In 1992 the Internet wasn’t available to the general public. There were no iPods or any other portable digital music players. Cellphones were big, bulky and analog, mainly used in cars in the U.S. The first consumer digital cameras had just arrived: crude models that cost $800, worked only in black and white, and held just 32 images.

Microsoft was offering the clumsy Windows 3.1, which seemed to crash if you sneezed, and many people were still using the geeky and limited DOS operating system on their “IBM-compatible” PCs. Apple’s technology was way ahead of Windows, but the company would soon enter a period of management mediocrity and product paralysis. And there were scores of PC makers in the U.S., most of them now defunct. The hottest one was Compaq, today a mere brand name for Hewlett-Packard. Dell was still an upstart.

Personal computers were typically sold without modems, networking ports or stereo sound. They had awful, limited color video, far short of what a cheap TV could produce. Too often their designers assumed PC buyers were techies or hobbyists, willing and able to perform complicated hardware and software upgrades and tweaks.

Then and now my main criteria for judging digital consumer products have been simplicity, ease of use and reliability — a sort of index for the burden on the user. And in 1992 most products failed miserably on that scale. They required far too much attention, knowledge and effort by users when theoretically they were supposed to do just the opposite — namely, to make their lives easier.

By around 2001, when the current major operating systems, Windows XP and Apple’s Mac OS X, made their debuts, personal technology had vastly improved. Many of the rough edges had been sanded off. The Mac had long been “plug and play,” and Windows was much closer to that goal. Both systems were fairly stable. The iPod arrived that year, and digital cameras and cell phones — by then well established and growing sleeker by the year — began a rapid evolution that added features and cut prices.

And by then the World Wide Web had changed everything. It had vastly enriched the experience of computing, adding information, entertainment, communication and commerce on a grand scale. Sure, too few people in America had real broadband or wireless networking by 2001, but the balance was getting better. The burden of use for personal computers and related gadgets was trending lower.

Enter the security crisis, which all but destroyed that welcome momentum. There had been viruses for many years, of course, including some big attacks in the 1990s. But over the past five years, the security problem has morphed into a major hassle for people who own and use Windows computers. Viruses and other malicious software programs are still with us, but now they’ve been joined by new categories of pernicious technologies, especially spyware, adware, and fake email and Web sites designed to steal your privacy, your money and even your identity. Spam has gone from a nuisance to a plague.

And the Internet, for all its numerous benefits, has become an engine for this digital onslaught. In the physical world, it isn’t hard to stay out of bad neighborhoods and avoid the company of crooks. But in cyberspace, it’s harder to read the signs — digital criminals, who range from vandals to organized thieves, mingle invisibly with the public in a world where everyone is easily connected.

Today, warding off the myriad threats online takes more and more time, money and effort than ever before. You have to run multiple security programs, interpret all their warnings and alerts, tell them what to do when they detect suspicious activity, and consistently update them. It’s a real hassle, one that seriously interferes with the productivity, and the pleasure, computers can and should provide.

In fact, the burden of using a Windows computer is higher now than it was in 2001. By contrast, Apple’s Macintosh is easier to use than ever, partly because it has so far remained free from viruses, spyware and adware — except for a few minor cases. After stagnating in the mid-’90s, Apple’s software and hardware are once again markedly superior to those of Windows PCs.

But even Mac users have to contend with spam and must learn to avoid fake Web sites designed to steal sensitive financial information. And users of both platforms must also contend with a welter of restrictions on the use of digital content such as music and videos.

So where are we heading?

I believe that in the future the Internet will become more like the electrical grid, a behind-the-scenes platform to which all manner of gadgets will be directly connected, each taking some power and intelligence from the network to perform its task. While personal computers won’t go away, they won’t be the main way to get online, or even needed as intermediaries by many devices. Whenever you watch TV or make a phone call, you’ll be on the Internet, though you won’t be browsing the Web in the manner you do on a PC. This will open up all sorts of new features and interactivity.

Even unlikely gadgets will be connected. Your microwave oven, for instance, will use the Internet to quietly download information that will allow it to recognize the bar codes or radio tags on packaged food products and cook them appropriately.

