[Jolt21]

once i get to college, my school will give me symantec for really cheap...however, i need a temp antivirus prog right now to hold me over till then...anyone know of any?

[TETENAL]

You don't need an anti-virus program for Mac OS X because no virus exists for Mac OS X. Microsoft Office might be able to run some Office macro viruses, so you should turn off macro execution in Office if you own that and don't open any "funny" PowerPoint presentations people mail you, but that's it.

[maxintosh]

What he said -- all you need to do is download the Security Updates when OS X alerts you to them. No wild (spreading) viruses exist on Mac OS X, at all. (Part of why we love our Macs!!!) Virus software will only slow down your machine.

[wataru]

To actually answer the original poster's question, I don't think there are any. The only two commercial virus software that come to mind are Norton Antivirus and Virex. Virex sucks horribly, so if you're really interested I'd look into Norton.

[malvolio]

Norton AntiVirus sucks even worse than Virex.
There's also Sophos, but that is very expensive and aimed at a business clientele.
Anyhow, the only reason to run an antivirus program on OS X currently is to avoid accidentally passing along Windoze viruses to your Windoze-using friends.
On second thought, it would serve them right, the fools.

[wataru]

I've heard much better things about Norton AntiVirus than Virex. Virex just down-and-out blows.

[Forte]

There's also Virus Barrier X, from Intego - www.intego.com .

[headbirth]

I'm sure eventually Viruses will show up in X. Why not begin a free OpenSource project. Maybe even start with the Clam project.

http://www.clamav.net/

[Sven G]

Originally posted by headbirth:
I'm sure eventually Viruses will show up in X. Why not begin a free OpenSource project. Maybe even start with the Clam project.

http://www.clamav.net/

... Which quite appropriately also happens to be available in Fink:

http://fink.sourceforge.net/pdb/package.php/clamav

[Millennium]

Originally posted by TETENAL:
You don't need an anti-virus program for Mac OS X because no virus exists for Mac OS X. Microsoft Office might be able to run some Office macro viruses, so you should turn off macro execution in Office if you own that and don't open any "funny" PowerPoint presentations people mail you, but that's it.

This advice is naive and foolish; do not listen to it. There are no known viruses which can infect Macs (except Office macro viruses), but we can still become carriers.

We are more secure, but we are not invincible. Ignore this fact at not only your own peril, but that of the computers around you.

[larkost]

Millennium: Who cares if a computer can be a carrier? With the internet it is not like a file residing on a macintosh is going to be the likely transmission vector for a virus. Someone is going to have to purposely open a infected file on a PC lacking proper anti-virus software, and these days there are almost no viruses out there, only worms, so the file is going to have to be an executable.

In comparison the latest figures show that such an unpatched computer will only last 20 minutes on a direct internet connection before it is infected with a worm from an infected PC (macs cannot be the host in that case, only infected Windows computers). Any PC that does not have up-to-date virus protection on the computer is wholly at fault if it gets infected. No-one else is to blame... especially not a "carrier".

While it is true that there could be a virus or a worm in the wild at any moment for MacOS X, you only have to look at all the Sturm and Drang that the last couple of "Mac viruses" (never exploited for any malicious purposes) to see that if there was something real to worry about (that virus companies would know about) that everyone would quickly know.

My opinion is that people on MacOS X do not need anti-virus programs at this point. You are only wasting money (unless you trade Microsoft Office Documents with a lot of people... then we have macro viruses to worry about). The argument that you are protecting others is only a false sense of security for others: more than just a waste of money. If a virus for the Mac ever comes out, then it will be time to re-evaluate.

[Synotic]

To the "we are not invincible" comment; of course not. But is there any reason to believe that an anti-virus manufacturer would be more quick on the uptake than Apple who could deliver a security update?

[Angus_D]

Originally posted by Synotic:
To the "we are not invincible" comment; of course not. But is there any reason to believe that an anti-virus manufacturer would be more quick on the uptake than Apple who could deliver a security update?

Certainly, yes. Not only are security vulnerabilities and viruses different things, but AV manufacturers tend to release virus definitions and cleaning utilities within 24 hours of a discovery in the wild. It takes Apple days, if not weeks to resolve well publicised security vulnerabilities which SOMEONE ELSE HAS ALREADY FIXED. This is due to their policy of integration and QA, which is probably a good thing. You should also note that Apple knows about hundreds of (potential) security vulnerabilities in OS X that have existed for longer than weeks, but they do nothing about them. So yes, there certainly is.

[Maflynn]

Originally posted by larkost:
Millennium: Who cares if a computer can be a carrier?

I care, while at the moment no viruses exist, I do not want to be a person that sends a virus to my friends and family - or anybody else that resides in my address book.

regardless of how many mac's are on the internet at any given time means very little to me if I send an office virus to someone - apathetic attitudes like this just give a rich feeding ground to people who write and spread viruses.

Mike

[TETENAL]

Anti-virus software does not protect from security vulnerabilities. What it does protect from is from known viruses. There are currently no known viruses for Mac OS X which means that anti-virus software on OS X protects you from nothing.

Once a virus becomes known for OS X you must update your anti-virus software to recognise this virus. This can as well be the first time you install anti-virus software at all.

But before a virus is known for OS X anti-virus software does nothing to protect you. It just sucks CPU time and did cost you money. If the original poster can get anti-virus software cheap at college soon, there is no need to rush and purchase anti-virus software now.

With regard to Mac being a carrier for Windows viruses: It's true that you can receive a Windows virus by mail. It would then be a "carrier" of said virus, but carrying a Windows virus is completely harmless for a Mac. It's also true that a Windows computer could be infected if you would forward such a mail including the attachment to it. But why on earth would anybody forward spam mail including a virus attachment? There is no chance that you unintentionally forward something like that. So you don't really need anti-virus software for that as well.
Also note that Virex does not seem to be able to scan Mail's mailboxes. It only detects a virus when you save the attachment. Again, who would save a virus – i. e. a file that is not readable on Mac and appears to have no value – to disk and then create a new mail and attach it again? Unless intentionally sending a virus.
Just with a minimal amount of care (which you need with or without anti-virus software) simply you will not forward viruses.

Remains the Office macro viruses some of which may be run by Office:mac as well. If you exchange Office documents with the macro feature enabled, you might want to consider anti-virus software.

[wataru]

Originally posted by Sven G:
... Which quite appropriately also happens to be available in Fink:

http://fink.sourceforge.net/pdb/package.php/clamav

Thanks for the tip!

[larkost]

Originally posted by Maflynn:
I care, while at the moment no viruses exist, I do not want to be a person that sends a virus to my friends and family - or anybody else that resides in my address book.

regardless of how many mac's are on the internet at any given time means very little to me if I send an office virus to someone - apathetic attitudes like this just give a rich feeding ground to people who write and spread viruses.

Mike

Then you would not be a carrier, but infected. If you are a carrier then it does not affect you (does not send itself to others) and it is just so many bits on your hard drive. The only way that it could affect someone is if someone manually moves it onto an infect-able computer and runs it, at which point the Mac is not at fault, and you have bigger problems to deal with.

And notice that I specifically excepted the case where you are trading Office documents with others... Most of the people I know don't, and I try and train every user I can to always send documents either as actual email, or as rtf, which is not susceptible to any viruses.

Also, I usually setup companies I work for with OpenOffice, as this cannot run Office macros... and thus is not susceptible. I have had only 3 cases where it was a good idea to move those files onto one of the few computers with Office to run the macros.. in all other cases the only macros were viruses.