Apple Rising

And not just their stock (at $65.64 as of this writing). Maybe we're going to see some long overdue market share growth. Via MacCentral, Consumer Reports is finally coming around to the superiority of Macs.

"In this atmosphere of low expectations, Apple Computer has actually raised its support satisfaction for the desktop computers over the past three years to levels well above all competitors, while offering the most reliable desktop hardware,"

The glut of viruses and spyware typically found on Windows PCs didn't pass by Consumer Reports unnoticed -- "Another factor working in Apple's favor," said the report.

And over at the Wall Street Journal, Walt Mossberg sums it all up.

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...

Meanwhile, the company's historic rival, Apple Computer, has been making giant strides in ease of use... The Mac is also packed with extras that Windows lacks... Apple upgrades its operating system far more often than Microsoft does... Best of all, the current Mac operating system has never been attacked by a successful virus, and almost no spyware can run on it...

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.

On the other hand, hardcore gamers may still scoff at Mac. See the just re-posted Mac Gamer Switch Ad, by the Red vs. Blue guys.