The star of this new world will be the cell phone — or, more accurately, the device formerly known as the cell phone. Already, some high-end phones, like Palm’s Treo, are essentially mini computers, complete with keyboards and expandable memory. They do many of the things for which people formerly required laptops.
These so-called smart phones can surf the Web, and send and receive e-mail and instant messages, at broadband speeds. They can take, display and edit photos and movies; download and play music, videos and TV shows; play ever more sophisticated games; and even view and edit Microsoft Office documents.

I expect these capabilities to be pushed down to phones that cost less. New competitors will enter the business of making phones and the software and services that run on them.

For these smart phones to flourish, however, they will have to get much simpler to use. The burden on the user will have to drop sharply. Complicated user interfaces will have to be replaced with better ones. Reliability must improve. And the stranglehold on innovation now imposed by all-powerful wireless carriers will have to be broken or loosened. Also, the security problems that plague the PC will have to be headed off somehow. Already, the digital criminals are trying to target cell phones.

But I remain optimistic. The digital revolution can’t be stopped, and the next 15 years should see as many exciting developments as the past 15 have.

And then this year everything changed. Apple Computer, the maker of the Mac, switched to the same Intel-made processors for which Windows was designed. The new Intel-powered Macs, which began shipping in January, still come with Apple’s own operating system, Mac OS X, which is more modern and more secure than Windows XP. But these Macs can now easily run Windows too, and they run it as fast as standard Windows-equipped PCs.

Why does this matter? It means that you can switch from Windows to the Mac and still use the one or two Windows programs you require that have no Mac equivalent.

Among the Mac models that can perform this feat are the iMac and Mac Mini desktop computers and the MacBook and MacBook Pro laptops. Apple’s most powerful model, the PowerMac tower, is likely to be converted to the Intel chips by the end of the year, after which it, too, will be Windows-capable.

There are two options for running Windows on the Mac. They take different approaches, but in my tests, both have proved to be fast, stable and widely compatible with Windows software. One, from Apple itself, is free. The second, from a small Virginia company called Parallels, costs $79. But each carries an additional cost: You have to supply and install your own copy of Windows, which can run $200 or $300, depending on which version you choose.

The Apple system, Boot Camp, uses a technique called Dual-Boot. It splits your Mac’s hard disk into two sections, or partitions — one for the Mac operating system and all its programs and files, and one for Windows XP and all its programs and files. You can start, or “boot up,” the Mac in either operating system, but you can’t run both simultaneously. To switch between a Mac program and a Windows program, you have to reboot the computer.

The Parallels system, called Parallels Desktop for Mac, uses a technique called Virtualization. It creates a virtual Windows computer inside a window within the Mac operating system. Parallels runs Windows a tad more slowly than Apple’s Boot Camp, but allows you to run both operating systems, and compatible software, simultaneously. You can switch rapidly between the two environments without rebooting. I’m writing this paragraph on a MacBook Pro laptop, but I’m not using any Mac software to do so. Instead, I’m using the Windows version of Microsoft Word, which runs inside Parallels Desktop.

For this paragraph, I’ve switched back to the Mac side of the computer and am using the Mac version of Word. And I copied the previous paragraph from the Windows side and pasted it into the Mac document. It was fast and flawless.

Each approach has its strengths as well as weaknesses.

Apple’s Boot Camp turns the Mac into a true, no-compromises Windows PC-just like a Dell or Hewlett-Packard computer. When you boot up the Mac in Windows, no trace of the Mac operating system is running; Windows has all the hardware and all the memory to itself. In my tests, Macs running Windows under Boot Camp were wicked fast and handled every single program I tried, including Microsoft Office for Windows, the Internet Explorer Web browser and various games. The downside is that pesky need to reboot when switching operating systems.

