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If you have to instal it on purpose, It's NOT a Virus.

Hello Everyone,

I have had my same MacBook Pro running OSX for 10 years, since 2003.

I'm a professional PC technician going on almost 20 years now and an uber computer nerd, so I spend most all my time on my mac, hehe.

I've downloaded... all sorts of things at one time or another.

With that said,
I have never, NEVER
seen, nor heard of, nor in any way personally encountered a virus for my mac.

In these 10 years, I have also only encountered one single piece of (spyware, malware... not sure what to call it) for my mac that simply changed my FireFox search bar to use yahoo instead of google.

In one of my technician jobs along the way, I got into a huge argument with my boss and almost got fired over this thread's topic.
It ended with me saying, "Fine, call that a virus if you want, but if you have to instal it on purpose, and can get rid of it by simply hitting delete, it is NOT a virus."

That is all ;P

Thank you everyone for being a part of this discussion,

And a special Thanks to GGJstudios!
Keep up the spreading of Truth my friend!
- Bergquist
 
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It depends on definition of virus.

Many people do not know what is classified as a computer virus.

A computer virus is a malware that when executed, spreads it's qualities all over your system, these areas are known as infected portions.

There are no files that spread in this matter currently for Mac OS X. But there are files that do attack our systems but don't spread in this matter.

So there are no "viruses" for Mac OS X. But there are files that attack our systems.

Hope this helped.
 
A computer virus is a malware that when executed, spreads it's qualities all over your system, these areas are known as infected portions.
That's not the definition of a virus. A virus must execute itself and replicate itself. A Trojan can affect your system, but it can't execute or replicate itself. Trojans are easily avoided by practicing safe computing.

When the MR Guides are back online, read the Mac Virus/Malware FAQ for definitions of various types of malware. Until the MR Guides are available, you can read most of the same info in the Mac Virus/Malware Info post, on which the FAQ is based.
 
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