This month I’ve installed the latest Version 5 of Parallels, as well as a trial copy of Fusion 3, on the Mac I use as a test system. (It’s a Mini with 3GB of memory, one that accesses the Internet though a wireless network port, since the Mini comes with a built-in Airport card. The 3GB is essential, since these Windows emulators suck up memory.) I can report the Fusion installation is smoother and tinkers less with a Mac’s user environment. Fusion uses McAfee anti-virus software, quite the brand name among Windows users. Parallels replies on the Kapersky Anti-Virus suite. Parallels seems to offer a half-dozen ways of using Windows alongside your Mac environment, but this slight of hand goes so far as to install folders on your Dock to speed up access to Windows programs. This trick erased a couple of useful Dock icons for my databases on the Mac side, demonstrating that Parallels Version 5 is like so many other versions of the software: buggy, with lots of fixes (long downloads) needed for stability.

Another thing that gets tricky about using these products is the constant updating that Windows users endure. Microsoft seems to add patches on a weekly basis to Windows (I use XP Home, very affordable) — so if your Windows use is infrequent, every startup of these environments will include downloads and restarts to get Windows into a secure state.

The anti-viral tools need their own updates religiously, too. This is a separate set of updates. In my tests I’ve found there’s an order to be recognized here: get the anit-virals updated first, even though Windows will ask you to restart itself before the anti-virals get their updates downloaded.

The process of running Windows on a Mac, essential for any programs you may need for your business that don’t have Mac versions, is an eye-opener about security. Don’t believe the Apple commercials about viruses, no matter how entertaining they are: Macs run on a variant of Unix, an operating system with plenty of security holes. Visiting the Windows world with Parallels or Fusion makes you aware how lucky we Mac users are, simply because there are fewer of us. We present a smaller target to the virus hackers, so we enjoy Security by Obscurity.

While there isn’t a wave of religion about security on the Mac yet, spyware and bot-ware can infect a system in surprising ways. Javascript, which drives so many Web sites, has become the most popular culprit. A simple visit to a popular Web site like Expedia for travel arrangements can get you infected. There are a handful of good Mac security tools to ensure that if anything jumps from your Windows environment to the Mac, you will know you’re being infected. Eradicating the dirty work is another matter.

ClamXav is a freeware viral solution for the Macs. You can download it and update its databases — the signatures of known viruses — but you’re relying on volunteer efforts to stay secure. Probably not the best choice for a business Mac user.

Intego Software sells Virus Barrier and NetBarrier software, at about $50 each, to cover both the gateways into your Mac (NetBarrier) and neutralizing the viruses and malware that might get inside. On that latter task, Intego also offers a new, standalone tool, Washing Machine. This program, included with NeBarrier X5, erases data that Web browsers store automatically — so hackers have less chance of infecting your system.

Washing Machine can clean five types of items: Bookmarks, Caches, Cookies, Download Histories, and Browsing Histories. It works with most web browsers, and many utilities or other programs that store information behind your back. It even cleans up after some programs that you would never think are storing data. But Washing Machine knows about them, and is ready to clean up after them.

There’s also a fine security suite that controls the power of the Mac’s built-in firewall. DoorStop X Security Suite is $79 and even includes a comprehensive instruction manual about security for the Mac. Things are safer on a Mac than on a Windows system, but on the doorstep of 2010 it’s folly to think anybody can surf and work securely without some of this help. At the least, download and use Clam Xav. Cleaning up a hack will cost you more lost time than buying all of these tools together.

Virtualization users run a copy of Microsoft Windows on their Macs. Most use XP, and an independent security company has announced that Fusion permits a Windows bug to take over the Mac OS. VMWare released a 2.0.4 version to fix the hole. This is the opening round of what will probably be a growing problem for Mac owners: viruses built to attack users of things like Fusion and Parallels.

The independent Immunity, Inc. has a video of the kind of hack Fusion permits. It’s enough to make you consider going to Parallels instead of Fusion, if you haven’t selected this kind of tool yet. What’s most important is to keep up with what the virtualization supplier reports about their product. Both of these companies are being proactive about closing these holes. Parallels even includes a one-year-free subscription to its Windows virus-malware protection tool.

Analysts and pundits have estimated that the average price of a Mac dropped 8 percent this week. The 24-inch iMac sells for $300 less than its predecessor, and the only thing a buyer seems to give up is one Firewire 400 port and the numeric keypad portion of the keyboard. In exchange there’s twice the memory, more than double the graphics speed, and a disk twice as big as its predecessor. (I know these numbers well, since I bought the 24-in predecessor in January.)

But it’s still a $1,499 computer, my friend says. You can get PCs like this for a lot less. A lot turns out to be around $200 if you stick to a name brand. How much value that $200 represents is the genuine question. Around here, we buy Macs and use them for five years or more. That’s $40 a year difference, about what you spend on one tankful of gas, no matter how big a car you drive.Small business buys with an eye toward durability. Consumers, not so much. You can go back to the old bromide of thrift to find a route around this “Macs are expensive” mirage. Some people know the cost of everything and the value of nothing. People will always want a lower cost for whatever they’ve bought. A $72 HP printer has a terrible cost: hours of struggle to get it to work with Windows, plus the flimsy construction that will give out quicker than a more costly model.

My only retort to my friend’s Macs=Expensive slur? “More expensive than PCs, yes. But we don’t have to use Windows on them, do we?” He could only nod in reply. Me, I’ll take any week with an 8 percent price cut in an improved product. That’s something like a Starbucks grande at the price of a tall.

Many years ago, however, the companies felt like they needed one another. When the business user was choosing personal computers for the first time — and PC didn’t automatically mean Microsoft-based, Intel-driven computers, Apple and Microsoft engaged in a public lovefest.

With the weekend’s amore still in the air, we offer this sentimental look at Steve Jobs and Bill Gates dating in public. Both their companies seemed like eligible bachelors back then, rather than the lifelong mates they’ve become for Mac business users.

Jobs and Gates in 1983

Bill loves Steve, and Steve loves Bill in 1983

By now the business user can have the intimate relationship these two boys swooned over more than a quarter-century ago. Fusion from VMWare as well as Parallels both provide a Windows sandbox to use the tools of the “PC,” as the world has come to call the Wintel systems. Can’t you just feel the love? If nothing else, Fusion and Parallels give the Mac user a way to run Microsoft’s Explorer and see just how awful the Microsoft browser is rendering Web pages for Windows users.