Parallels Desktop is much faster than the old software for running Windows on pre-Intel Macs, a Microsoft product called Virtual PC. That’s because Parallels makes use of special virtualization features built into the Intel chips. And it has the great advantage of running Windows applications at the same time you are running your Mac programs. But while quite fast, Parallels can’t match the speed of Windows running under Boot Camp, because it must share hardware and memory with the Mac operating system. Also, Parallels won’t work with certain high-end Windows games, and it can have trouble recognizing some USB drives and CDs. In my own tests, Parallels did handle everything I threw at it, but I introduced only simple games. Everything ran as fast as it would on an average Windows PC, though not as fast as the programs ran under Boot Camp.

Because Windows is much less secure than Mac OS X, when you run Windows on a Mac, you have to take the same precautions you would with a standard Windows PC. That means you need to install and run both antivirus and antispyware software that is generally not needed under the Mac OS.

Apple’s approach is more secure than Parallels’s in this regard — with Apple’s Boot Camp, Windows can’t see or access your Mac folders or files. That means any malicious software running in Windows can’t erase or damage your Mac files. Parallels, on the other hand, optionally allows you to share folders between the two operating systems; if you enable this feature, you could give a malicious Windows program an opening to damage or spy on the files on the Mac side.

Installing both programs is fairly easy, but it’s a multistep process. With Apple’s system, you first download and install Boot Camp. Then, using Boot Camp, you divide your hard disk into Mac and Windows partitions. Next you create a CD to be used later, under Windows, to install software “drivers” that Windows will need to control all aspects of the Mac’s hardware. Then you install Windows. Finally, you install the CD you created.

Note that Boot Camp requires a full retail version of Windows XP, called “SP2.” You can’t use any other version of Windows, and you can’t use an upgrade edition, which requires an earlier version of Windows to be present on the machine.

Parallels allows you to install any version of Windows, even a very old one. But if you use Windows XP, you will in most cases also need a full, retail version, not an upgrade package. You first must buy and install the Parallels program, which creates an empty “virtual machine.” Then you install your copy of Windows inside Parallels. Finally, to enable certain key features, you have to install a program called Parallels Tools, which is included.

This all sounds harder than it is. In each case, the whole process took me about an hour and required no technical skill.

And it’s worth the effort. Boot Camp and Parallels have turned the Intel-based Macintosh into the only computer that can run nearly every popular software program, whether it was written for Windows or the Mac. On the same computer you can edit photos in Apple’s iPhoto program and check your e-mail in Microsoft’s Outlook — simultaneously, if you choose Parallels. Now, that’s progress.

This year, however, Microsoft will up the ante with a new version of Windows called Vista. Due in the fall, in time for holiday computer shopping, Vista is an effort to make Windows truly secure from the ground up, while also making it easier to use and pretty enough to rival Apple’s current version of OS X, Tiger. (Apple is planning yet another new edition, called Leopard, due around the same time.)

Vista will be the most dramatic upgrade to Windows in more than a decade. But there will be a price for Vista’s improvements — most current PCs won’t be able to take advantage of all its features. To get full use out of the new system, you will very likely need to upgrade or replace your current computer. Vista will adapt to older or less powerful machines by disabling some of its features, but that’s likely to be unsatisfying for many users. Also, as of this writing, Microsoft is planning to sell Vista in as many as seven different configurations for different types of users. That will be not only confusing, but if you select the more capable configurations, probably expensive, too. (Microsoft hasn’t released pricing yet.)

So here’s a preliminary look at Vista’s major new features, as well as some guidance on hardware. Microsoft’s mantra for Vista is “Confident, Clear and Connected.” By “Confident,” the company means that it promises to clean up the security mess that has been the main headache for users of Windows. Microsoft says Vista will be much harder to hack into, and much less prone to viruses and spyware, than today’s Windows. For instance, Vista users will be asked for their user name and password anytime software is being installed –designed to prevent the surreptitious software installations that plant spy-ware on a PC. And Vista will have built-in systemwide parental controls, so you can limit what your child can see and do on the computer. Both features are already built into Apple’s Tiger and work well, so if they are executed properly on Vista, they should be a boon.

By “Clear,” Microsoft is referring to new ways of finding and visualizing your files. Vista will have rapid, modern, built-in desktop searching. And it will have something called “virtual folders” that capture all files meeting certain criteria you can set, no matter where you store them. For instance, you could set up a virtual folder to show all files and e-mails mentioning a certain person or topic. Again, both features are already in Apple’s operating system, where they have proved popular. Some editions of Vista will also incorporate the features of today’s Windows Media Center edition, including the ability to play and record TV programs.

