It's pretty naive to believe that OSX is somehow impervious to virus/malware infection. Judging by its inclusion of protection software at the OS-level, Apple Computer also agrees that such an assertion is asinine.
Unix-based makes it free of malware/virus? Hah! Seriously, Unix/Linux/BSD, etc. fights malware/viruses non-stop and has since at least the early 90's when these systems began to have widespread internet connectivity. I used to subscribe to a security mailing list that came out with various hacks and patches DAILY... The quantity of vulnerabilities or attack methods was directly proportional to the popularity of the OS.... (therefore, Linux, and at that time, Solaris were the most often hit) As OS X becomes more popular and gains market share, Apple's behind-the-scenes virus/malware protection with necessarily increase to the appropriate level.
On my Windows Vista/7 machines, Microsoft's own free product works quite well and causes no annoyances. It scans and updates at night, and requires virtually zero cpu usage as best as I can tell. Just because you don't see an icon running doesn't mean that you don't have a product from Apple, just as Windows users have from Microsoft, protecting in the background.... necessarily so and increasingly so as market share and interest in attacking the OS grows. Hackers/malware authors get off on exposure and damage caused.... So they obviously attack the largest and most vulnerable audience, but what will it look like when Mac is 50% of the PC market? Same as now? Good luck with that thinking.
-Z
Unix-based makes it free of malware/virus? Hah! Seriously, Unix/Linux/BSD, etc. fights malware/viruses non-stop and has since at least the early 90's when these systems began to have widespread internet connectivity. I used to subscribe to a security mailing list that came out with various hacks and patches DAILY... The quantity of vulnerabilities or attack methods was directly proportional to the popularity of the OS.... (therefore, Linux, and at that time, Solaris were the most often hit) As OS X becomes more popular and gains market share, Apple's behind-the-scenes virus/malware protection with necessarily increase to the appropriate level.
On my Windows Vista/7 machines, Microsoft's own free product works quite well and causes no annoyances. It scans and updates at night, and requires virtually zero cpu usage as best as I can tell. Just because you don't see an icon running doesn't mean that you don't have a product from Apple, just as Windows users have from Microsoft, protecting in the background.... necessarily so and increasingly so as market share and interest in attacking the OS grows. Hackers/malware authors get off on exposure and damage caused.... So they obviously attack the largest and most vulnerable audience, but what will it look like when Mac is 50% of the PC market? Same as now? Good luck with that thinking.
-Z