I was conviced for many years that mac os does not need a antivirus software, as heard from everybody, except one that made me start thinking of a need of installing smth. that protects my computer. Should I install smth?
mark
mac mini 1gb ram | studio display 21 G3,
Mac OS X (10.4.8),
ipod 5thg
Just do a search within these forums and you'll find endless debates on this topic. At the very least, Norton AntiVirus will detect Windows viruses in mail attachments and prevent you from forwarding them to other users. That's my 2.1 cents for the day...
I use ClamX, as well as ChkRootKit. Both are free. But to answer the original question...
"I was conviced for many years that mac os does not need a antivirus software, as heard from everybody, except one that made me start thinking of a need of installing smth. that protects my computer. Should I install smth?"
.. well the way I look at it, is, currently there are no known Mac Viruses for OSX, giving the Apple O/S many years of trouble free computing, which is unheard of in the software world. Now, would you buy a lock, for the barn door, to keep someone sneaky from trying to steal your horses? I would. Would I pay for a
*really expensive
* one now, even though there haven't been any horse thieves around for years, and the ones that used to steal horses were in another state (i.e. "classic" environment). No, I would not pay a lot of money for virus software right now (in fact, I won't pay anything).
Therefore, just download the above (2) freeware programs now, from Versiontracker, and you should be fine, if and until, the horse thieves ever make their way back into town!
At the very least, Norton AntiVirus will detect Windows viruses in mail attachments and prevent you from forwarding them to other users.
A noble and proper motivation, and the only real justification, for installing any anti-virus software on a Mac - like the free ClamXav.
Norton will mangle your Mac. It is incompatible with Tiger. Symantic have had to pay out a fortune in compensation to a Chinese university for that reason.
Norton will mangle your Mac. It is incompatible with
Tiger. Symantic have had to pay out a fortune in
compensation to a Chinese university for that reason.
Norton Utilities has been known to cause problems on OS X. Many people use Norton Antivirus with no problem.
I think you definitely do not need an antivirus. It will only waste your CPU and RAM and will give you no benefits. PC users have their antiviruses, they care themselves.