I just recived my brand new 13" Macbook Pro. Have been a PC user up till now. Question is: Do I need to purchase an anti-virus program for this and if so what's recommended. Have always used Norton in the past for my PC. Thx.
The general consensus is that Norton products tend to cause more problems than they fix. As Sascha suggested, ClamXAV is generally the most recommended anti-virus app for the Mac should you feel you need one:
I've been running Macs since 2003, and I've never had anti virus software installed (ok I did once but it caused issues, Norton for Mac - the joy!). Decided to ditch it. Never had a problem.
If you plan on running Windows though, you will need the same Anti Virus protection as you did with your PC.
I remember asking a PC pro what the best Anti Virus software was, and he replied Linux or Unix.
Over the last ten years I have seen many, many people here (literally hundreds) experience problems with virus checkers, David. Slow downs, runaway processes causing excessive heat, crashes, conflicts with other software, etc etc. In the worst case one well known brand, that you have already mentioned yourself, somehow managed to completely and unrecoverably erase people's saved email files.
On the other hand, I have to be honest. I DID see a virus on a Mac running System 7.5 back in about 1997. It was on a Mac that had been heavily used in an educational environment and had a remarkably comprehensive library of pirated software on its hard drive, though the virus itself seems to have arrived via floppy disk.
I'll let you work out the odds involved in the resultant "cost / benefit" equation. 😉
If you really can't "kick the habit" of having a virus checker, then the free ClamX is worth considering. But, on "form" over the last decade I'd have to say that virus checkers on Macs have proved to be far, far more dangerous than viruses themselves!
