Official antivirus, malware, and firewall FAQ

[schweb]

Well, yes, that's true. I've heard people make this claim before on Mac discussion lists. And I think that it's a red herring.

Randy, it's not a red herring it's the truth. Your statements are mostly value judgements made off of a personal decision whether AV is appropriate or not. Just because you don't agree with that fact doesn't negate it from being the truth.

Some developers have chosen to ignore this tenet. And all of their programs are now known for flaky behavior. Microsoft Word is one of those.

What? I've used MS Office, as have millions of others, and I would hardly call Word a flaky program. Again, this is pointing out your personal bias in lieu of the facts.

I have no problem saying that I personally can't recommend fully interactive AV software based on what I know about it. I know plenty about it.

The official position of the forum FAQ can also take a neutral stance based on what we know about it. We would rather be unbiased and allow the end user to decide.

Fortunately Apple has our backs and offers their own protection from malware right in the Mac OS. And there is a dearth of Mac malware. So it's not like users who go without fully interactive AV software are opening themselves up to a huge risk.

So what does Apple offer exactly? As far as I'm aware, there is no security-specific applications blocking Malware on 10.6 or 10.7. And if so, it seemed to fail pretty miserably against MacDefender until Apple released a patch for it a few weeks later.

And that's the point of the FAQ, is to neutrally lay out the facts and allow people to choose based on the risk level they desire to accept.

Perhaps the FAQ should be updated to emphasize some of the points Randy is making regarding Snow Leopard and later with regards to how Apple is providing malware protection. With supporting links, of course.

We are in the process of updating and rewriting the FAQ, thanks for the feedback.