My Mac unbelievably has a virus (or flu)?

nbar wrote:

If you are going to link the OP to an article based on the technical distinction, why would you imply they are synonymous? Was the whole point of your technical distinction not to differentiate between the two?

Then you missed the whole point of the article which was written by Thomas after a great deal of frustration here in the ASC over those who made the same statement as you did.

In his last comment he states

Thomas says:

...the larger point behind this article is that saying “there are no Mac viruses” is misleading precisely because the novice computer user does not understand the difference between a trojan and a virus...

If you are going to link the OP to an article based on the technical distinction, why would you imply they are synonymous? Was the whole point of your technical distinction not to differentiate between the two? I mean no offense, but that is more misleading than the statement, "No viruses currently infect OSX," which is, in itself, correct.

I think you are missing the point. There, I was simply trying to get the OP to read Thomas Reed's excellent response to this most insistent and pernicious type of zombie reply to the question "does my Mac have a virus," that there are no viruses for OSX, when almost anyone who asks if they have a virus means to ask "has my Mac been infected by something."

The real thrust of Thomas's comments, while they do discuss the technical definition of virus, and even go so far as to say that there have been cases where there have been "virus like" infections, is to get people like kaufmann87 to begin to consider what effect they are having with that kind of automatic reply.

In fact, it is an extreme rarity that any post starting with the topic "do I have a virus" leads to the possibility of a real exploit being the cause. It is almost always sufficient just to say that "no, your situation is very unlikely to have been caused by a virus, and just formulate a reply that indicates further troubleshooting is necessary, or that it sounds like it is most likely being caused by x, y or z, without any need for any technical discussion of the meaning of the term "virus" whatsoever.

I think we are on the same page, and I have discussed this with Mr. Reed here:

would it be recomended If I install a antivirus or some software to keep clean and secure my mac?

There is no need to argue about something we both agree on and have the same intentions in getting across. My apolgies for any hostility or confusion. Cheers.

My post is 100% correct, no viruses currently exist for OS X. If you can document one, just one virus then I will stand corrected.Until then please don't slam other posters, you may have a different point of view but to tell someone to simply ignore another's post when it's correct doesn't make it less correct.

rkaufmann87 wrote:

My post is 100% correct, no viruses currently exist for OS X.

Nobody here said you incorrect, just that your comment was not helpful to the OP who may or may not be infected by malware. Moonbeam Girl probably understood you to say her machine is not affected by malware as none exist for OS X and that is not true.

I'd be happy to discuss the alleged existence of OS X viruses in the past in a separate thread, but Thomas' postings already cover all that and it contributes nothing to helping the OP in this topic.

Moonbeam Girl wrote:

... Husband has installed Avast by forum recommendation and hopefully I'm safe.

You are not safe as long as Avast remains installed.

Delete it and do not reinstall it.

This is the exact reason that assuming a virus was the cause of your problems will only mislead you into taking actions that won't help and can only make things worse.

If nothing else, that premature conclusion provoked others into inserting misleading and unhelpful distractions to this Discussion. If you are still having trouble I suggest you start a new one. In it, please include the EtreCheck results suggested earlier. It will provide system details that remain unknown and are required to advance troubleshooting.

I think I will bring this issue to the attention of the Hosts to ask if in the future replies, or statements within replies, like Kaufmann's, that unequivocally assert that there are no viruses for OSX, when it is obvious that the OP isn't asking about viruses, but any kind of malware, while not at least mentioning that, besides viruses, there is malware to which Macs are vulnerable, be edited out through the Report post button.

I don't want to have to go through this each time this occurs, since it seems Kaufmann, as well as some others, stubbornly refuse to acknowledge just how misleading and potentially harmful such automatic, contextless statements are.

Thomas, if you see this it would be helpful if you'd care to chime in when I post this topic to the Hosts, which I probably won't do until Monday in order to get maximum attention to it there.

And I feel the same way, that posts such as WZZ that make inflammatory remarks about someone who is telling the truth should be removed. I don't feel this is the Hosts job, nothing written violated Terms of Use.

WZZ seems to feel that because I have a different point of view than he/she does my posts are misleading. I've attempted to make peace in the past with WZZ however he/she seems to feel that if you don't agree you must be wrong.

There was nothing inflammatory or impolite in any of my posts. I can not speak for them on this issue, but the Hosts can, at their discretion, remove posts or statements of a technical nature that are potentially damaging or harmful.

And it is clear that you still don't get it because this was never an issue about whether or not what you have said is true or not.

Just to clarify:

There are many forms of ‘Malware’ that can affect a computer system, of which ‘a virus’ is but one type, ‘trojans’ another. Using the strict definition of a computer virus, no viruses that can attack OS X have so far been detected 'in the wild', i.e. in anything other than laboratory conditions. The same is not true of other forms of malware, such as Trojans. Whilst it is a fairly safe bet that your Mac will NOT be infected by a virus, it may have other security-related problem, but more likely a technical problem unrelated to any malware threat.

You may find this User Tip on Viruses, Trojan Detection and Removal, as well as general Internet Security and Privacy, useful: The User Tip seeks to offer guidance on the main security threats and how to avoid them.

https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-2435

More useful information can also be found here:

www.thesafemac.com/mmg

<Edited by Host>

Is this for real? Where did I ever say that kaufmann wasn't "correct" about there being no viruses for OSX? Did you actually read my posts? You appear to have missed the entire point.

And speaking of throwing flames.

Nor do you WZZ. I'm bored, time for me to leave this thread.

This same issue was discussed with Mr. Reed, whom I would love to chime in on this post, as I indicated above in my response:

"I think we are on the same page, and I have discussed this with Mr. Reed here:

would it be recomended If I install a antivirus or some software to keep clean and secure my mac?

nbar wrote:

This same issue was discussed with Mr. Reed, whom I would love to chime in on this post

I'll ring him up...

"I think we are on the same page, and I have discussed this with Mr. Reed here:

would it be recomended If I install a antivirus or some software to keep clean and secure my mac?

Note that I was present for that discussion, as well.