[shigzeo]

yah, there just are not real virus for macs available. but, we download the same files as pc users for many things. though our browsers do not have the same vulnerabilities and other stuff, we often (often yes, have windows virus on our machines that does nothing until we share files in some way, then... bad stuff happens to our friends who own windows computers).

responsible computing, only you can prevent bad stuffs

 

[Dorito123]

YouTube - Japanese Get A Mac CM 7 Subtitled "Security"

Funny!

 

[krmathis]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dorito123 /img/forum/go_quote.gif YouTube - Japanese Get A Mac CM 7 Subtitled "Security" Funny!

 

[colonelkernel8]

Quote:

Originally Posted by shigzeo /img/forum/go_quote.gif without any fanboy esque posting... i must say as a mac user and a unix user, in the increasingly networked village we work and live in, AV software is a must. as a mac user, we don't have problems with them nor have very good options for AV software but... we cannot just let virus fester on our macs that inherently we download etc. probably many of us have virus on our computers in one way or another. naturally it does not affect us, but if we take our computer without checking it for virus, we can connect to a windows network, share files and cause havoc for the it department. we have to take responsibility even though our software is not yet or very rarely affected by virus. it is just not fair to our windows brothers and sisters. often we choose osx or more likely linux/unix for political reasons and a superiority complex or just as it is cheaper to run, but we really need to accept the fact that we can spread the evil love without ourselves being affected.

Essentially Mac users are plague-rats. I'm game for that metaphor.

 

[averydonovan]

Antivirus software is a waste of system resources and money. Virtually any virus or worm that has been created in the past half-decade requires some sort of user action for it to propagate and do its damage, and it doesn't take a whole lot to avoid those things. I have never had to do anything particularly special to avoid viruses and have never been infected by one on any OS I've ran.

 

[Wmcmanus]

Quote:

Originally Posted by colonelkernel8 /img/forum/go_quote.gif I wonder why its always the Mac users who have trouble with PC's? Are they incompetent with PC's because they are Mac users or did they switch to Mac after having so many problems with PC's because they were inherently incompetent with them?

Yup, that's me! I'm done with Windows and ain't looking back... proud to say I'm incompetent and that there's a company out there that is wise enough to cater to folks like me who use their computers as tools but don't have the desire or inclination to become techies.

 

[grawk]

Trust me, it's not lack of competence with pcs that sends people to macs. For me, it's because I don't WANT to spend all my time dealing with the ******** just to use a computer. It takes more work to keep a windows xp laptop working right than it takes to keep a $20mil supercomputer working right. That's just not right.

The department of defense mandates that computers running windows aren't allowed on secure networks. That should tell you something fairly important.

 

[averydonovan]

I didn't really read through this thread much before my first response, but after reading a little bit more I have some things to add.

Windows, provided the applications and drivers being used are stable, is a pretty competent desktop computing platform. It has a ton of applications available and can use a wider range of hardware than any other OS out there. If properly administered a Windows box can remain functional for quite a long time and not suffer from viruses or spyware or other maladies. I have ran every consumer version of Windows starting with Windows 98 SE and have never had a virus.

What caused me to switch from Windows was not security, but simply a buggy NVIDIA SATA driver in Windows Vista that prevented me from using iTunes and QuickTime. Given that I don't feel like trusting a buggy driver for something as essential as my hard drive data and really liked my newly acquired iPod touch, I knew I had to do something. XP would not recognize my onboard sound and I could not get any driver to work for it so that was not an option. My old iBook did what I needed except for gaming, and installing Ubuntu on my desktop (replacing Vista) allowed me to run the games I wanted to (mainly World of Warcraft). As far as security goes, that was a complete non-issue in my decision to switch. I'm platform agnostic anymore and care far more about what I can do on an OS than anything else. For a long time Windows served my primary needs best and now Mac OS X does. In the future something else will replace OS X.

Windows Vista, Mac OS X, and Linux all have major security vulnerabilities due to what is between the keyboard and the chair. Granted administrator access, a bad app can wreak havoc on any system. Although it doesn't seem to have been done yet, it is perfectly possible for OS X and Linux to run spyware or get infected by some other malware. All a user has to do is click "Grant Access" to some popup dialog box and allow an app to run with full privileges. Windows did make it easier to allow malware to work on a system prior to User Account Control in Windows Vista but even so, just a little caution went a long way with XP and prior.

 

[Sparky191]

Quote:

Originally Posted by grawk /img/forum/go_quote.gif Trust me, it's not lack of competence with pcs that sends people to macs. For me, it's because I don't WANT to spend all my time dealing with the ******** just to use a computer. It takes more work to keep a windows xp laptop working right than it takes to keep a $20mil supercomputer working right. That's just not right.

I'm puzzled at what you need to do. For example My father in law is running XP for 5 or 6 years. Never been reinstalled, the only thing I ever need to do on that PC is show him how do to the odd thing. I used to get called down after one of the grandchildren had changed his settings. But setting up limited user accounts solved that. But since hes 76, and only started using computers a few years back, I think hes doing pretty well. Uses Skype, email and the internet mostly. Some of my Mac using friends get me help them with stuff too, I don't see any difference in maintaining either system tbh.


Quote:

Originally Posted by grawk /img/forum/go_quote.gif The department of defense mandates that computers running windows aren't allowed on secure networks. That should tell you something fairly important.

Didn't know that. Do you have any links to that.
Federal agencies miss deadline on secure configs

 

[epsilon72]

I use linux, so I don't really need AV protection. I do have a linux AV client that I use to scan my windows hard drives from time to time.

 

[grawk]

I don't have any public links to share on the rules regarding secure networks, no.

 

[devin_mm]

I despise AV programs they eat up too many resources and scan at all the wrong times (I know you can change the scanning time but that doesn't help with my schedule). There are no current virus' in the wild for OS X (there are some proof of concept ones but they don't count). If you are competent you shouldn't have virus issues in Windows but if you are paranoid (and competent) I would suggest running Autoruns on your computer whenever you get the urge. It's a fantastic program, combine it with Process Explorer and CACLs and you can remove the vast majority --about 95% I'd say -- of virus' and spyware (or really bork your system either way). This is coming from a person with runs OS X and Vista on his notebook (OS X my primary, Vista is for games), administers a 200 person network, and runs a Linux server using CentOS.

 

[FrederikS|TPU]

I work as a computer technician here in little Denmark, and roughly 70% of the PCs we get with software malfunctions are somehow related to people installing malware, not virus or anything like that. It is the seemingly harmless programs that cause the most damage to operating systems on a large scale. So my advice: "Stay the hell away form any "System optimzer software" they are way more harmfull than 90% of the virus' out there!

That being said a good antivirus software like Kaspersky or McAfee enterprise is always nice because it will block 99% of the malware programs before they do any real damage.

A good antivirus software does not take up a lot of system resource only the crappy ones like Norton, F-Secure, Avast, McAfee home, waist precious system resources. Remember almost all antivirus software offers a degree of customization that allows you to specify how much intrusion you will allow.

 

[ilovesocks]

Antivirus software is completely unnecessary for both Macs and PCs.
































As long as you run Linux.

Or GNU.

Or BSD.

EDIT: Or Mac OS X.

 

[shigzeo]

you could also just not ever connect it to internet. keep out the ethernet cable and turn off your wifi. quite sure that is safe. why do business not do this as it would save all the hassle of setting up a virus scanner. i may propose this to my it department.