apple computers have been know for not having viruses, its all about the market share. microsoft is the largest technology company in the world. thats why apple had to create computers that were compatible with microsoft made software and other stuff that was made for windows. they had to steal a piece of the pie, if you know what im saying. right now, apple is a company that is starting to grow, its a good stock too. the bigger they grow, the bigger their popularity. you might laugh at home but, i never knew what a macintosh computer was until last july. then i started to get intrested and wanted to get one, but they’re way too expensive. so i just do research about it. apple has become more popular here, ever since they established a new apple store. apple made retail stores, i think the stores are 2 years old or 3, they figured out that where they made the stores, they sold more of their products. now in the not too distant future i see more apple retail stores and more people buying macs, therefore more people using macs. when more people are using macs they’ll figure out the structure of the mac, when they do they can create programs that mess around with the mac that is avalible for people to download, these are called viruses. pc has more viruses because the same thing happened and its been like 50 years. so people know how to read a pc like a childs book. the reason is because microsoft chooses to keep old hard drives, thats why they are so big on it. they keep the old ones and new ones so people can run old windows software and new ones. thats the security hole, and thats why you see for windows 98 and up. macs, i don’t know but i think they constantly change their hard drive to keep away from the security holes. what i think is microsoft should get rid of this, alot of people don’t run old software. the only reason they keep it on so the lazy people don’t have to change their programs. so if i were the owner of microsoft and was really smart, i would have big plans for it. oh yeah and the mac norton thing, i would take it if i had a mac, just in case. there could be security holes none of us know about, and they just keep coming in, no one knowing whats happening in it.

I’ve said this before: If a virus comes out for Mac OS X, you will hear it all over the news BEFORE the antivirus software is updated. Then, if you feel you’re at risk, you can go buy some antivirus software. Until that happens, you’re getting nothing for your money and computer processing power. Waste of money and hassle.

Products like Norton Confidential have behavioural engines that detect malicious activity, in addition to the usual armory of updated signatures. This is the direction the industry needs to move in…and it appears that it is moving.

“3. ClamxAV for anti-virus protection. I have no idea if it works or not.”

I suspect ClamxAV does work. I forward PayPal and EBay phishing to their spoof addresses and had several of these in my “Sent” mailbox. Surprise, surprise, surprise, some of these wonderful messages did contain viruses. I like the price of ClamxAV and have many grudges agains Symantec. They have eliminated more working software for the Mac than any other company outside of M$.

…errr make that propagating

Apple appears to have a new interest in propogating Windows viruses as they’re now pre-loading them onto IPods.

I’ve said this before: If a virus comes out for Mac OS X, you will hear it all over the news BEFORE the antivirus software is updated. Then, if you feel you’re at risk, you can go buy some antivirus software. Until that happens, you’re getting nothing for your money and computer processing power. Waste of money and hassle.

Oh, and antivirus software has been documented to cause a lot of problems, in addition to general slowness.

I dont know about now adays but I have found in the past that installing mac based AV usually does more harm then good it goes crazy and starts thinking your regular files are suspicious and corupts your system…. im content to use my system the way apple intended….

Personally if a virus does eventually hit the mac I dont think its going to run rampant the way it would on windows…. unless a lot of people loose their mind and say oooh virus lets see what this will do to my computer

If for some reason that something bad does hit…. Ill do what any good windoze user should do atleast every 3 months and do a fresh install for ****s and giggles…cheers

The statement that all the money lost to computer malware was on the Windows platform is incorrect. My nephew works at a company that uses Linux, and he told me that their biggest problem was viruses. Apparently there are something like 100 Linux viruses.
There goes the argument that small market share is the reason OSX has no malware.

Disclaimer: I’m a former Symantec employee.

At least knowing that somewhere/someway/somehow in the middle of the night the file “mach_kernel” was overwritten would be a good thing. While Apple is very good about sending out patches, etc., nobody is perfect.

As for the knowledge thing, frankly, not all of us are that smart. Several months ago, I had my boss come in all concerned because he’d just gotten an email about how our PayPal account needed to be reauthorized. I told him it probably didn’t and that this was a scam to get at the money in the account. He called PayPal and, sure enough, they told him the same thing. So he’s a bit more aware than he once was.

Software like this has it’s place. Unlike the Windows side–where it’s almost a requirement–Mac users can use it more for informational purposes. I used to enjoy watching NPF’s firewall logs to watch the port scans and various attempts to access my Mac. But software like this is definitely optional for Mac users.

Okay, Gene, I think you’ve got it exactly right. Of course when running Windows with Boot Camp, one needs standard Windows protection software. But what about running Windows with Parallels Desktop?

Since Norton Confidential is not an anti-virus soft, I don’t see how Symantec’s product can be related to FUD or Mac OS X virus myths.

“and how Norton probably won’t have the def ready for it anyway.”

This is what I’m sayin’….when and if a Mac virus is created and spread, it will be unknown by any AV software out there. All AV software will have to be ‘updated’ to ‘know’ the virus, so running the software beforehand to ‘catch’ a never-before-known virus is putting the cart before the horse. Am I wrong?

I’m referring strictly to Mac OS X users here

Ah. So by your reckoning the Mac Luddite contingent presently constitutes roughly a third of the Mac user populace. Thanks for the clarification!

Didn’t Steve Jobs claim that there are roughly 30 million Mac users in his last keynote? I just did a quick search and found citations which were all over the map from 20 to 35 million. I wonder if hard data exists on the issue of a Mac user census tally?

I’m referring strictly to Mac OS X users here

Peace,
Gene

There are, for example, roughly twenty million Mac OS X users out there.

Didn’t Steve Jobs claim that there are roughly 30 million Mac users in his last keynote? I just did a quick search and found citations which were all over the map from 20 to 35 million. I wonder if hard data exists on the issue of a Mac user census tally?