Q: heard 2 days ago first mac virus

I was surprised to read your harsh criticism of this considering all the positive reviews and ad space it receives.

FWIW, here is my opinion and what I am basing it on:

1. It receives ad space because it is paying for ad space - simple.

2. Positive reviews can be obtained by paying for them. There are people available for such "reviews". Googling it comes up with these:

http://www.google.com/search?q=make+money+by+writing+reviews&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&a q=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

(if that link does not work in Safari, simply google "make money by writing reviews")

3. I was - unfortunately - caught in a circle of havoc because of it and it took several hours and an erase and clone back to escape it.

OK, ok. I read one headline in a mac magazine (3.5 mice out of 5). But there are some lengthy and detailed comments that support your opinions (all y'all).

"harsh" was an overstatement.

I read one headline in a mac magazine (3.5 mice out of 5).

The reviewer probably didn't try to uninstall MacKeeper until after the article was published, or it would have been much lower.  He/she was probably also completely unaware of some of the unethical things the comapny behind MacKeeper has done.  They even tried to pay me to change my blog post!

Alias_alas wrote:

 

Would you mind posting some alternatives to MacKeeper please?

 

I was surprised to read your harsh criticism of this considering all the positive reviews and ad space it receives. What are you basing this opinion on?

 

Thanks

Did you read this?

Further opinion on it and how to uninstall MacKeeper malware:

http://applehelpwriter.com/2011/09/21/how-to-uninstall-mackeeper-malware/

Do NOT download or use the ‘MacKeeper uninstaller’ from the Zeobit site, as this will cause even more damage to your operating system.

This is also worth reading:

http://www.reedcorner.net/news.php/?p=245

And since when is 3.5 an endorsement?

Thomas wasn't endorsing anything with that 3.5 rating. The sentence you pulled that information from was Thomas quoting Alias_alas, who made the actual comment.

Yep, clicked on the wrong Reply link.

Ah! I've never done that.

keith contarino wrote:

 

PC friends tell me first mac virus discovered last week

 

True?

Heard wrong ....

but I wasn't endorsing it either.

my initial comment was one of surprise. and it didn't seem to me that there was any supporting evidence in the post for the claims.

thanks to everyone who pointed out the dubious nature of the company behind this bloated piece of sap ware.

in fact I just followed phil Stokes's excellent "how to" dig out all the various files that mac keeper left behind after trialing it (for about 3 minutes a few months ago).

easy find rocks!

Allan Eckert wrote:

 

I would be interested in where you found those positive reviews.

Just Google "MacKeeper reviews." You will find lots of hits on the first page of results, all with glowing reviews & user comments raving about how great it is ... & all from sites you have probably never heard of before, many of which include a disclaimer page (if you look for it) stating that the reviewers and/or site 'may' receive some form of compensation for their 'opinions.'

The MacWorld review that gave an early version 3.5 stars is there too, but easy to overlook among all these pretty obviously paid reviews.

Alias_alas wrote:

 

in fact I just followed phil Stokes's excellent "how to" dig out all the various files that mac keeper left behind after trialing it (for about 3 minutes a few months ago).

Stokes' method is a bit over the top. You do not need to remove the indicated caches, logs, receipts, or preferences to 'neuter' the utility, although doing so won't hurt anything & will save a bit of HD space. Just removing the executable & especially the LaunchDaemons files will prevent it from runningor having any other influence on your Mac.

You also don't need to securely empty the trash -- there is no way for the trashed files to somehow 'untrash' themselves once the trash is emptied normally.

R C-R wrote:

 

Alias_alas wrote:

 

in fact I just followed phil Stokes's excellent "how to" dig out all the various files that mac keeper left behind after trialing it (for about 3 minutes a few months ago).

Stokes' method is a bit over the top.

I prefer to think of it as 'thorough' in order to return a machine to the state before MK. The BOM's are arguable, but I see no reason to leave anything at all on there.

Securely emptying the trash ensures the data space gets written over rather than MK being actually still on your system but unrecognized. I haven't looked in the MK package contents to see what if, any, personal user info is written/copied there. Secure trash is just a precaution to make sure that nothing related to MK remains readable on your disk.

PC friends tell me first mac virus discovered last week

Mac OS X, with its Unix-based file system and kernel, is harder to infect with a self-replicating program.

Unlike Windows, Mac OS X applications don't share a common registry.  Mac OS X applications use individual preference files, thus the types of global configuration changes which enable so much of Windows malware is simply not as feasible on a Mac.

but I wasn't endorsing it either.

Didn't say you were. I understood your meaning as "it didn't even deserve a 3.5".