No, that's not what they told you.

It's what you heard. They said there were no viruses on the Mac, and they were 100% correct.

Re : I wish I was a virus writer

There are already Linux viruses but they've singularly failed to spread - how would your 'efforts' be any different ?

@JDX

Whilst every other virus writer targets an operating system that is so flaky it needs a massive industry of add-on anti-malware products and STILL routinely fails.

Your point is what ?

Re : Allways have that argument without merit

I can see your point however the nightly backups I use that are driven by root processes and protected by root privileges are what allows me to sleep more easily with regard to my more important data.

argument without merit

1 I don't run around blindly downloading stuff

2 I don't just install stuff blindly

3 I have a proper backup system in place (Time Machine every hour, Carbon Copy Cloner every night) which means that if I _did_ download something silly the worst that would happen is that I'd lose whatever hadn't been backed up by TM and/or whatever CCC hadn't got. Note that the CCC backup is an updatable clone of the system, so that I can immediately boot from it and be where things were as of when CCC ran last night (early this morning, rather, as it's set to run at 01:00 every morning) and that I'd then need merely dig out the TM backups for anything changed/added since then.

However, I have backups set up not to avoid problems with malware, as the last, the very last, significant malware for Macs was the autostart worm from back in 1998, and even that one was easily dealt with _without_ using AV software (hint: it created several invisible files. Make 'em visible, kill them. Reboot. Problem over. Detailed instructions at <http://www.macintouch.com/hkvirus.html#desc>, though it should be noted that, as usual, the boyz at MacInTouch got far too overwrought and really need to take a chill pill.)

There has been no significant malware since then. I repeat: NO SIGNIFICANT MALWARE SINCE THEN. The best there has been are a few Trojans and the odd pitiful attempt at spyware, all totaling under two dozen attempts. That's less than 24 attempts at malware that somehow managed to attract even minimal attention in _12 years_. (There may well have been other attempts which failed so utterly that no-one noticed they were there...)

Over on the Linux side, there haven't been even that level of malware. No-one running Macs or Linux boxes takes significant precautions against malware because THERE IS NO MALWARE TO DEFEND AGAINST. There hasn't been a significant attack since 1998. (Of course, one reason why is that Apple patches potential problems every now and again. Perhaps not as quickly as some would like, but given that the last serious attack was in 1998...)

I've got ClamXah stored in a ZIP archive somewhere on the server; if there's ever a real threat, I can unZIP it and install it in a few moments. But I'm not holding my breath waiting.

If this be smug, by all means make the best of it.

Just don't yap utter bullshit about vulnerabilities which would evaporate if only you avoided downloading strange software or if you merely had an adequate backup. Come ON, man, you've been working on a 'doctoral thesis' for _FIVE YEARS_ and haven't backed up once in all that time? What the _HELL_ are you thinking? What are you gonna do _when_ that hard drive croaks? Remember always, there are two, and only two, kinds of hard drives: the ones which have failed, and the ones which haven't failed... yet. I keep _multiple_ copies of important documents. At least one copy would be on an optical disc, and so totally immune to malware problems.

Again, if this be smug...

Yeah but no but...

...one could also say this will happen to most people exactly once. When it does happen, they will learn the value of keeping offline backups.

Usually...

There are many, many reasons you would want to keep an offline backup, and a virus / faulty software is just one of them. If you kept all your personal photos on your computer and some bastard broke into your house and burgled you while you were at work, you'd still be up Merde creek, sans paddle. Or even if your five year-old daughter decided to wash your laptop with the dishes, or see what happened if they poured orange squash down the back of your iMac.

Sometimes, it's not about the technology. It's about what processes you use to secure your data. At the end of the day, any sane user will protect data that is valuable to them. Life has a funny way of teaching lessons to those who think they know everything.

As you said, you may not care about the version of /bin/bash you're using, and may not want to back that up. But you'd be a total idiot to keep no offline copies of personal photos of you, your wife, kids, etc. Those are things that can never be replaced.

@JDX

Others have said it in other ways but HOW would you go about protecting against an essentially non-existent threat. There are some failed viruses for Linux but otherwise what would a virus vendor have to sell ?.

Most anti-virus programs for Linux seem to be for detecting WINDOWS viruses. As for other threats good firewalls/ regular updates and caution.

Tiger?

@PushF12: You sure that these vulns date back to 10.4? Most of the components updated here had at least one major version since 10.4. Do you have detailed info?

easy

hold down X key at the boot up chime or do it via the startup panel in Sys Prefs.