will lots of apps slow down OSX like they do on windows?

[yosi199]

Hi people, I'm currently waiting for my first time ever macbook pro. I was wondering tough about a few things regarding the mac osx:

Do I need to install an antivirus? I know its supposed to be a lot more secure than windows but my logic says that hackers will know most of the people think this way and will leave they're computers defense less. On the other, antivirus's are performance hogs.

Does osx slows down over time when installing a lot of apps like in windows?

amm... thats all I can think of now.. thanks for any help.

 

[-aggie-]

No, an AV is unnecessary. No, the Mac won't slow down from installing apps (runjning apps, yes). Mac's don't have a registry like Windows does (at least before Win 7...not sure if they got rid of that crap in that version).

 

[clevin]

Hi people, I'm currently waiting for my first time ever macbook pro. I was wondering tough about a few things regarding the mac osx:

Do I need to install an antivirus? I know its supposed to be a lot more secure than windows but my logic says that hackers will know most of the people think this way and will leave they're computers defense less. On the other, antivirus's are performance hogs.

Does osx slows down over time when installing a lot of apps like in windows?

amm... thats all I can think of now.. thanks for any help.

I haven't follow OSX for a while, there are a few of viruses, so if you want 100% safe, maybe you should get an AV software. My guess is most mac users right now don't really care, or there just aren't many options.

Its a good question, OSX runs better than winxp, over time for sure. Slow down will happen, but much less severe or damaging. I do, however, think its about on par with win7. With installation of large apps being more and more complicated on mac, its no guarantee it won't hurt system performance if you install a lot of them.

One age-old problem is flash video performance on OSX, its plain bad, and machine slow down due to flash video should be expected.

 

[Eidorian]

Does osx slows down over time when installing a lot of apps like in windows?

Would you please elaborate?

 

[GGJstudios]

Do I need to install an antivirus?

No.

I know its supposed to be a lot more secure than windows but my logic says that hackers will know most of the people think this way and will leave they're computers defense less.

Mac Virus/Malware Info

On the other, antivirus's are performance hogs.

Yes. Some, very much so.

Does osx slows down over time when installing a lot of apps like in windows?

Not like Windows. It depends on how much hard drive space and RAM you have, to process the tasks at hand.

I haven't follow OSX for a while, there are a few of viruses,

There are exactly zero viruses in the wild that run on current Mac OS X. There haven't been any for years.

 

[clevin]

There are exactly zero viruses in the wild that run on current Mac OS X.

well, I guess McAfee released OSX AV software a week ago just for air then.

There haven't been any for years

You are either being double standard, or just mis-stating. If there haven't been any viruses for Mac OSX for years, then there haven't been that many for windows vista/7 neither.

 

[yosi199]

Wow, fast replies! Thanks for the info people, are there any suggestion you can give a newcomer into the mac world?

Eidorian - from my experience with windows, if you install tons of apps you will see a major performance hog, slow downs and what not. A clean install is blazing fast and then after a few months of use you see a major slowdown.

 

[lewis82]

well, I guess McAfee released OSX AV software a week ago just for air then.

As he said, there are no viruses. But there are Trojans, Spyware, and Worms. 😉

(Altough, all of them require an administrator password to install, so it's pretty much the user's fault.)

 

[Eidorian]

Eidorian - from my experience with windows, if you install tons of apps you will see a major performance hog, slow downs and what not. A clean install is blazing fast and then after a few months of use you see a major slowdown.

It's much more painful for me under OS X and with a 5400 RPM hard drive.

Disable as much as you can at startup. It doesn't matter how many applications you have installed if they're not running.

I have many more startup applications under OS X. You can't expect me to manually launch them every time to save a few seconds getting to the desktop. Keeping your desktop clean helps too. I hope to get a SSD next year. You don't want to see my Start Menu and taskbar either.

 

[clevin]

Wow, fast replies! Thanks for the info people, are there any suggestion you can give a newcomer into the mac world?

update your system when its available

disable safari's auto open function, since its a security threat

try VLC

if you want to reinstall OSX to remove the unnecessary fat, do it right after you got it.

The track pad is different, but very nice, you should learn it use it more.

As he said, there are no viruses. But there are Trojans, Spyware, and Worms. 😉

(Altough, all of them require an administrator password to install, so it's pretty much the user's fault.)

right, then there have been how many virus for windows vista/7 then? with this terming criteria?

PS. I don't think they all need admin password.

 

[Eidorian]

update your system when its available

disable safari's auto open function, since its a security threat

try VLC

if you want to reinstall OSX to remove the unnecessary fat, do it right after you got it.

The track pad is different, but very nice, you should learn it use it more.

MplayerX and Movist constantly fight over my heart. To be honest every video playback application under OS X is rather crash prone. You don't see people blaming Apple for it though.

 

[GGJstudios]

well, I guess McAfee released OSX AV software a week ago just for air then.

No, they released it to make money from those who don't know better.

You are either being double standard, or just mis-stating. If there haven't been any viruses for Mac OSX for years, then there haven't been that many for windows vista/7 neither.

There's a big difference between "any" and "that many". There has never been a virus in the wild that runs on Leopard or Snow Leopard. There are trojans, which can easily be avoided by the user being careful what they install, but there are NO Leopard or Snow Leopard viruses. Clear enough? You're welcome to prove me wrong, by naming just one.

Wow, fast replies! Thanks for the info people, are there any suggestion you can give a newcomer into the mac world?

Helpful Information for Any Mac User

 

[clevin]

MplayerX and Movist constantly fight over my heart. To be honest every video playback application under OS X is rather crash prone. You don't see people blaming Apple for it though.

hehe, thanks for the input. There seems a lot of variants of MPlayer peoject, none of them seems very well tho. The Mplayer OSX I used before couldn't seek properly on wmv files.

No, they released it to make money from those who don't know better.

There's a big difference between "any" and "that many". There has never been a virus in the wild that runs on Leopard or Snow Leopard. There are trojans, which can easily be avoided by the user being careful what they install, but there are NO Leopard or Snow Leopard viruses. Clear enough? You're welcome to prove me wrong, by naming just one.

well. 1. Trojans, worms, malwares should not be underestimated in terms of damage they could do. At least I know apple categorize them as "viruses". 2. Im interested in the number of viruses for windows vista/7, do you have a number?

 

[Eidorian]

hehe, thanks for the input. There seems a lot of variants of MPlayer peoject, none of them seems very well tho. The Mplayer OSX I used before couldn't seek properly on wmv files.

I like MPlayerX and Movist a little more than MPlayer OS X Extended. It just depends on how you want your fonts to be rendered and keyboard shortcuts. They're all starting to look identical as it is. Multithreaded decoding makes a showing in one version as stable or experimental only to disappear in the next one.

 

[GGJstudios]

1. Trojans, worms, malwares should not be underestimated in terms of damage they could do.

I agree, but these can be avoided by the user only downloading and installing software from reputable sources.

2. Im interested in the number of viruses for windows vista/7, do you have a number?

No, I use a Mac, so I don't have to keep up with Windows viruses anymore. Besides, the OP's question is about Mac AV, not Windows.

AUGUST 04, 2005
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