03-25-2006, 04:46 PM

Yes, I already read the Sticky Note about virus protection and firewalls. Can it really be true that not a single virus has ever been written for Mac?? That sounds too good to be true!

03-25-2006, 06:27 PM

Originally Posted by caveatipss

Yes, I already read the Sticky Note about virus protection and firewalls. Can it really be true that not a single virus has ever been written for Mac?? That sounds too good to be true!

Being a relative newbie to Macs still, I can't say for certain, but I believe the one, two, or very few instances of so-called viruses, have actually been trojans, in that it requires the user take action to become infected/affected. So, as far as I know, we're very safe.

Mark

03-25-2006, 06:47 PM

There are no actual viruses for mac (only one has been written for unix back in 1988, when i was born.. so far 17 years later no viruses).. The mac is written in such a way that it is very hard for a virus to be written for this operating system, although it is not impossible for a virus to be written. If somebody can figure out how to get a piece of software to open the root with out a password then the system is not safe, but that is the good thing about macs. You need a password to install all applications, and you need a password to access secure things such as the root.

03-25-2006, 07:06 PM

Well... not to disappoint you all but there were a few quiet ones over the years. As PowerBookG4 has said there was a UNIX one back in the 80's, there was one back in 10.2 but Apple fixed the hole, back when Tiger was new there was a widget that did some misgevious (SP) things, and just recently there was the leap.a and another one but they were just proof of concept viruses (meaning they just proved that one could could be written for Mac OS X but didn't actually do anything). There was also a hole where UNIX commands that would do bad things to your mac were disguised as .mov files (so when you download then they would automatically be run) but Apple fixed that bug too.

All in all the Mac is the safest platform out there (except maybe a cement block) but expect people to be writing a few in the future (when Macs get more market share) but they will be fixed quickly by Apple so don't worry, enjoy your mac.

03-25-2006, 08:49 PM

Please dont jinx (SP?) it ..lol
but thank god they dont have viruses for themm..
in my house we have 5 coumputers
MINE (mac)
2 brothers (dell)
dad dell
mom dell


my dad has to reformat their computers like every 2 months because of viruses

03-25-2006, 09:28 PM

Originally Posted by WhiteYfz

Please dont jinx (SP?) it ..lol
but thank god they dont have viruses for themm..
in my house we have 5 coumputers
MINE (mac)
2 brothers (dell)
dad dell
mom dell


my dad has to reformat their computers like every 2 months because of viruses

Wow, you are surrounded by Dell's!!! :spook:

03-26-2006, 10:00 AM

Originally Posted by PowerBookG4

There are no actual viruses for mac (only one has been written for unix back in 1988, when i was born.. so far 17 years later no viruses).. The mac is written in such a way that it is very hard for a virus to be written for this operating system, although it is not impossible for a virus to be written. If somebody can figure out how to get a piece of software to open the root with out a password then the system is not safe, but that is the good thing about macs. You need a password to install all applications, and you need a password to access secure things such as the root.

Very awesome reply, and I agree 100%. Nothing is ever impossible, just unlikely. Right now, not a lot of people want to take the effort to create a virus for the mac. But since Apple's computers have been getting more hype, attention and recognition, in a few years down the road I sense a lot of people who want to challenge the Mac. I mean, hey, that's what Apple was built upon, right? Going against..

03-26-2006, 02:28 PM

Originally Posted by WhiteYfz

Please dont jinx (SP?) it ..lol
but thank god they dont have viruses for themm..
in my house we have 5 coumputers
MINE (mac)
2 brothers (dell)
dad dell
mom dell


my dad has to reformat their computers like every 2 months because of viruses

I feel sorry for your family... Dell is a horrible computer company. Though, I think everything that I can say has been said in this thread already.

Are there NO viruses for Mac? Simply put, no... there are "viruses". Though, due to the way the Mac OS and such are the user basicly has to instal the virus manually on their system for it to work.

Many are also pretty worthless viruses. They're mostly trojan horses, nothing along the lines of *poof* there goes your computer.

03-26-2006, 04:01 PM

Boy that is good to know! So, how many of you still run virus scans and use a firewall?

03-26-2006, 04:18 PM

Originally Posted by caveatipss

Boy that is good to know! So, how many of you still run virus scans and use a firewall?

I have a free virus scanner on my Macs (http://clamxav.com/) but it isn't used (no periodic scans), it's only there incase there are any Mac viruses this way if I get one I can remove it easily. I just have the Mac OS firewall turned on.

03-26-2006, 04:36 PM

Is the Mac firewall any good? The one that comes with Windows really sucks.

03-26-2006, 05:56 PM

Originally Posted by caveatipss

Is the Mac firewall any good? The one that comes with Windows really sucks.

It's A LOT better then the Windows one, I don't have any 3rd party ones to compare it to, but it's all you should need.

03-29-2006, 09:11 PM

"Is the Mac firewall any good? The one that comes with Windows really sucks."

I was streaming out stuff from my EyeTv when one day it stoped working.

Ended up was that I turned the Mac firewall on--- well it seems to work! lol