Hey there,

 

Firstly, I apologize if this has been discussed previously. I did perform a couple of searches to try and find something but came up with nothing.

 

For the OS X Users, and I apologize if this is a stupid question, but how many of you actually use an anti-virus software? I switched to an iMac 6 months ago (and am not looking back!). I've always been under the impression that it wasn't really required.

 

So, if you do use it, what do you use and why?

 

Cheers,

Ben.

Hi Ben,

 

Welcome to the forum I got my first Mac in 2007 ish. It was the first time I'd used one so didn't get the whole 'Mac's don't get viruses' that my die hard friend told me. I felt he was far too obsessed with that notion and went ahead and got what I could. To be honest, there wasn't much choice and the results that the software performed never came back with anything useful.

 

You're best source of advice on all things Mac in my opinion would be the moderator, Andy9I. He knows far more than I do. I used to frequent all the Mac places at the time like MacRumors, OS Ken, the list goes on... At that time, not one of them really endorsed any form of virus protection. The only one I could mention that is current (but not a fan of the company at all) is Norton iVirus. You can get it on the App Store but I doubt you will find it much use. It's free though

Norton ugh. I don't touch anything with from norton with a 10 foot pole. As for anti virus in general for mac, for a long time it was just not really profitable to make any malicious software for a mac, because well nobody ever used a mac.. Plus macs have a different file system that makes it a lot harder for virusses to deal much damage. But mark my words mac users.. your carefree days should be over soon, because now apple, and macs with it ofcourse are gaining popularity. and guess what? Windows had to deal with virusses for atleast a decade longer then macs. (thats what windows gets for being such a slut, wanting to connect with everything) so there is better medicin available for windows than for mac.

 

Do you need it now? most likely not.

Will macs need it? It will never get as big as a problem for them as for windows.

Will stupid user need anti-virus software? always. (although knowing stupid people can be enough to get one)

Don't forget your computer history though and the origins of the first virus.

enlighten me

enlighten me

 

Well, you'll see quite a bit via Google and all, but when computers first came out and Arpanet, blah blah blah. Have a look at the Apple II from '81. A 'bit' different to the Macs of today.