Paying for What You Get

David Coursey wrote a second column in as many weeks on the issue of computer security. The premise is this: if companies like Symantec charged people for security based on the number of threats and viruses, Mac users are paying WAY too much money for computer security. Under Coursey's premise, if Mac users are paying $70 a computer for security, then the cost of security software for Windows should be at least $1,000 a computer. Actually, if you're basing it on viruses alone, that $70 for a Mac would come out to $5.6 million/computer for Windows (no viruses vs. 80,000), never mind all of the other threats that aren't virus related. I wonder how that would affect the total cost of owning a computer?