Apple Says: Get Antivirus Protection

And honestly, coming from a pc, I wondered how I was going to make that work. Even though the mac is less susceptible to viruses, and I think this is primarily because there are less macs out there, it still makes sense to consider security when you put a computer on the internet. Of course, from Apple’s perspective, this is a win win situation.

Apple has recommended 3 products on their support pages. All of which, they happen to sell on the Apple store for 70$ a shot. I won’t go into the merits of the products because to be honest, I haven’t used them. The point is, Apple sells the products for their vendors. The vendors see a boost in their sales because the products are linked to the apple store right there on the support page. Users will see that, think, “Hey great! Antivirus! This is a good idea!” and buy it.

That boost in sales will result in the vendors spending more money on development for the mac.

Like I said, it’s a win win situation. Regardless of weather you actually need antivirus or not.

I believe, that coming from years of PC use… there is this perception that one must have antivirus software in order to use the internet and it is not a bad one. Antivirus software is just a damned smart idea. If you’re running naked on the internet and using windows, you have bigger problems than I can help you with in this article. And realistically, you should know better.

The tech media has spent years and years screaming until they are blue in the face about how every computer on the internet needs to be running antivirus software and after the huge splashes on the New York Times front pages about Melissa and Code Red, people finally started listening. This was a good thing. Now the use of virus protection software is drilled into the heads of the users. And thank God, because the internet was getting to be really scary for a while there.

So when you come to a mac and it doesn’t come with a free trial of something, you might feel as though Apple has left you out in the cold and, to be blunt, you’re right. Even though macs are less susceptible to infection from viruses due to their low numbers, the number of macs on this planet is increasing by the hour.

It is only a matter of time before a mac version of Melissa or Code Red crops up on the internet. What this means is that getting used to using antivirus software now is just smart for mac users and with their market share growing, Apple did not want to be left with the media screaming at Cupertino the way that it screamed at Redmond over vulnerabilities in the OS.

No code is perfect. Apple’s code may be elegant and well thought out, with the needs of the end user put before all else, but it is not infallible because human beings wrote it in the first place.

What really galls me though, is that I believe that antivirus protection just makes sense. It’s sort of like washing your hands after using the facilities. You just do it. And the community of windows nerds has responded to this news by pointing their fingers at mac users and laughing their butts off.

Did they think that mac users really believed that they would never get a virus simply because their OS was impenetrable? Or are they just looking for some way to vindicate their wounded egos because many of them gave up alternatives to windows ages ago and are now feeling cheated because Apple has come up from behind Microsoft and given users something good again?

Whatever the reason, it’s childish and petty. No matter who you are and what OS you choose, antivirus protection is common sense. It did not stop being common sense when you bought a Mac.