rainman::|:| said:Except for the fact that, if you assume a Mac virus is a hoax/misunderstanding, you'll be right. The reason we can all assume this is because it simply hasn't gone any other way, ever. If, just once, someone actually had a virus when they came in panicking like this, then you could then point this finger.
So it's like your fireman's scenario, only, the person really is mistaken, the firefighters know it, should they still hose down the building?
Uh, how does the fireman know ? (I guess I missed a part in your reasoning, sorry
I like the comments of Makosuke (ie, (1) the skilled people will see when a virus is here, and (2) you will see it on Macrumors), of NicP ( (3) viruses are only for non-advanced people) and of yellow ( (4) shout down whoever claims he saw a virus).
Hence, advanced people would never catch a virus on their machines (see 3), which makes it impossible that they ever see it (see 1), therefore they'd never report it to Macrumors (see 2). Now, the only way they'd hear about a virus would be via non-advanced people, which they have to disregard (see 4).
I know I'm playing Extreme Devil's Advocate, but it's just my nature of being careful . I enjoy everyday the lack of viruses on OsX, and I know it's safer than other operating systems, but I don't want to fall asleep on my convictions.
The "it never happened before" does not provide much of a safety feeling to me. I'd rather have my computer unplugged "the day it happens", because all these days of not-happening will have been rather useless.
We received several Security Updates from Apple, including in the previous versions of the Holy OsX, there must be a reason. And the new alert when you download items (for example .dmg files) in Safari also appeared with a reason, I guess Apple's engineers said "woa, be careful, there's an open door here" (like for potentially malicious widgets, at their beginning), and not because they said "nah, no risk, we run with OsX".
Oh well, you get my drift anyway
Arnaud.
(PS: Sorry for whoever wanted to skip the virus-debate; I just assume it's a forum, where people talk about things they consider important, and "viruses" is the topic, no ?).
(PPS: Emails and other written items are tricky, you hardly ever know the tone used by the writter. For the sake of clarity, this is not a furious answer, quite the opposite, it's a cool-with-the-breeze, let's-talk-together one