I've been a fool for a long time and have never had any problems. What's the point of anti-virus software if there are no viruses?
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OS X Antivirus
- Thread starter Kelly
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I've been a fool for a long time and have never had any problems. What's the point of anti-virus software if there are no viruses?
Kelly™;4730103 said:
Ok seriously, stop while you're ahead. If you're a disciplined user, you can survive on any operating system without anti-virus. The only documented "Mac virus" that is in the wild right now is a trojan horse, which you have to deliberately invoke and provide your administrator password. As long as you aren't downloading and installing every piece of software you can find, you're not going to get a virus. It's as simple as that. Sure, there are security holes in the OS, especially in Safari. Most of these threats are preemptively patched and never have a chance to be widely exploited. Apple frequently distributes new security patches to take care of these exploits.
Perhaps one day in the future Mac users will need to be a bit more cautious, but right now virus protection is for nil. You'll know when it's a problem.
Currently there are no viruses around for OS X. There are different forms of malware around like the Trojan DNSChanger, but that is a completely different animal. You're not calling a housecat a lion because it is part of the feline family tree do ya?
At the moment a firewall, not running as Administrator and common sense will suffice to keep your Mac clean.
Opinions differ on what the future will hold, but in my eyes the rising popularity of Apple Computers will make anti-virus mandatory.
At the moment a firewall, not running as Administrator and common sense will suffice to keep your Mac clean.
Opinions differ on what the future will hold, but in my eyes the rising popularity of Apple Computers will make anti-virus mandatory.
The OP is just an idiot that's all.
He comes in asking what AV we use, and ended up giving us links to prove to us that virus for Mac do in fact exist, and calling "anyone who doesn't have antivirus on any OS" a fool. Since he's so good in googling and such, why create a thread asking for advice when he could google the answer for himself?
Calling those whose help you seek a FOOL is not only uncalled for, and is RUDE and STUPID.
I shall declare those who has AV for OS X a fool and you shall be the first one Kelly.
Next time before you call someone a fool, read the links you posted CAREFULLY, and search the board THOROUGHLY. Then perhaps you know why we Mac users don't really like Norton very much, and even though they maybe 1 or 2 viruses/trojans around, we couldn't be bothered with an AV.
He comes in asking what AV we use, and ended up giving us links to prove to us that virus for Mac do in fact exist, and calling "anyone who doesn't have antivirus on any OS" a fool. Since he's so good in googling and such, why create a thread asking for advice when he could google the answer for himself?
Calling those whose help you seek a FOOL is not only uncalled for, and is RUDE and STUPID.
I shall declare those who has AV for OS X a fool and you shall be the first one Kelly.
Next time before you call someone a fool, read the links you posted CAREFULLY, and search the board THOROUGHLY. Then perhaps you know why we Mac users don't really like Norton very much, and even though they maybe 1 or 2 viruses/trojans around, we couldn't be bothered with an AV.
I myself don't see the need for a AV on OS X so i don't use one and have to agree with the above. Word to the wise kelly don't ever ever ever install Norton on a Mac it'll kill it
I've just downloaded that AV that was posted earlier in the thread.
Im going to run it and post the results here.
This install of OS X is 6 months old, and im 99% sure nothing will be found.
It will then be uninstalled.
Don't bother with it on a mac. I don't bother with it on a PC because if it does get one I just shove my slipsteam disk in again, oh the horror!
Im going to run it and post the results here.
This install of OS X is 6 months old, and im 99% sure nothing will be found.
It will then be uninstalled.
Don't bother with it on a mac. I don't bother with it on a PC because if it does get one I just shove my slipsteam disk in again, oh the horror!
I read through all the posts and didn't really see anything addressing this: I am running WindowsXP pro using parallels. I use it for practically nothing, but I do use it, specifically for Quicken (which has my whole life in it) and occasionally to run expression web. I am using AVG free, but wonder if I even need that. And, if I were to get a virus on my windows machine, would it affect the Leopard side at all? I've been using Mac for about 2 months now, so I have a lot of questions! Thanks guys, I love it here! 
convert for life
convert for life
I read through all the posts and didn't really see anything addressing this: I am running WindowsXP pro using parallels. I use it for practically nothing, but I do use it, specifically for Quicken (which has my whole life in it) and occasionally to run expression web. I am using AVG free, but wonder if I even need that. And, if I were to get a virus on my windows machine, would it affect the Leopard side at all? I've been using Mac for about 2 months now, so I have a lot of questions! Thanks guys, I love it here!
If you don't have Mac partitions or files shared on your virtual machine, your Mac files are safe.
In Windows, it's always a good idea to run anti-virus software.
For Windows you woud need an Anti-Virus, and in the free sector AVG is okay.I read through all the posts and didn't really see anything addressing this: I am running WindowsXP pro using parallels. I use it for practically nothing, but I do use it, specifically for Quicken (which has my whole life in it) and occasionally to run expression web. I am using AVG free, but wonder if I even need that. And, if I were to get a virus on my windows machine, would it affect the Leopard side at all? I've been using Mac for about 2 months now, so I have a lot of questions! Thanks guys, I love it here!
As the internal architecture of Windows and OS X are completely different a Windows .exe is not able to run on OS X. Be aware that you can copy them from disc to disc, so infected download from Limewire will be as infected as ever once copied/moved to your OS X partition. It will only be harmless on OS X. As far as OS X is concerned any executable Windows file is nothing more than data.
And concering the "which has my whole life in it": Backup! Then you don't need to be afraid to lose it.
Even if there are mac partitions in sharing, the virus contracted won't matter to the OS X side either. I would in fact advise getting virus spread to the OS X, so that by chance if you share any files to other PC users, the virus will spread to them, pissing them to a point where they convert to Mac! 
my problem with sharing with other users would be, i'm responsible for the other 3 windows machines in my home! but wait, then i could get all macs and just through them out the window, ok, good idea! if that happened, my husband would be too afraid to say no! hmmmm
Well my main HD was scanned and it found:
NOTHING mac related.
It got slightly confused by a .NET 2 package in a PC Files folder but that was it.
So no AV for me
NOTHING mac related.
It got slightly confused by a .NET 2 package in a PC Files folder but that was it.
So no AV for me