Gina wrote a great blog entry describing the steps she took to clean and bullet-proof her mother-in-law’s Win98 computer.

Did the whole AdAware, virus protection, ZoneAlarm etc routine. Great reference for anyone who has to do same (and I’ve done my share of this, as well – believe me).

Yet the comments thread dissolved into (*sigh*) a whole “Why didn’t you just buy her a Mac?” pissing match. Even down to the “Gina, how much is your time worth? If you spent X hours at a $Y/hr rate, you could have bought a Z Mac for that money!”

It’s folks like this that give Mac users the reputation as being a little too religious, shall we say.

Come on folks, let’s look at this a little more rationally:

• Would mom’s computer have been as hosed if it was a Mac? Probably not, but that’s hindsight. Let’s deal with the hand we’ve currently been dealt.
• Mom doesn’t want a new computer – she wants her existing one fixed. If I brought a Yugo into a garage for a transmission repair, I’d be pretty pissed if the mechanic suggests I just buy a BMW instead. WTF?
  
• The whole discussion of putting valuation on time spent cleansing the machine is just….icky. It’s family. With family/friends and so on, you just do stuff. The clock isn’t running. You’re helping out. As they’ll help you when they can.
• Let’s pretend the discussion of valuation of time spent had merit. OK, you might be able to get a Mac for the price of your time spent fixing the Windoze box. But what about the cost of the software? A browser is one thing, but to work effectively today (and this may well change) you need MS Office. Pricey. And did mom have Photoshop on the Win98 box? You going to buy her a copy of Mac Photoshop (and so on…)? And installing and configuring same…the cost of converting just went up…
  
• Mom’s used to a Windoze machine. You really want to have to have her learn all the new things she’s going to have to do to get stuff in and out of the Mac? She might even ENJOY the solitaire game.
  
• If mom has a computer at work, it’s probably a Windoze box. Why learn two different systems? (Fun for geeks, not for non-geeks)
  
• Let’s say mom’s up for a change to Mac: Want to transfer all her data and guarantee nothing will be lost in the transition?

And so on.

The comments on Firefox vs. IE make sense (and this is what Gina did): It’s a discrete piece of software that is free, looks and acts like IE and can automagically import all the IE bookmarks and so on. Beautiful. More secure, more versatile and no learning curve for user.