The thread about Switching to a Mac

[Pete]

. However you should still take every precaution possible to protect yourself, regardless of OS

What do you recommend / ?

[Wacka]

I have been using Macs since 1985. Had Norton for a few years (piece of crap for other reasons). I have only seen one virus. Back in 1986 we got one on a floppy. All it did was mess up icons. In the mid 90s, got the MS Word macro thing at work. Not really a virus- it changed the extensions of word docs. That was due to MS being crappy, not the Mac OS. Haven't had any antivirus and have had no problems.

 

I don't know if it is the one someone cited earlier, but one of the recent contests to crack a Mac let the participants have physical access to the actual computer, not access over the internet or a network.

[Dan]

I've owned Macs of various shapes and sizes since the early 90's and I've never had a virus of any kind. (Granted, my Macs are home computers and not exposed in an office network type situation.) So, I think you're definitely much safer on a Mac. However, I would never recommend that anyone not use antivrus software. I think that's a personal preference and users should take responsibility for their own systems.

 

A few quick links... just in case you haven't found them in google:

 

First Ever Virus for Mac OSX - 2006

 

Mac Virus Resources

 

It's my opinion that 90% (I just made that number up) of viruses today are adware/malware type things that take advantage of security holes in Microsoft products. So, if you own a Mac (no MS Windows) and don't use Internet Explorer and don't use MS Word; your virus threat goes to nearly non-existent. (especially if its a home machine and not wired into an office network) If you're on a PC with Windows XP/Vista and don't use Internet Explorer; your virus threat goes to very minimal. If you're on a PC, use IE, use MS Word; then you're a virus magnet.

 

Incidentally, I have Dells as well and use Norton Symantec latest version, auto updates, always runs. OK. So you'd think you're protected. But, why do all these malware type things still get on your system? Is Norton/Symantec good for anything at all? Why bother having it and updating it weekly, if you still get viruses? And on a side note, do bad kinda "wipe your whole hard drive" type viruses still exist? Seems like all I see are these malware type things that just slow your system down but don't really do any physical harm. Perhaps this is for another forum, but just rambling.