人地便宜。
Mac还包含有许多Windows所没有的功能，它有一套简单易用的免费多媒体程序，是任何价位的Windows都无法比拟的。Mac还有一套比Windows更好的免费网络浏览器和电子邮件程序，并且无需购买任何其他软件就能够阅读和生成PDF文件。
苹果电脑升级其操作系统的频率要远高于微软。该公司新推出的iMac G5电脑是我测试过的最好的台式电脑。苹果电脑也是唯一一家专注于个人用户和小企业用户的电脑公司。
最值得一提的是，目前的Mac操作系统从来没有被病毒成功地攻击过，几乎没有一种间谍软件能在Mac上运行。这主要是因为Mac的市场占有率较小，对数字领域罪犯分子的吸引力不大。不过，还有一部分原因是Mac操作系统很难被攻破。我确信总有一天Mac用户也会受到病毒的困扰，但与Windows病毒相比，这不过是小巫见大巫：仅在今年前6个月就有5,000种新的Windows电脑病毒诞生。
从简单易用的角度看，自80年代末期以来，苹果电脑就开始走在了微软的前面，当时苹果电脑是图形用户界面的开路先锋，而微软的用户却在忍受著Windows粗糙的早期版本。
微软以及使用Windows的电脑硬件公司还有大量的工作要做，以解决安全问题，重新找回其90年代在电脑简单易用方面取得的成绩。
