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It shouldn't be a surprise, really. Absolutely NO computer or operating system is impervious to a virus attack, not even Mac OS X.
The likelihood, on the other hand, is not very high. There are over 100,000 different viruses that plague the Windows OS. There currently are none for OS X. This doesn't mean that there couldn't be, it just means that as of now there aren't any.
Mac OS X does come with a firewall, but no anti-virus protection. You will likely be fine without any. It has nothing to do with market-share but more to do with how the OS handles files and such. Even if you did get a virus (should one ever exist), the steps you would have to go through to get it installed and working on your system, then transfer it to someone else and have them follow the exact same scenario are far too lengthy and involved for any virus to truly be successful on the Mac OS X platform.
A virus is only truly successful if it can be transmitted and replicated on another machine quickly and efficiently. The very structure of the Mac OS and how it handles files prevents that smooth and easy transmittal, so virus writers are not apt to bother with writing viruses for Mac OS.
:black:
The likelihood, on the other hand, is not very high. There are over 100,000 different viruses that plague the Windows OS. There currently are none for OS X. This doesn't mean that there couldn't be, it just means that as of now there aren't any.
Mac OS X does come with a firewall, but no anti-virus protection. You will likely be fine without any. It has nothing to do with market-share but more to do with how the OS handles files and such. Even if you did get a virus (should one ever exist), the steps you would have to go through to get it installed and working on your system, then transfer it to someone else and have them follow the exact same scenario are far too lengthy and involved for any virus to truly be successful on the Mac OS X platform.
A virus is only truly successful if it can be transmitted and replicated on another machine quickly and efficiently. The very structure of the Mac OS and how it handles files prevents that smooth and easy transmittal, so virus writers are not apt to bother with writing viruses for Mac OS.
:black: