by , 2:00 AM EST, December 9th, 2004

Wall Street Journal technology columnist Walt Mossberg gave the highest praise possible to not one but two Apple Computer products in his Thursday Personal Technology column, calling Mac OS X "rock solid" and the G5 iMac "the single best desktop computer I have ever reviewed."

Mr. Mossberg used his weekly column to discuss the plague of viruses, spyware and other security problems that primarily affect the Windows platform. In it, he had mostly negative remarks of the Windows OS from Microsoft, but only good things to say about Mac OS X.

Instead of PCs being productivity tools, they have turned into burdens, Mr. Mossberg wrote.

"Consumers have been forced to devote rising amounts of time and money just to keeping the machines safe (from virus and spyware writers, hackers and sleazy businesses)," he wrote. " The PC has, in many cases, gone from being a solution to being, at least in part, a problem."

Mr. Mossberg placed the problem right at the doorstep of Microsoft, who he wrote has failed to cope with the growing problem of PC security. He blasted the company for setting users back with Windows XP and failing to meet many of the real security issues with its SP2 patch, released earlier this year.

But it was Mac OS X that Mr. Mossberg said was the clear choice when it came to a stable, security tight, fairly virus-free operating system.

"The Macintosh, with its OS X operating system, is rock solid," he wrote. "It is elegant, and -- when you do a feature-by-feature price comparison with Windows competitors -- it's surprisingly affordable."

Mr. Mossberg wrote Mac OS X is "packed" with extras Windows lacks, with multimedia programs "that can't be matched on Windows at any price", and has a "better free browser and e-mail program than Windows."

While admitting Apple's small marketshare is one reason few viruses attack the platform, Mr. Mossberg also acknowledged the UNIX-based OS is "harder to penetrate" than Windows.

"I'm sure there will eventually be viruses that afflict Mac users, but nowhere near the 5,000 new Windows viruses that appeared in just the first six months of this year," he wrote.

Mr. Mossberg said he feels Apple with Mac OS X has "opened a greater lead over Microsoft than at any time since the late 1980s."

He also dumped high praise on Apple's newest consumer Mac: "The company's new iMac G5 model is the single best desktop computer I have ever reviewed."

Editor's Note: Mr. Mossberg's column for Thursday, December 9 is available for one week free of charge to non-WSJ subscribers at the link provided in paragraph one of this story.