The “Connected” promise from Microsoft includes a centralized synchronization feature, like the one already present on the Mac, that can keep data in sync on cell phones and PDAs. Vista will also look dramatically better — and more like Mac software — with 3D icons, transparent windows and tiny previews of file contents.

So what kind of hardware will you need for all this? Well, Vista won’t work well with the processors sold in today’s budget PCs. I suggest you consider a new computer with at least a midrange processor, and preferably a so-called dual-core processor, which packs two brains into its innards, though a single-core model will do. You might even look for a processor capable of handling future software called “64-bit,” though it’s not absolutely necessary.

Memory will also be crucial for Vista. I expect Microsoft to recommend 512 megabytes, but since the company tends to understate memory requirements, I suggest a full gigabyte, far more than what’s on the average PC today. You’ll also need a bigger hard disk, especially if you want to use the new TV-recording capabilities that will be built into some editions of Vista. I suggest at least 160 gigabytes. Luckily, large hard disks are now pretty inexpensive.

Likewise, video capability will be key to utilizing Vista’s new visual effects. Today’s PCs often use integrated graphics chips, which are pretty basic and drain memory. That won’t cut it for Vista, at least until integrated graphics chips are beefed up next fall. If you seek a Vista-capable machine before then, look for one with a separate graphics card with its own dedicated memory, preferably 128 megabytes, though 64 will do.

Vista will boost DVD recording — it will support the new, high-definition DVDs currently in development and make it easier to burn DVDs for both multimedia and file backup. You’ll need a high-end DVD-recording drive to reap the rewards.

I can’t say how good Vista will be until I test and review the final, or near final, product, in late summer. But from the demos I’ve seen, Vista has great promise — if you have the right hardware.

The daunting security problems that have plagued Windows have also prompted many of its users to take a serious look at the Mac. This trend has been further reinforced by the “iPod halo effect,” in which Windows users who own and love Apple’s iPod music players are willing to consider the company’s other products. As a result, Mac sales, while still relatively small, have been growing much faster than overall personal computer sales.

Are you among the PC majority considering a switch to the Mac? Then you probably have some important questions.

How do Macs compare in quality with Windows PCs?

I believe that, at the moment, Apple makes the best computers, and the best operating system, for mainstream consumers doing typical tasks — e-mail, Web surfing, office — productivity functions such as word processing and presentations, photo organizing and editing, playing and collecting music, and editing home video.

Of all the major computer makers, Apple is the most focused on consumers and small businesses. Most make the bulk of their money, and take most of their cues, from the information-technology departments of large corporations.

Apple’s iMac G5 consumer desktop is, in my opinion, the single best home computer on the market. Its PowerBook laptops are among the top portables.

Do Macs run Windows and Windows software?

No: Out of the box, Macintosh computers run only Apple’s own operating system, called OS X, and software written by Apple and other companies that is designed to run on OS X.

You can rig a Mac to run Windows and Windows programs by installing a special, $250 Microsoft program called Virtual PC, which creates a virtual Windows computer inside the Mac. But I don’t recommend this for frequent use, because the faux Windows computer it creates is relatively slow and is susceptible to the same viruses and spyware as a real Windows machine.

How does Mac software compare with Windows?

The Mac’s OS X operating system, the latest version of which is called Tiger, is far better than Microsoft’s aging Windows XP and already boasts many of the key features Microsoft plans to include in its 2006 version of Windows, called Vista. And the Mac comes with an excellent suite of free software that’s generally superior to comparable Windows programs that cost extra.

Out of the box, the Mac has better photo, music, video and DVD — creation software than any Windows computer I’ve seen. It has a better free email program and Web browser than Windows does, a better free word processor and much better search capabilities.

About the only software a typical consumer would have to buy for a new Mac is the Mac edition of Microsoft Office. It includes versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint that are very similar to their Windows counterparts, and a program called Entourage that is different from Microsoft Outlook but performs the same functions.

