Norton Utilities/Antivirus and OSX

steve666steve666
Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
Is it necessary to use a hard disk utility in OSX, and also an antivirus? Any opinions here on the worthiness of Norton Systemworks for Mac which contains both?



Should Norton utilities be used even if not necessary for OSX to use in classic? Is it safe to leave Norton Antivirus autoprotect off-its annoying and slows things down.



Any utilities that you would consider a must have?............................................. ...

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 7
    airslufairsluf Posts: 1,861member
  • Reply 2 of 7
    r. h.r. h. Posts: 56member
    I have to agree with AirSluf on one point, at least: Norton Utilities saved my rear as well by recovering an inaccessable harddrive that Apple's Disk First Aid utility said was not repairable -- and that was just the demo of NU! I bought the full version the very next day, as I figured that Symantec had earned my money on that product.



    However -- and this is just my opinion -- I don't really get too worked up over the idea of catching viruses on my Mac. The Wintel PCs at my office are another story: Norton AntiVirus is mandatory on them. But if you turn on the built-in firewall with <a href="http://www.versiontracker.com/moreinfo.fcgi?id=9103&db=mac"; target="_blank">BrickHouse</a> and don't use Microsoft Office products, then (to extend on AirSluf's analogy) that's about the equivalent of using a condom and not the pill. In other words, I agree that there's still a certain amount of risk involved... but you have to decide how much risk is acceptable for your comfort level.
  • Reply 3 of 7
    majukimajuki Posts: 114member
    With OS X being setup teh way it is, one doesn't have to worry about the script kiddies as much as the exploits. Windows has the script kiddies, making the stupid viruses and and e-mail attachment trojans, etc. OS X, being based on BSD, doesn't have to contend with all of that stuff. Also, all of the old Mac viruses are obsolete with OS X (most had been anyway by OS upgrades). So, personally, I wouldn't worry about viruses on your Mac. I'd be more worried about security flaws with the built in unix based tools (Apache, OpenSSH, etc.) Read up on the security sites, because every once in awhile an exploit is found on these pieces of software. If you make use of them, you're at risk of, as the unix hax0rz put it, being r00t3d. You don't want that to happen.
  • Reply 4 of 7
    steve666steve666 Posts: 2,600member
    I decided not to use Microsoft Office, i will buy Appleworks when the next version comes out. For now i can get by with one of the shareware versions of notepad(why Apple didn't include notepad on OSX is beyond me). I use AOL and thats it for internet access.



    Norton Utilities always spotted problems for me that disk first aid never did. The question is-does OSX need a hard d rive utility at all? And if not, should we use Norton Utilities because OS9 is still part of the equation(classic) and could it possibly screw up OSX?.............................
  • Reply 5 of 7
    danieldaniel Posts: 50member
    Yes you still need disk tools (Norton, Drive 10, or something) under OS X as it is more prone to damaging the directory structures of the hard disk when you crash. A matter of fact Norton saved my rear last night. Also if you do any sharing of files with PC users you should have AntiVirus as though the viruses rarely damage the Mac you can still spread them (and if you are in a corporate environment then the Macs get blamed).

    Daniel



    [ 04-24-2002: Message edited by: Daniel ]</p>
  • Reply 6 of 7
    junkyard dawgjunkyard dawg Posts: 2,801member
    Bad ass haxxors are coming to OS X, beware! They will 3908u your Mac and leave you to the 4509809808!
  • Reply 7 of 7
    mac's girlmac's girl Posts: 556member
    this just my be a coincidence, but weird new things started happening to my imac g4 800 since i installed norton systemworks last week. first of all, the computer takes twice as long to start up. second, applications "freeze" temporarily and quit unexpectedly. thirdly, the screen starts getting "defected" looking like in the old nintendo systems where the image got scrambled or parts of it disappeared. it happens mostly whenever classic is running. lastly, and this one has NEVER happened to me before, it wouldnt wake up from sleep earlier today. the fan was still running and the light was on, but it wouldnt wake up. i had to restart, then i zapped the pram, and had to reset the time. i havent restarted it again yet, but i hope this wasnt all mr. norton's fault.



    anyone know anything about this?



    [ 04-25-2002: Message edited by: mac's girl ]</p>
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