Saving Money on an Apple Mac

david29dpo

When you start upgrading a new p.c. to mac spec, the price is not that different anyway. Just thing of all the anti virus software you will no longer need!

buses7675

david29dpo wrote: »

When you start upgrading a new p.c. to mac spec, the price is not that different anyway. Just thing of all the anti virus software you will no longer need!

Why won't you need anti-virus software?

Genuine question, I did a degree in IT yet I'm 100% PC user, but can't imagine Macs being immune to all viruses, though most probably will only affect Windows PCs? Or does MAC OS come with an inbuilt scanner?

Cheers

Steve

Moneymaker

It's not so much a matter of immunity. It's the fact that there simply aren't any Mac viruses available for OSX. (Go see if you can find one). There have been a few "proof of concept" trojans but nobody seems interested in writing and disseminating a Mac virus for real. So there's no point in having antivirus software (although it does exist) because it will simply use up valuable CPU cycles looking for something that isn't there.

When a real Mac virus appears and starts to spread then I guess we'll have to do something. But it's going to be a long time before we can boast "114,000 viruses" like Windows (allegedly) has available.

BTW I find it slightly worrying that an IT course did not include the Mac platform. I realise it's only "5% market share" but that's rather like training a car mechanic to handle only Fords and ignore (for example) BMW and Mercedes Benz - despite the fact that there's a lot more money to be made by selling and repairing those models.

wolfman

david29dpo wrote: »

When you start upgrading a new p.c. to mac spec, the price is not that different anyway. Just thing of all the anti virus software you will no longer need!

If you're running Windows it need not cost you much. There are perfectly good, free AV products out there. Same with anti-spyware.

I personally think Mac's are quite good value for money. You do get a very good out of the box solution. However, if you are really on a budget you can often pickup the same spec via offers or eBay for around £200 less.

You can then either choose to run Windows or something like Ubuntu. I like and use both. At work Vista/XP, and at home Ubuntu.

buses7675

Moneymaker wrote: »

BTW I find it slightly worrying that an IT course did not include the Mac platform. I realise it's only "5% market share" but that's rather like training a car mechanic to handle only Fords and ignore (for example) BMW and Mercedes Benz - despite the fact that there's a lot more money to be made by selling and repairing those models.

Hi All,

We did use Macs, but only a very limited use of them (mainly for video editing software, for some reason Uni only had Adobe Premiere for Macs), during my last year the Uni was refurbshing the IT department and replacing all the PCs and I believe did then get some more Apple Macs for general use!

Cheers

Steve

Conor_3

Moneymaker wrote: »

It's not so much a matter of immunity. It's the fact that there simply aren't any Mac viruses available for OSX.

https://www.macvirus.org.

Also point releases of OSX which fix security issues prove you wrong.

And unlike Windows, point releases of OSX which fix security issues aren't free.

Moneymaker

Originally Posted by Moneymaker
It's not so much a matter of immunity. It's the fact that there simply aren't any Mac viruses available for OSX.

Conor wrote: »

https://www.macvirus.org.

Also point releases of OSX which fix security issues prove you wrong.

What part of "It's not so much a matter of immunity" did you not understand? I never implied that Macs aren't vulnerable. I stated "It's the fact that there simply aren't any Mac viruses available for OSX."

If you disagree, please point me to *any* site where I can download a virus that will screw up MacOS10.4 ? Bear in mind that a virus is self-installing and self-propagating. Anything else is a "trojan" that requires me to do something stupid (like installing it manually).

Conor wrote: »

https://www.macvirus.org.
And unlike Windows, point releases of OSX which fix security issues aren't free.

That's odd. I don't recall paying for any OS10.4 upgrades and it's now up to 10.4.10.

superscaper

http://www.sophos.com/pressoffice/news/articles/2006/02/macosxleap.html

jmarko

Conor wrote: »

https://www.macvirus.org.

Also point releases of OSX which fix security issues prove you wrong.

And unlike Windows, point releases of OSX which fix security issues aren't free.

what? i must owe them a fortune for all those free updates that i seem to have downloaded then. will they invoice me later do you think?

and i've not seen an actual virus for mac yet - other than the proof of concept one.

superscaper

jmarko wrote: »

and i've not seen an actual virus for mac yet - other than the proof of concept one.

The wild ones do seem to be extremely rare but the more I've read the more it seems there are people who've actually suffered from them on their osx systems. There was even a posting on a site by a network administrator who's almost entire network of osx macs got infected by the leap.a virus. Leap.a isn't just proof of concept because it has actually been found in the wild, according to the link I posted which I think you missed reading.