Re: XP vs Mac OS X

Joel Kolstad <JKolstad71HatesSpam@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> "Adrian Tuddenham" <poppy.uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:1gvacp5.1nr71c31hfpbk0N%poppy.uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > Joel Kolstad <JKolstad71HatesSpam@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > > Does OS X come with anti-virus protection? That would be a tangible
> benefit.
> > No it doesn't because there aren't any OSX viruses (there haven't been
> > any viruses on any Mac OS for many many years).
>
> A simple Google search shows this to be false.


I have no idea what you have found with Google, but for the sake of
accuracy I ought to elaborate on my rather trite initial response:


Macs are supplied without any anti-virus applications and the majority
of them go through life without having any installed. If there were
viruses capable of being propagated through the Mac community, I would
have expected to have come across a mention of them on
'uk.comp.sys.mac' at some time since the introduction of OSX - but I
haven't.


> It also shows that there are numerous anti-virus programs available for the
> Mac, so unless these folks are defrauding their customers, there must be a few
> virii running around...

The occasional enquiry on 'uk.comp.sys.mac' as to whether or not to
install anti-virus software is usually met with the response that it
often causes trouble and does no good because there are no viruses for
it to work on. ...I leave you to draw your own conclusions about the
morals of software vendors.

In the past (OS6 & 7), I believe there were some viruses, but they were
only propagated on floppy discs and only if certain system components
were turned on. PC viruses will infect a Mac if it is running PC
emulation, but only whilst it is in PC mode. I also understand that
some Microsoft documents can be infected in some way and that the Mac
might be able to pass on the infected files without becoming infected
itself. ....but that is as bad as it gets.

I have used OS8.6 without protection for many years and regularly
receive PC viruses in e-mail, they just hang around in the junk folder
until the next tidy-up. I've tried to get them to run just for the
hell of it, and they won't. Many of my correspondents run Macs , none
of them use virus protection (as far as I know) and I have never
received a virus from any of them.


It is impossible to prove a negative - there may be some Mac viruses out
there that I know nothing about - but currently Mac owners and vendors
and repairers in the UK are reporting a complete absence of viruses and
have been doing so for at least the last five years.


--
~ Adrian Tuddenham ~
(Remove the ".invalid"s and add ".co.uk" to reply)
www.poppyrecords.co.uk
.

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