Nosce te ipsum

A Seminole technology security expert is surprised by reaction to his post of frustration with Windows and Intel.

Winn Schwartau switched his office from PCs to Macintosh computers, a seemingly simple move that created an overwhelming reaction in the online world.

Schwartau is no mere computer user. He's a nationally known technology security expert from Seminole, so when he wrote in his online blog that he was tired of unreliable technology and fending off virus and spyware threats to his office PC he triggered a torrent of attention.

"I just didn't know this was going to be controversial," Schwartau said.

In a column titled "Mad as Hell," posted Monday at the Network World Web site and his blog (securityawareness.blogspot.com) on Wednesday, Schwartau declared that systems using Microsoft's Windows software and Intel processors are "a threat to the national economic security of any organization or nation-state that relies (upon) it."

But he clearly is unhappy with the time he has invested in protecting systems from spyware, viruses and other problems. "I know how to do all this stuff," Schwartau said. "The point is I don't want to do it and I don't think 98 percent of the computing public should have to do it."