Hi all,
My new Macbook pro has arrived and i LOVE it - no more pc's for me!!
I have set it up with VMware Fusion so i can still run one or two applications that require windows but the rest of the machine will be totally Mac. I will be using it for all day to day stuff as well as video editing. My question is, do people here use any antivirus on the Mac and if so what would you recommend?
Mike
It sounds irresponsible to say "I've never found the need to bother" - and tempting fate too!
But...."I've never found the need to bother." I've also never had a Mac virus. That's using several Macs both at work and at home, in business and for recreation, since the late 1980s.
It surely has to be just a matter of time, though, before the Mac brigade is targetted in the same way that the PC/Windows lot are. Apple are no corporate angels.....
Agreed - but everyone's been saying that for years. This is all not to say Macs don't have other problems though.
I don't use antivirus on my laptop. using vista64. instead, have spybot and similar malware tools, and occasionally run an external virus checker through it. never had any infections.
main edit machine also no AV.
main email machine DOES have AV, though long time since i saw anything. all machines have spybot etc.
Hi
Don't (= DON'T) try running a virus checker on an edit Mac whilke it is being used for capture or editing. It destroys performance.
Those of you who remember Kevin Mitnick http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Mitnick will know that the way to hack into a secure (= Unix or similar) computer is to con the necessary access/administrator passwords by old fashioned face-to-face or phone deception.
Its only since Windows that hackers have been able to rampantly flourish by back-door direct entry.
Whilst there may be ways to get malware code into a Mac's system, once there it soon runs up against the block of Unix's inherent security damage limitation.
Unless you've conned (by old-fashioned means) the Mac owner to type in the administrator password....
Of course a Mac can pass on Windows malware if it is part of a cross-platform network, so there is still the need for caution in a mixed OS situation.
It surely has to be just a matter of time, though, before the Mac brigade is targetted in the same way that the PC/Windows lot are.
The big difference though, as Paul rightly points out, is that a virus or Malware cannot gain control of OS X like it can on Windows. For malicious code to be able to execute you would have to type in your password and install it.
It was funny a year or so ago when someone found a Mac trojan or something in a video codec. Yet for it to run you had to go to a dodgy porn website, download the codec, type in your admin password for it to install etc. Not like Windows where Active X programs can just run, or Outlook will open an attachment without you knowing about it.
Hi all and thanks for the info.
This is all good news as far as my new shiny Mac is concerned, but what about the Windows installation on the Mac? Is that a problem or is that isolated by virtue of it being on a host machine running OSx?
Mike
quote> Not like Windows where Active X programs can just run, or Outlook will open an attachment without you knowing about it.
1. yes , activex can , but user has to set that as an option ....... mad if you do
2. Outlook will ........ no , again , you have to tell it to , and again , if you do that , you will have more problems than executables to worry about.
try opening many attachments in Outlook and you'll see how many don't open by defauklt on a properly installed version.
wot he said.
Personally, Im only ever connect my Mac to the net for updates.
I used to have a PC edit system that was also my surfer and somehow buggered it up a couple of times by getting odd viruses.
Once bitten...