is it safe to download anythings from safari?

[AFR25]

before i had this rmbp, i used laptop that has windows, i usually download many things like movies, music, software or anythings from windows and didnt get any harm things for my laptop, but now i use rmbp which is i download my things from safari, and now im more careful because im afraid i visit harm website and it will damage my rmbp, because repair rmbp isnt easy as repair windows and it is more expensive to repair rmbp than windows, so it is safe to download anythings from safari? and is it true that safari has malware protection so when we download things from safari it will secure the malware?

 

[\-V-/]

You have far less of a chance of getting something that will harm your Mac in OS X than in Windows. Use an ad blocker. I recommend uBlock: https://www.ublock.org/

And just use common sense. Uncheck the box that automatically opens downloaded files:

You can also do the occasional scan with MalwareBytes (free): https://www.malwarebytes.com/antimalware/mac/


Basically ... just use common sense. There are far less baddies to worry about in OS X than Windows. The only thing you might run into is adware, which can easily be removed with MalwareBytes. Most of the malware you run into generally requires the user (you) to grant it access in order for it to do anything. So if you are downloading random things without thinking about it, you could accidentally install something bad.

Just be careful like you have been in Windows.

Although you don't really need an anti-virus, if you'd feel more comfortable, the two I can recommend, which are free, are BitDefender and Avira:

http://www.bitdefender.com/solutions/virus-scanner-for-mac.html
http://www.avira.com/en/free-antivirus-mac

 

[Atomic Walrus]

because repair rmbp isnt easy as repair windows and it is more expensive to repair rmbp than windows, so it is safe to download anythings from safari? and is it true that safari has malware protection so when we download things from safari it will secure the malware?

The repair costs you're thinking of don't apply to this type of issue. No matter how badly you mess up your software (viruses, spyware, etc) it's not going to physically damage the system, so you won't be seeing any actual repair costs.

In either OS, the absolute worst case scenario with malware is that the system is so compromised that you need to format the disk and reinstall the OS. That's fairly easy to do in Windows and OS X.


Macs are generally considered more resistant to malware simply because there's less malware development for OS X. They're not inherently more secure, but most attacks target Windows systems because of the larger install base.

 

[\-V-/]

Macs are generally considered more resistant to malware simply because there's less malware development for OS X.

They're not inherently more secure, but most attacks target Windows systems because of the larger install base.

That isn't why they're more resistant to malware. There are millions and millions and millions of Mac users now and a billion iPhone users. The "less Mac users" reason isn't really applicable these days.

 

[Atomic Walrus]

That isn't why they're more resistant to malware. There are millions and millions and millions of Mac users now and a billion iPhone users. The "less Mac users" reason isn't really applicable these days.

OS X has about a 10% market share while Windows is a bit over 80%. It's not worth any substantial increase in development work to go from 80% to 90% coverage (unless you specifically want to target OS X systems).

For both OSes, once the user agrees to install downloaded software from an unknown source all bets are off. I suppose on Windows some older systems might still be running a version of IE that supports ActiveX.

The iPhone doesn't come into the discussion at all because it runs a heavily sandboxed OS which (unless jailbroken) only runs software from Apple's official (and well-policed) app store. It IS legitimately more secure than the desktop OSes as a result.