New to Mac....few general questions

[bigb0ss]

Hello, guys first post here, please be nice. haha Just have a few basic questions and hopefully you guys can help. Ok let me begin by saying MAC is the best thing invented next to the Air Conditioner and Sliced Bread. No joke i love my MAC BOOK that much. I currently own a macbook pro 15' and with verison 10.6.1

Now, Quesitons:
1. Do I need Anti-Virus, Ive heard Yes and No....really unsure want to protect my MAC

2. Does MAC require clean up such as Adware, Spyware, Registary Errors, Non-sense like that, that PC's get because I have noticed my Laptop slowing down a LITTLE bit....espically when playing flash/games on internet.

3. What features does IPAD and MACBOOK PRO share?




thanks everyone!!!!

 

[s2odin]

Hello, guys first post here, please be nice. haha Just have a few basic questions and hopefully you guys can help. Ok let me begin by saying MAC is the best thing invented next to the Air Conditioner and Sliced Bread. No joke i love my MAC BOOK that much. I currently own a macbook pro 15' and with verison 10.6.1

Now, Quesitons:
1. Do I need Anti-Virus, Ive heard Yes and No....really unsure want to protect my MAC
http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/sw...-official-antivirus-malware-firewall-faq.html
2. Does MAC require clean up such as Adware, Spyware, Registary Errors, Non-sense like that, that PC's get because I have noticed my Laptop slowing down a LITTLE bit....espically when playing flash/games on internet.
Just the normal repairing permissions every other month or so.
3. What features does IPAD and MACBOOK PRO share?
Web browsing, e-mail.



thanks everyone!!!!

Answers in red

 

[bobtomay]

1. No. See the sticky.

http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/sw...-official-antivirus-malware-firewall-faq.html

2. No. See # 1. There is no registry.

There are no drive by infections that will function in OS X at this time. Currently, anything of the handful (literally) that will run on your Mac require you to put in your admin password. Stay away from pirating and downloading video codecs from porn sites that want your master password and you're pretty safe.

However, one of the things you need to do to stay safe - you need to keep your machine's software up to date. You're on 10.6.1? We're all the way up to 10.6.5 now. Where ya been? Click on the Apple in the corner and head for Software Update. Let it update until there are no more updates.

For maintenance, grab Onyx from here.. Make sure you get 2.2.1 for Snow Leopard. It has a lot of features. For starters, just open up the Automatic tab and check off everything in the maintenance and cleaning sections. Shouldn't need to run it but once every 2-3 months.

And keep track of how much free space you have, same as you would in Windows. I'm on the high end of recommendations, suggesting a minimum of 20%+, no matter what size drive.

If you haven't backed up your drive, there is no good excuse any longer. External drives are cheap and it is just too easy on OS X.

 

[Strukt]

1. You do not _need_ it, but it is always good to have an open mind about this stuff. The Mac user base is increasing and eventually viruses / trojans will become more common. Use common sense and dont click on everything you see and you will likely be fine. I have used OS X for many years and not encountered any viruses yet. Its up to you.

2. Your Mac have cleanup scripts it runs automatically at set time intervals (dayly, weekly, monthly). There are applications you can download to perform some maintenance tasks, like Onyx.