it's worth having. there have been mac viruses, but the last one had it's own cure, and was aimed at os 9. i use the demo from sophos.com, you can always get the update free, and it will check a mac for pc viruses and vice versa, and runs faster than any other av i've seen.
if a lot of files are downloaded, it's worth having, and it's worth while to check sophos.com and norton.com etc. if you think you have a virus for news of any new mac/bsd virus (it's very likely that many viruses aimed at bsd versions of *nix will work on the mac, big holes have been found and patched, before wide scale exploitation, if any though any one who had found this hole could do any thing they wanted to your machine). mac os x/bsd viruses are coming, the os is becoming a bigger and more interesting target. no big os x viruses so far, but they will happen, best to have a clue when they do. i'd consider a firewall more important however, even a "software" fire wall. in any case, safe practices, depending on who will be using the machine for what. i wouldn't worry a lot about os x security, but i'd expect some problems in the future, but i also expect very fast patches from apple etc. as we've seen with the big hole in bsd/os x (which uses a lot of bsd code without any changes for things like tcp etc.). there will be holes, there will be patches, eventually there will be virue/exploits, eventually one of them will be major even with a patch being rapidly available. it's more important to keep up with patches than to run antivirus software regularly. the good news is you can patch os x before being hacked online. on a pc, your' likely to have a successful intrusion into your machine within 15 minutes, well before you could download all of the security and other patches to windows, so there isn't much to do with a pc online without a good hardware firewall to hold off the hordes while you patch the os. with os x, you can download and run all the patches, before being hacked in all likely hood even without a firewall. Eric Dannewitz wrote: > > I dunno about it being snake oil, but the number of viruses on the > Macintosh OS X are very few, but there are ones out there. The nature of > the system makes it difficult to get a virus, but it's not impossible. > > My own take on this is that, if there is a major virus outbreak for OS > X, you'll hear about it. Sites like MacNN, or MacDailyNews would talk > about it. And at that point I'd consider getting some protection. I > currently have no virus software on my Macs (Windows XP needs it). And I > don't see myself getting any in the near future.....I'd rather invest in > a good utility program like TechTool or something....... > > Bruce Johnson wrote: ----- -- President George W. Bush, Vice President Richard B. Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, and Attorney General John D. Ashcroft have committed violations and subversions of the Constitution of the United States of America. <www.VoteToImpeach.org> They should be charged with high treason and imprisoned frankly. If there is no rule of law there can be no civilization. -- G-List is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- We have Apple Refurbished Monitors in stock! | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> G-List list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/g-list%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
