Extrapolating what is understood about traditional virus', there is ample mathematical evidence to suggest that even though a presence like OSX has ~7% of the ecosystem (market) share, it most probably does not have sufficient saturation of the ecosystem (market) to sustain a virus because of the replicative and propagation characteristics that they so rely on. Anyone familiar with virus epidemiology will understand we cannot assume a linear relationship between the ecosystem saturation and the probability of the sustainability of virus' for that presence in that ecosystem. Where there is a homogeneous presence in an 'ecosystem' (market) - which is effectively the case with Windows and the OS market - then the sustainability of virus' in that ecosystem is greatly enhanced. A crucial aspect of the virus' is their need for sustainability (in terms of its ability to replicate and propagate itself - no different from the infectious agent that affect living species). Sure the market share of OSX is less than Windows making it theoretically a less attractive target, however it is not so easy as saying X has twice the market share of Y therefore X is twice as likely to get a virus (or be a target for a virus). The numbers game is particularly complex. Needless to say virus' do exist for OSX, however they are pretty benign and not particularly effective. Furthermore there needs to be a distinction between virus' and other forms of malwares, such as Trojans. I removed that part of Norton straight away but kept the Anti Virus until last year.Īs is always the case in this discussion we need to understand this isn't an obvious numbers game.

It took my ages to work out what was wrong until I looked through the Crash Log one day and saw 'Norton Privacy Control' listed. The 'Privacy Control' feature used to totally crash Firefox/IE5 whenever I went into certain sites because in it's attempts to block adverts, it just crashed the browser instead. I now know you don't really need an Anti Virus for the Mac, but as it's free I've got ClamAV just to be on the safe side.Īnother bad thing about Norton on the Mac. I finally gave up with Norton altogether (on both my Mac and Windows PCs) last year, going over to AVG on my Windows laptop and ClamAV on my Mac. When we first got our iMac, I knew nothing about them really and thought, like Windows, they had loads of viruses too and actually went out and bought Norton Internet Security for £80!!!! :mad: As you can guess, I've been kicking myself ever since. Not that you really need it for normal Mac use, but if you're sharing files with others it's best to check them before you send them off.

Mac antivirus free