Best free antivirus for MacBook?

[paddymph]

As above! Any ideas? Thanks

 

[01chris02]

Avast is good from experience, free too.

Here's a wee list of decent ones

 

[adamlstr]

http://www.sophos.com/en-us/products/free-tools/sophos-antivirus-for-mac-home-edition.aspx

Done.

 

[Sym0n]

I'm using Avast, have done for years on PC. Sophos would be my next choice though.

 

[Munson]

Right now I probably wouldn't bother unless you're a completely incompetent user, in which case something will likely slip through the net eventually anyway. However, if you feel the need, then Sophos is very well regarded.

 

[paddymph]

Coming from windows I've just always had an anti virus. So presumed I'd need one?

 

[Fletcher]

Right now I probably wouldn't bother unless you're a completely incompetent user, in which case something will likely slip through the net eventually anyway. However, if you feel the need, then Sophos is very well regarded.

I agree. I've been using macs for years and have never bothered with anti virus software.

 

[DanFreemanPhoto]

I didn't even bother with one when I ran Windows. You really don't need one on Macs. Depends what you're doing I suppose

 

[Jaff.]

potentially stupid question here...

whats the score with mobile phones/tablets and antivirus'?

 

[Adam.]

potentially stupid question here...

whats the score with mobile phones/tablets and antivirus'?

If you need av on your phone you shouldn't be allowed one.

 

[Jaff.]

If you need av on your phone you shouldn't be allowed one.

care to explain why?

 

[DB.]

Had my MacBook four years going on all sorts of sites and never had a
a virus or used AV

 

[01chris02]

Windows is the only real platform that you need anti-virus on, you can get by without it if you know your way about the internet and employ a little bit of common sense.

Mac users don't have to bother with it because the majority of virus' on the net target windows.

Although if you search the odd naughty bit then it wouldn't hurt to have that extra bit of protection.

 

[adamlstr]

I wouldn't recommend a mac user to run without av, with things like MacKeeper floating around. It's just the start as macs become more common.

 

[sbridgey]

I wouldn't recommend a mac user to run without av, with things like MacKeeper floating around. It's just the start as macs become more common.

So if you are a r****d and believe the pop ups get an AV if you are sensible and have common sense you don't need to bother.

 

[jenic]

I didn't even bother with one when I ran Windows. You really don't need one on Macs. Depends what you're doing I suppose

I agree.

 

[adamlstr]

So if you are a r****d and believe the pop ups get an AV if you are sensible and have common sense you don't need to bother.

Common sense, unfortunately, isn't that common.

 

[sbridgey]

Common sense, unfortunately, isn't that common.

Very true, I got the mac cleaner popup and one of my housemates thought it was genuine and started questioning me about how he thought my mac was perfect and that he was surprised it needed cleaning.

 

[VeinAST]

I didn't even bother with one when I ran Windows. You really don't need one on Macs. Depends what you're doing I suppose

Windows is a magnet for picking up shite! The antivirus also cripples the OS but is necessary i've found. Not got one on the MBP yet though

 

[Munson]

It's a pretty complex topic. IMO, at the moment, Mac AV isn't a necessity unless you're either a very naive user and/or you know that your own activity puts you at increased risk. Even then, if you're super retarded then no AV is 100% fail safe anyway, and relying on it may put you at further risk. The savvy MAC user with common sense does not currently need to run AV. Again, only IMO.

Sophos is good if you feel the need, although in my experience is does slightly slow down file access. Although I wasn't rolling with SSD when I used it. If you can live with a potentially slightly slower system, then you won't go far wrong with it.

 

[mini_nick]

I wouldn't bother, I used to run Sophos on my work mac and it made it run really slow, so I binned it off. Been using a mac every day at work for 10 years now and 3 years at home without av and never once had an issue...

In contrast I remember doing a clean install of xp on my pc at home and it contracted a virus within 30 mins of set up!

 

[Nickson]

In contrast I remember doing a clean install of xp on my pc at home and it contracted a virus within 30 mins of set up!

User error.

 

[ChrisR]

I don't bother either, not enough risk for me to warrant it. If things change over time then I'll rethink it, but at the moment it's a no.

User error.

Some of the big old exploits for XP didn't require much to get you, and whilst not putting a machine behind some sort of firewall may be deemed a user error something like blaster at the time would have got you pretty damn quick.