which is the best antivirus for a mac?

i didn't have them running i just had them on my machine sorry for the mixup

Which means they were of absolutely no danger to your Mac.

correct they were no danger but i rather keep my system clean from any malware even if it doesn't run on mac.

First, note that you're responding to a topic that is almost a year and a half old. The person you're responding to hasn't been active in these forums for quite some time.

if anybody tells you that you don't need antivirus software do NOT listen to them.

That's a bit extreme, though I suppose it's true in its way. By the same token, I would say that anyone who says you must use anti-virus also shouldn't be listened to. The truth is somewhere in the middle, and anyone who is not considering both sides of the issue isn't giving the best advice.

i had a number of windows virus and malware running on my system and i had to flush them out with kaspersky.

Good thing Kaspersky didn't flush out your data with them. One Kaspersky tool was known to do that. Kaspersky isn't something I would recommend.

If anybody suggests using clamxav don't bother using it. It doesn't detect anything its complete junk.

Again, far too extreme. ClamXav certainly does detect things, although it doesn't have as complete a database of signatures as some. It also detects far more than others.

you could also use avast since that is good also.

No, Avast has a problem with repeatedly identifying parts of the system as malware, and has caused a number of other problems in recent months. I've seen quite a lot of Avast problem report here just in the last couple weeks.

I recommended my Mac Malware Guide a year and a half ago... I'll recommend it once again for anyone else coming across this topic.

actually thomas i did look at your malware guide which is why i use virus barrier express as well as kaspersky. i never had any luck with clamxav which is why i wouldn't recommend it. But to each their own i guess. i did have some good luck with avast but i think kaspersky is better.

i never had any luck with clamxav which is why i wouldn't recommend it.

I don't really recommend ClamXav either, but I think it's unfair to characterize it as junk. The guy behind it is a good guy, and he works hard. But the ClamAV folks don't support him well, and put barriers in front of him, and he's only one guy, so there are some things that ClamXav will miss.

By my testing, Avast is most definitively better than Kaspersky in terms of detections. However, Avast has a lot of stability and false positive issues. I don't recommend either of those highly.

i'm not saying the guy who made clamxav isn't a good guy he definately put a lot of hard work into it. But i wouldn't recommend using it though. If he had a few more people helping him out then maybe his antivirus would be alot better. can you please check out my thread on third party firewalls and give me your opinion thomas. since your experienced i highly value what you have to say.

I saw that topic, and didn't really have much to add... I fully agree with what Michael Black already said there.