For all of you Mac guys out there.

[VSMIT]

I currently don't have virus protection for my Mac.  I know that most Mac users will say, "It's a Mac, don't worry about it," but I still worry.  There have been proof of concept viruses that work on Macs, and since they have been published, well...  You can see where I'm going with this.  Free stuff is good, but you can't really pay too much for peace of mind.

Thanks in advance.

[Cvstos]

http://www.symantec.com/norton/macintosh/antivirus

Also, I wouldn't worry too much about it. All these "in the wild" and "proof of concept" viruses require you to personally install the darn things, USING YOUR PASSWORD.  Use some common sense (example: don't download and install quote-unquote "video codecs" from porn websites) and your Mac will shrug off most any virus attack.

-From someone who is a Mac user, PC user, and Computer Science student.

[Alondro]

But I need those video codecs so I cans watch pr0n! 

[Mao]

While "I wouldn't worry too much about it" is sound advice for *nix based systems (mac inclusive) it's generally perfectly fine to have extra precautions.  All it takes is one negligent action while in root (which unless you aren't prone to doing, you shouldn't be in root anyway) or one very sly virus maker and then you've got a very big mess on your hands.

So while it's not a pressing or desperate need, a virus scanner for your mac won't kill you and might even help you in the case of a simple mistake turned disaster.

-From someone in the software development industry who also uses macs and pc's fairly equally. 

[Jairus]

I don't have much advice, but "better to be safe than sorry" is a good one. I shot off a text message to my mom last night (she works with both Macs and PCs on an almost daily basis) to see if she had any recommendations for you.

[Tapewolf]

I'd be interested in suggestions also.

Too bad AVG very foolishly made 8.0 windows-only, after a successful cross-platform 7.x release.  That and the evil things which 8.0 has been reported to do anyway has left me very firmly in the "GriSoft sucks!" camp.

Under Linux, I'm using F-prot, but it's pretty awful... even getting it to download updates is a major pain.  Something nicer would be... nice, and if it works on MacOS as well, so much the better.

(Note that while I'm not expecting anything to target a modified Kubuntu-64 installation any time soon, something to scan the win32 partitions and ~/.wine./ is dead handy)

[ShadesFox]

http://www.clamxav.com/

That does virus scanning.  My own policy is that I'll get an AV scanner when there is a virus in the wild doing damage.  Until antivirus tends to be superfluous, really only for corporate brain damage that requires AV on all systems, because they can't imagine a world with out computer viruses as a way of life.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

http://www.xkcd.com/463/ ;-]

[Tapewolf]

http://www.clamxav.com/
That does virus scanning.

Oh, now that is interesting.  Last I remember, ClamAV simply scanned email which was not particularly useful for me.  Now it seems to do disk scans as well, I'll have to give it a go.

[VSMIT]

Warning regarding ClamXAV.

[Tapewolf]

Warning regarding ClamXAV.

That was three years ago on a different version of the MacOS on a different architecture, but I'll bear it in mind.

[Jack McSlay]

From what I know, writing a virus for Linux or Mac is not much harder than writing for Windows. The difference is how to infect you computer with it, to the point this guy made a TUTORIAL telling how to infect Ubuntu with virus - http://br.youtube.com/watch?v=2XH5gmKCeKI

So, if you're not running windows apps, no need to bother

[Valynth]

The only reason Macs aren't as virus prone as windows is because the Mac OS is a minority.  Once it gets to be the main OS of the population, you'll see the same virus problems that windows has.

[Tapewolf]

The only reason Macs aren't as virus prone as windows is because the Mac OS is a minority.  Once it gets to be the main OS of the population, you'll see the same virus problems that windows has.

That' true, but it's not the only reason.  There's also the whole thing about Windows tending to run as root by default.  Vista tries to fix that, but since it breaks too many existing win32 programs, most people turn the protection off as the first thing they do.
Then there's ActiveX.  And Word.  And Outlook.  And the win32 message model, which makes code injection trivial.  And the fact that the file manager previews images by running them.

[Mao]

The only reason Macs aren't as virus prone as windows is because the Mac OS is a minority.  Once it gets to be the main OS of the population, you'll see the same virus problems that windows has.

... and the fact that it's based on a fairly secure OS.  That helps too.  It's also part of why it is/was part of the minority for a while.  That OS was, at times,  extremely hard to use.

[Jack McSlay]

The only reason Macs aren't as virus prone as windows is because the Mac OS is a minority.  Once it gets to be the main OS of the population, you'll see the same virus problems that windows has.

frankly, if it was that simple, there should have already been  a considerable amount of threats to Mac, given it has about 8% of the market share.
Like tapewolf said, *nix systems are far harder to hack than Microsoft's. Even Vista's UAC is often claimed not to be as secure as root - user separation.
Even if Mac OS reaches up to a 90% market share, I highly doubt it will be as full of threats as windows is today.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Oh, I think it will.

The major reason for that is the true morons, who are the ones who get the most infections, are still on windows, because it's cheaper.

So if MacOS takes over the market share, and they move there, they'll keep doing the stupid, oblivious things they've always done, and wonder why they've been taken advantage of.


But then, my view of the human race as a whole is fairly low.

[Mao]

Stupid people are like slinkies: They are absolutely useless but it still brings a smile to your face when you see one fall down the stairs.

Hold on to that thought llearch.. Just keep on picturing me tumbling on down the stairs and you'll feel better.

I think that were the market to suddenly shift towards mac products we would see an increase in the number of viruses that target the system and due to the increasing number of developers that would be contributing to the system (to keep up with the demand) we would see a sharp increase in vulnerabilities that could be (and therefore will be) exploited.  This might taper off a bit over time, but the bigger something gets the easier it is to overlook things.

[Valynth]

Oh, I think it will.

The major reason for that is the true morons, who are the ones who get the most infections, are still on windows, because it's cheaper.

So if MacOS takes over the market share, and they move there, they'll keep doing the stupid, oblivious things they've always done, and wonder why they've been taken advantage of.


But then, my view of the human race as a whole is fairly low.

There's also the fact that the skilled hackers and crackers follow thier prey (the stupid ones) and will start making viruses for whatever system will get them the most idiots.  As it stands that's currently windows.

[LionHeart]

The only reason Macs aren't as virus prone as windows is because the Mac OS is a minority.  Once it gets to be the main OS of the population, you'll see the same virus problems that windows has.

That' true, but it's not the only reason.  There's also the whole thing about Windows tending to run as root by default.  Vista tries to fix that, but since it breaks too many existing win32 programs, most people turn the protection off as the first thing they do.
Then there's ActiveX.  And Word.  And Outlook.  And the win32 message model, which makes code injection trivial.  And the fact that the file manager previews images by running them.

The hazards of Vista's UAC.