Security?

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I am just wondering about security... being used to running windows with firewall and antivirus.
Found the built-in firewall... but what about antivirus?
Google hasn't really been all that helpful about this, only giving me loads of discussions on wether it is needed or not.

So... is it needed?
And in that case, what to get?

If not.. why?
 

bobtomay

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The vast majority of long time OS X users do not use an antivirus.
Most of us are not, as you might think, Mac "fanboys"... most of us in fact use multiple operating systems on a daily basis including Windows.

For the latest great response among the thousands of posts related to this only here at Mac-Forums (since the same question gets asked at least 3-4 times a day, or maybe it only seems that way), see cwa107's responses in this thread from the last 2 days.

Also read the sticky at the top of this very forum, "Official antivirus, malware and firewall FAQ".
 
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aaah thanks.. as my mum always says - first place you go blind, is your eyes ;-)

I do have 'access' to a so-called fanboy at school, when we start again monday... so I thought it better to get a second opinion.
 

bobtomay

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Well, have to admit, there are a few fanboys around here at Mac-forums too. ;P
 
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hehe, would be surprised if there weren't ;-)

who knows, I might end up converting meself, LOL
 

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A simple method to stay secure is to make use of Mountain Lion's new GateKeeper functionality. While not foolproof (for nothing ever is), it can help to regulate what can and can't be installed on your machine. Although I'm not one for linking to Wikipedia entries, the Wikipedia article for GateKeeper provides a nice and succinct overview (here).
 
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I haven't upgraded to mountain lion yet.

I read something recently in the danish online newspapers about there being lots of angry users cause it hogs the batterypower.
So I'm kinda figuring to wait until I know a bit more.
 
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Google hasn't really been all that helpful about this, only giving me loads of discussions on wether it is needed or not.

So... is it needed?

Hmmm. So you decided to start another of those discussions. Wasn't that question answered dozens of times in the other discussions? ;)

As to why it's not needed, although I assume that was answered in those other discussions as well, it's because there is not a single virus that affects Mac OS X. Now, I can't give a technical answer as to why that is the case, but, it's not because the Mac platform has such a small market share that it's not "worth it" to a hacker to develop a virus. On the contrary, if someone did, that individual would enter tech lore for the ages.
 
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Sorry.... I really should have checked first if there were other topics about it - I know better :-(

Can I claim early senility... or stress due to going to a 2 day show tomorrow at dawn?
 
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chas_m

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I haven't upgraded to mountain lion yet.

I read something recently in the danish online newspapers about there being lots of angry users cause it hogs the batterypower.
So I'm kinda figuring to wait until I know a bit more.

This is an incorrect impression unless you have (or are getting) one of the Retina MacBook Pros.

I can't say too much about this at present, but a lab I am aware of in a large US city is doing some VERY extensive testing on this at my request. So far: only Retina MBPs on ML seem to have the battery issue. Non-Retina models appear to be unaffected.

My own 2009 MBP has been unaffected by this issue as well.
 
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Apple have released a fix for this battery issue to testers. An upgrade 10.8.1 will be coming out in a few week's. The upgrade also addresses the 'Save as' issue as well.
 
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chas_m

thanks for clearing that up for me. Non of the online newspaper-articles here mentioned that it was the retina-model only... I have the other one :)

I'm gonna upgrade when I have a second to spare... right now it's past 10pm here, and I've just got in the door from being at the show all day. Tomorrow is yet another showdate with getting up at 6am, sighing..
 

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