Anti Virus

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Hey guys I just bought my first MacBook Pro the other day and wondered what antivirus software you would recommend. Any information or advice would be appreciated. thanks!
 

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You do not need any anti virus. But if it will make you feel any better there is Sophos. Which I have on standby.
 
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Take note a lot of problems on these forums are directly related to some AV installed software.
 
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You don't need an anti-virus, as there are no Mac viruses.

However, if you feel you are the kind of person who would forward a suspicious email to Windows users without thinking about the risks, then you may want to employ an anti-virus program that can catch WINDOWS viruses before you spread them to your contacts. I'd suggest ClamX A/V for this, it's free and open-source. I would most certainly not spend any money -- ever -- on a fraudulent premise as a "Mac Anti-Virus" program.
 
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How about we deal with his question instead of once again being overly literal? You may think you're educating, but you're honestly just being misleading. There is malware for the Mac, which is what the common person is really looking for when they say "virus". They don't know any better.

Why not just be honest instead of feeling the need to give one part of the story without the rest? There's a whole lot more you can be telling them than just "there are no viruses for the Mac." There's a lot more to that story.

I would point you to this post as a reminder:
http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/sw...tivirus-malware-firewall-faq.html#post1087309


To the OP, read the FAQ linked in the first post and make your decision based off what you read.
 
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I think people OUGHT to know the difference between viruses and other kinds of malware. How many questions have we gotten here that go like "I must have a virus because suddenly x, y and z started happening"?
 
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I think people OUGHT to know the difference between viruses and other kinds of malware. How many questions have we gotten here that go like "I must have a virus because suddenly x, y and z started happening"?

What they ought to know and what they do know are two different things. I would think hanging around here and looking at the questions we get about anything would show you that. ;)
 
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And to further the point there are a lot of new users to computers. Not just switchers but actually people who have a Mac as there first computing experience. Some of those folks do not understand at all the difference between the two. I had the same question as a Windows user coming to Mac. But after doing my own research and thinking of my past usage and experience I determined that I did not need AV. Even people that know the difference between malware and a virus sometimes make the dubious mistake of contracting malware because they click too quickly. I call those folks "click happy." It takes experience to get good at discerning what is good, bad, spoofed etc.

My two cents worth.

Pat
 
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Thanks for the info schweb. I read the sticky and I feel like I have a better understanding now. I can't begin to explain the joy I already have from switching to a Mac after being a PC user my entire life
 
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But wouldn't AV software mainly protect against viruses anyway? Isn't most malware successful when the user enables it to be somehow? I mean, no AV software can protect against a user clicking on an inappropriate website. A self-replicating and spreading virus is different and handled differently from user-installed malware; even more of reason to make the distinction. And it would probably be just as misleading to say that AV software will protect against all forms of malware.
 
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But wouldn't AV software mainly protect against viruses anyway? Isn't most malware successful when the user enables it to be somehow? I mean, no AV software can protect against a user clicking on an inappropriate website. A self-replicating and spreading virus is different and handled differently from user-installed malware; even more of reason to make the distinction. And it would probably be just as misleading to say that AV software will protect against all forms of malware.

You may want to do some research on how AV programs work, but yes, most also protect against known malware. They work by scanning the files you download to you machine, if they detect any type of malware, they'll alert you. You may want to look at Wikipedia or the software devs websites for more info.

They're really not just anti "virus", they're really anti malware, but the name has been around for decades just like iTunes isn't just 'tunes". ;)
 

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