Are Macs more secure than Windows PCs?

Yes. Since the OS X operating system came out in 2001, there has never been a report of a successful virus for it — that is, a virus that has infected numerous computers, and spread from computer to computer, outside of a lab. And there is little or no known spyware for the Mac. By contrast, there are tens of thousands of viruses for Windows and untold numbers of spyware programs. Just as regular Windows programs can’t run natively on a Mac, none of these malicious Windows-specific programs can run on a Mac either.

The Mac isn’t invulnerable, but it has better built-in security than Windows, and such a small market share that virus and spyware writers haven’t targeted it yet. As a result, most Mac users have been able to dispense with running the morass of security software that Windows users must employ.

Are Mac files compatible with Windows files?

Yes. Unlike older models, the current Macs have been specifically designed for compatibility with Windows PCs. The Mac OS and software can handle, without translation or conversion, all of the common types of files you use on a Windows PC. You can copy to a Mac all your pictures, MP3 music files, text files and Adobe PDF files, and they will open right up in Mac programs. There are also free Mac versions of the Real Player and Windows Media Player, and of Adobe Reader.

Microsoft Word files also can be opened, edited and created in Apple’s free, built-in text editor. And if you buy Microsoft Office for the Mac, all Office files, including Word files, Excel files and PowerPoint files, can be opened, edited and created on the Mac. Office files created on the Mac can be opened and edited in Windows Office, and vice versa.

Some specialized files created by particular programs, like database files or financial files, won’t be usable. For instance, the Mac version of Quicken is quite different from the Windows version and uses a different file format.

For occasional use of these programs, you can install Virtual PC.

In addition, nearly all keyboards, mice, monitors and printers made for Windows computers can be used with a Mac, if they connect via the industry-standard USB or FireWire ports. Macs can also share networks with Windows PCs and even look into the hard disks of Windows computers, and vice versa.

Is there anyone who shouldn’t consider a Mac?

Yes. Serious game players should stick with Windows PCs, which are much better game platforms and can run many more game titles. People who use specialized software or custom corporate software for which there isn’t a Mac equivalent should stick with Windows. While the Mac has rich offerings in mainstream software categories, it has only a fraction of the niche software and specialized business software that Windows does.

Also, you should stick with Windows if your home computer choices are dictated by your company’s IT department and the IT department is ignorant of or hostile to the Mac, as so many are. Although modern Macs are designed to access corporate Windows networks, and many do, if your IT department won’t help you with the transition, it’s not worth the headache to switch to the Mac.

Ten years ago, when Apple was stagnant and its products troubled, I recommended that consumers shun the Mac. If Apple’s quality and innovation slip, I might revert to that position. But for now, the Mac is the best computer, with the best operating system and the fewest security problems, for average consumers.

There have long been computer viruses, but until the past couple of years, they were mainly a nuisance. Now they have grown into a serious problem — by one account there were 5,000 new Windows viruses discovered in the first six months of 2004. And the virus plague has been trumped by a new type of malicious software, spyware, which can track your activities, bombard you with unwanted ads, even steal your identity.

Spam has also grown exponentially, clogging e-mail boxes and carrying with it malicious software. For some people, e-mail has become a curse.

And that’s not all. Every minute of every day, hackers using automated software scan the Internet looking for computers vulnerable enough to invade and, in some cases, to surreptitiously take over. Without your knowledge, they can turn your computer into a “zombie” machine rigged to help them spread their nasty viruses, spam and spyware.

So for consumers and small businesses — everyone without a large IT department to manage security — the Windows computers they use have become huge burdens instead of helpful tools. If you do get a severe virus or spyware infestation, you may have to spend hundreds of dollars and many hours to wipe your hard disk clean and start fresh, quite possibly losing crucial data in the process.

And prevention is almost as painful as the disease, because the computer industry has so far come up with only half-baked and piecemeal solutions to these threats. You have to watch every move you make online and install a bunch of security programs, which require monitoring, constant updating and, often, annual fees.

