do i need virus protection?

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Are you going to install Windows, or peer 2 peer programs, or open attachments from people you don't know?

Then you'll only need it for fighting a case of Typhoid Mary.

ClamXav is a popular antivirus that doesn't cost anything.

Read the following:

Do You Need Anti-Virus Protection for Your Mac?

According to Rich Mogull's article, Should Mac Users Run Antivirus Software?,

"The reality is that today the Mac platform is relatively safe. There are hundreds of thousands of viruses and other malicious software programs floating around for Windows, but less than 200 are known to target the Mac, and many of those are aimed at versions of the Mac OS prior to Mac OS X (and thus have no effect on a modern Mac).

It's not that Mac OS X is inherently more secure against viruses than current versions of Windows (although it was clearly more secure than Windows prior to XP SP2); the numerous vulnerabilities reported and patched in recent years are just as exploitable as their Windows equivalents. But most security experts agree that malicious software these days is driven by financial incentives, and it's far more profitable to target the most dominant platform."

Mr. Mogull is a computer security expert. I recommend reading the entire article as it is quite informative.

For additional information on viruses, trojans, and spyware visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQs on viruses and spyware.

I went with iAntiVirus

http://www.iantivirus.com/

also free, but with one feature that ClamX doesn't appear to offer:

Real-time protection

OnGuard protects your Mac against infections in real time. Whenever an infection is detected and blocked, an alert is displayed below the system menu bar. OnGuard automatically places detected infections in quarantine, works silently in the background and uses minimal system resources.

Now, it doesn't scan for Windows malware, but then again, I don't really care as it's my opinion that Windows users are responsible for their own systems.