#Why do i need antivirus for mac install

There are some things a Mac owner can do to not invite problems: Mac owners can enjoy their relative obscurity for now, but don’t rest on your laurels and do nothing. Windows Vista just happens to have a bigger target on it so it appears to be less secure. I think it is clearly more secure than Windows XP SP2, but Windows Vista (despite it’s annoyances) is a more secure version of Windows.

In fact, as far as pure OS design, I wouldn’t say OS X is really any better in the security department than Windows Vista. As I said, Macs are not immune to security breaches. And face it, antivirus programs ARE intrusive. Let’s see, a tiny risk of infection from the small batch of Mac viruses that actually exist, or the 100% chance that my system performance will suffer at the hands of an intrusive anti-virus program.

When I weigh out the risks, it isn’t worth it for me. But, you will be safer than if you run nothing.

#Why do i need antivirus for mac install

If you do install something, chances are it is going to impact the performance of your Mac in a negative way. I will never sit here and tell a Mac owner not to install anti-virus. Further, many of those 200 target versions prior to OS X. In reality, though, there are only around 200 known Mac viruses in the wild, most of which have caused very little in the way of damage. These companies will issue press releases laced with scare tactics talking about huge increases in Mac viruses in the wild. That said, much of the talk about virus activity for the Mac is propagated by companies who market antivirus programs for the Mac. In fact, I would expect that as the Apple platform gains in popularity, we will see more viruses come into the wild specifically targeting OS X. If OS X were as highly used as the Windows platform, OS X would have a much larger virus problem. The overwhelming reason Windows has so much more virus activity is because Windows is so much more popular than OS X. One thing all Mac owners need to keep in mind is that OS X is not immune to viruses. One of the questions we get most has to do with antivirus for the Mac.