Do you use an anti-virus/spyware program?

I don't. My Dad told me I should, but I'm pretty sure there's not that much risk of catching anything serious - or even anything at all!

Suggest to your dad that Macs inhabit a different reality — a higher plane of existence where the laws of Windows physics don't apply. However, many people can't get their heads around this, and many cannot be convinced.

I've owned Macs since 1991, and none of them was ever infected with a Mac virus.

How can a Mac anti-virus app protect a machine when no one has come up with a method to invade and spread a virus without the user's co-operation? It's like developing a serum against a disease that doesn't exist.

I used to, one of the reasons i got a .Mac account was the antivirus software, however, due to performance issues (i had only 512mb of RAM then) i removed it.

The only reason you may want to use Anti-Virus on a Mac is to protect other Windows computers on your network.

Brown Study said:

How can a Mac anti-virus app protect a machine when no one has come up with a method to invade and spread a virus without the user's co-operation? It's like developing a serum against a disease that doesn't exist.

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Asymptomatic carrier. We don't need it for our own benefit, but for the benefit of those with whom we share files.

mraya said:

Asymptomatic carrier. We don't need it for our own benefit, but for the benefit of those with whom we share files.

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If Windows users don't have anti-virus protection, continuous checking of my Mac and all that entails, including the waste of system resources, won't help them.

One of the reasons I use a Mac is for its immunity against Windows viruses. If a Windows user believes I should be on a continuous vigil against Windows viruses, that user inhabits a dreamland. I should pay the MS tax in all its forms when I use a Mac? It's not going to happen.

Brown Study said:

If Windows users don't have anti-virus protection, continuous checking of my Mac and all that entails, including the waste of system resources, won't help them.

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True.

No way! Don't want to spend money to buy a memory hog for the benefit of other people who should be buying these kind of software....

i have a free one on my ibook i think but never use it.

i use primary MacScan but also ClamXav to do a scan every now and again just to be on the safe side. I've had mac's my whole life since my very first 6100 and never come across any kind of malware but theres a first time for everything and i'd rather be safe than sorry. Plus with mac's becoming more popular and Apple advertising that Mac's don't have any viruses or spyware it's only a matter of time.

I have Virus Barrier. I realize I may never ever need it, but I like the peice of mind, and I notice no slowing of speed.

I don't use one and don't really feel that a pound of prevention is worth an ounce of cure. I figure that if a virus for Mac ever becomes serious that it will be huge news and at that point I would look into my options.

I felt I should add that this would be news in the event of if there ever was a single virus. Not a multitude of them. I for one am not buying that nobody is trying and the security through obsolence theory. The Mac is one of the hottest computer products out right now. The only reason for using anti-virus would be if you network with people on windows at this point.

I personally don't feel the need to run virus programs just because other people I may network with may feel the obligation to do so.

If you want to have some fun though you can get on msn messenger and make a simple text file and name it "trojan.windows/worm.exe" and send it to your windows friends.

Maybe I am evil but the couple times I did that it made me laugh.

My problem with Mac anti-virus solutions run specifically to protect the Mac is that I don't understand what they're scanning for.

Traditionally, anti-virus programs work by one of two different methods. The first method is by downloading a frequently updated database of known viruses. Then, the scan engine will constantly scan for the signatures of known viruses.

Since there are no known viruses for OS X, there are no signatures to scan for.

The other method is known as heuristics. Heuristics scanning is a technology to scan for virus-like behavior and attempt to block it. This leads to major overhead as the AV program constantly monitors everything every program on your system does. It can also interfere with normal operation of your system, creating problems where they wouldn't otherwise exist.

Brown Study makes an excellent point - let the Windows users worry about scanning for their own viruses. That is part of the liability of running Windows. When the first Mac virus finally does arrive, it will be extensively covered by the media. You'll likely see the news before you see the virus. I'll worry about AV at that time, but there's no need to suffer the performance degradation associated with AV products until that time.

I used to use Clam, but since there are no virus definitions for it to reference, it doesn't really do anything! The first phreak who writes a virus for the Mac will achieve enough publicity that I will deal with the problem then.

cwa107 said:

Since there are no known viruses for OS X, there are no signatures to scan for.

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Is this still the case?^^^^^

pnstps said:

Is this still the case?^^^^^

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It is. There are currently no known viruses for OS X in the wild.

no viruses ^^

Wow......on apple.com they say there are 200 known ones, must not be for OS X then...thanks fellas.

pnstps said:

Wow......on apple.com they say there are 200 known ones, must not be for OS X then...thanks fellas.

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I am curious, where did you find that? I looked over the viruses part of apple.com and it looks like the number is zero.