<p>Does anyone know of any good AntiVirus software for Macs?</p>
<p>you dont need any</p>
<p>MetFan that is TERRIBLE advice. Macs are more vulnerable and have a slower patch time for bugs than windows <a href="Link">URL=http://news.softpedia.com/news/Windows-vs-Linux-vs-Mac-OS-X-50180.shtml</a>. The only thing that is protecting them is "Security from Obscurity" and macs are slowly gaining more market share (and thus more people willing to exploit them). Norton Antivirus for mac's is one of the more "refined" antivirus solution for mac's.</p>
<p>MetFan's advice isn't terrible. You don't need AntiVirus software. The link posted is a horribly bias article and incredibly flawed. It's based entirely on the number of patches released.</p>
<p>oh im sorry let me link to the white paper.</p>
<p>yes especially when the first virus for a mac was discovered this year.</p>
<p>to protect from this one virus that surely has already been protected in the new operating system, maybe you should get a security program. i mean what if another virus shows up, and you are one of the few people who get it?</p>
<p>AV software on the Mac is a joke. In my experience, all it did was mess up my permissions and make things run slow. Just use common sense and you should be okay.</p>
<p>I would tend to agree that AV software is not really necessary on a mac for several reasons. Obviously, there's security by obscurity that has protected macs for years, but that may be ending. Secondly, though, macs protect their root (administrator) account, so unless you're a fairly hardcore UNIX person (in which case, you should have the common sense to avoid a virus and/or be able to fix the problems on your own--write a script, find a script, etc.), the root account (which is the only account with unlimited access to the computer--what makes windows' viruses so lethal) is completely inaccessible to a mac virus. What this means, then, is that a mac virus can really only cause damage to the current users' account, and even that is kept somewhat in check by the DiskUtility's permissions-repair utility. Finally, mac updates occur monthly at minimum and the OS is completely updated (upgradeable) annually, which makes it more difficult to build an effective virus. Most Windows systems do not update themselves properly for a number of reasons. (Just spend an hour working at my school's computer support desk and you'll see what I mean!)</p>
<p>Antivirus software for macs isn't really necessary but if you really feel like you need it, check out Clam XAV. It's free and open source.</p>