Do macs really need a third party virus checker?

I have a MBP, and i saw a norton anti virus for the mac in PC world.

Are macs fine without a virus checker? Are third party companies just trying to cash in? Why else would they release a virus checker for Mac?

Is it worth getting one in the future? or is the built in one for macs just fine?

Also, what about firewalls? do we need to get third party software? or is the MBP's own firewall setting just fine?

Thanks

I feel macs do not NEED a virus checker or a firewall. but if you want a virus checker i suggest going with clamxav and for the firewall just turn the built in firewall on. many have said it is strong.

There is no built in virus scanner on the mac, only a built in firewall. I recomend you enable the firewall if you have not done so already.

As for virus scanners, you do not neccessarily need one now on the mac, unless you are running windows on the mac aswell, and if you are also running windows computers on your network. As your mac can not get infected with viruses, they can pass them on. So its a nice thing to do for the pc users you connect with, and share files with, to detect the virues and erase them before passing them on.

Even though mac os x does not have virues now, that is not to say that virues will not be here in the future, and for that reason it is also a good idea to have a virus scanner on your computer.

Firewall, I say yes. People can still get your personal information from a mac by simple whois type commands.

the reason to use a virus checker on a mac is if it is networked with a pc in some way. the reason is that macs have the ability to hold and transfer a virus to another machine and having antivirus will remove viruses from your mac and prevent the transfer of these viruses to your PC.

so no, 3rd party apps are not simply trying to make a buck but some there is always the ability for people to begin creating viruses for os x and then there will be mroe of a reason to have anti-virus programs


regarding firewall, i suggest a small tweak to the firewall to make it stronger than the default settings but in general it is perfectly fine.

-chris

Thanks guys, appreciate all the response, cleared things up for me.. I've got a virus checker on the windows partition..so it's cool.

No virus scanner for apple. Everyone else answered you correctly, why would I answer the same thing?

You can also check out info here on the forum's offical FAQ sticky in the Switcher Hangout:

http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23835