Apple suggests Mac users install antivirus software

[Toby]

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-101...CmoreStories.0

[Cleo]

Fear of lawsuits maybe?

Personally I'm not worried unless some Mac viruses actually start showing up.

[Toby]

There have been a few Mac viruses, but a <5% market share makes their spread far less virulent than PC viruses.

Leap.A aka Oompa-Loompa virus
The Leap.A (aka Oompa-Loompa) infects applications in Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) running on PowerPC processors.

Mac.Simpson Virus
A mass-mailing email worm affecting only Macintosh OS9.0 and above, Mac.Simpson directs users to an online archive of The Simpsons episodes.

Melissa.W
Possibly arriving in the attachment, Anniv.doc, Melissa.W can only be detected by antivirus software supporting Macintosh Office 2001.

[Cleo]

There has always been a few. Back when I did consulting there was the worm that came on CDs that affected System 8. System 8.5 was released right away and then I never saw anything again.

Apple has also been very good about releasing updates and keeping ahead of security holes. Apple's market share has been really increasing lately.

Personally I've never ran any virus software and I've never had a virus.

[Toby]

Hmmmm, my own site stats certainly don't jive with the market share numbers in that article. I show 5.44% of my visitors over the last 6 months using Mac.

[Cleo]

Apple removes antivirus support page
"We have removed the KnowledgeBase article because it was old and inaccurate," Apple spokesman Bill Evans, told Macworld. "The Mac is designed with built-in technologies that provide protection against malicious software and security threats right out of the box.”

[Toby]

OK, LOL

[Simon]

When I consider all of the time I haven't ever had to spend scanning for some virus, worm or trojan, and all of the time I have not been down due to being infected, and all of the processor clock-cycles I haven't wasted, and all the data that's never been wiped out, corrupted or stolen, and the money I never spent on anti-virus software and upgrades over all the years since 1984 ... yanno... fuck the cost, I think I actually made money buying a Mac.

[digifan]

Very true, Simon.

[Toby]

I'll go on record now that a Mac user, not necessarily someone posting in this thread, will post to the board in 2009 crying about their Mac being infected.

[Agent]

If Apple's Knowledge Base is anything like Microsoft's their KB articles are written by the jagoffs working the phone tech support. They start off as "solution objects" then a jagoff higher up signs off on it. It would be easy for something like that recommendation to be overlooked, even if the official word is "don't promote anti-virus."

Hopefully heads will roll. The pristineness of my Apple products has been tarnished by the asshole who wrote that.

[stuveltje]

i didnt readed that message in the news,i got an email about it , beats me why, i dont have an apple, but i first thougt was........CLEO ( heay you are the mac girl)

[SirMoby]

Originally Posted by Toby

Hmmmm, my own site stats certainly don't jive with the market share numbers in that article. I show 5.44% of my visitors over the last 6 months using Mac.

Mac users love boots.