Each of these security programs deals only with a narrow slice of the problem. Firewalls can keep out invaders, but they don’t stop viruses, spyware or spam. Antivirus programs don’t catch most spyware. Antispyware programs don’t stop viruses. And neither stops spam. For that, you need anti-spam software, which does nothing about viruses or spyware that invade your system through avenues other than spam.

You can buy “suites” that combine all these programs, but they are really just bundles of separate applications of widely varying quality stuffed into the same box.

It’s as if you needed a separate burglar alarm system, each with its own control panel, password and monthly fee, for every door and window in your home.

What users need is a simple, all-encompassing security service that would deal with all these threats with minimal user involvement. For now, though, you’ll have to do it yourself.

So here’s my quick guide to Windows security measures. Some of the products I recommend below are free, but others cost money. I like free stuff as much as the next guy, but I don’t believe security is an area where price should govern. You don’t want to entrust your computer’s security to some unknown software author, or even to a well-meaning individual or very small outfit that lacks the resources to keep up with the threats.

Download and install all the security fixes Microsoft issues for Windows. If you have Windows XP, set it to automatically fetch and install these patches (you can do this by clicking on the “Automatic Updates” or “Security Center” icons in the Windows control panel). You should also probably install the massive Service Pack 2 revision of Windows XP, which plugs many security holes. But back up your data first. A significant minority of users have reported big problems with SP2.

Stop using Microsoft’s Internet Explorer Web browser, which has become a four-lane highway for malicious invaders. I recommend instead Mozilla Firefox, which is free at www.mozilla.org [http://www.mozilla.org]. I use it all day, every day.

Windows comes with a firewall program, designed to keep out hackers. But in most versions of the operating system, it’s hard to turn on and configure. Even the improved firewall in the new SP2 revision of Windows XP is inferior to several third-party products. I recommend, and use, ZoneAlarm, a free firewall from Zone Labs, available at www.zonelabs.com [http://www.zonelabs.com]. There are some fancy paid versions of ZoneAlarm, which are also fine, but if you want the free one, you’ll have to look hard on the Web page.

Software to stop spyware is still in its infancy, so I suggest keeping two or three anti-spyware programs on hand. Each program will likely find spyware the others miss. But I recommend relying most on the one I use, Webroot’s Spy Sweeper, available at www.webroot.com [http://www.webroot.com]. It costs $30, including a year of updates, and runs all the time to block incoming spyware. To back up Spy Sweeper, go to www.download.com [http://www.download.com] and get two free programs: Ad-Aware, and Spybot Search and Destroy. Use these for manual scanning.

I recommend Norton AntiVirus from Symantec. It costs $50, including a year of updates. But it works well and has a good automatic updating system. I have been receiving many reports of problems with Symantec’s customer service, so I may have to change my recommendation down the road. But for now, I prefer Norton, and I use it myself.

No antispam program I have tested is wholly satisfying, but I suggest one of two. The first is MailFrontier Desktop, available for $30 at www.mailfrontier.com [http://www.mailfrontier.com]. The second is SpamSubtract, from Intermute, available for $20 at www.spamsubtract [http://www.spamsubtract]. com. They are very different, and each has its strengths and weaknesses. I oscillate between the two every six months or so.

Beyond installing, monitoring and updating all this software, you need to be careful online. Don’t open email attachments you don’t expect and that come from strangers. They may contain viruses or spyware. Don’t download software unless you really need it and are 100 percent certain of the author’s trustworthiness. It could be an infection in disguise. Never click on a link in an e-mail purporting to be from a financial institution, even if it’s your own bank and it looks official. It could be a scam to steal your identity.

And if you’re totally fed up with the security crisis but want to continue using your computer for common tasks, consider dumping Windows altogether and switching to Apple’s Macintosh, which uses its own operating system, called OS X. There has never been a successful virus reported on OS X, and there is little or no spyware for the Mac.

In my view, Macs have better hardware, a better operating system and better bundled software than Windows PCs. They are as good as, and often better than, Windows PCs at e-mail and Web surfing; at word processing and other productivity tasks; and at handling digital photos, videos and music. And most popular Windows file types open right up in Mac programs, without the need for any conversion or translation.

Stay safe out there.