New to Mac - Which AV and Mail App?

That Guy · 7 Nov 2011 at 22:26

Taking the Plunge soon and and switching from Win7 to OSX

Just wondering which Anti-Virus to use? looking for something that has a light footprint and is free would be great.

Also which Email App? is the standard Mail App any good? I have a Gmail Email Account and a Google Apps Email Account.

Thanks in Advance

dav3evans · 7 Nov 2011 at 23:46

Standard mail accounts great, and an use Sophos anti virus, seems ok to me, although I got it through work so I'm unsure of the cost implications of that. Worth a look though.

PardonTheWait · 8 Nov 2011 at 00:10

I've been using Macs for about 10 years and have never used AV - I would actively recommend you don't. Just keep a good backup - when the time comes for Mac users to need AV we'll know about it :/

As for mail I really like the standard Mail app but I got Sparrow recently. It's nice, but no better than Mail and I mostly use it so that my Mac feels a bit different from my work one.

Vonhelmet · 8 Nov 2011 at 00:55

You don't need AV. I can't imagine why you would need it unless you're an utter idiot.

Mail.app works fine for me, but I'm a bit peeved that the mail rules I've set up don't seem to work :confused:

memyselfandi · 8 Nov 2011 at 05:56

Seeing as there has started to be more and more reports of viruses and malware targeting OSX as it's been seen to become more popular, (and Apple even including an anti-malware component), I'd say that if you are worried then you might as well put on something like Sophos antivirus, especially as the home edition is free.

dav3evans · 8 Nov 2011 at 09:50

Vonhelmet said:
You don't need AV. I can't imagine why you would need it unless you're an utter idiot.

Mail.app works fine for me, but I'm a bit peeved that the mail rules I've set up don't seem to work

It's not about being an utter idiot, even if it gives someone peace of mind it's worth doing, Macs don't get viruses generally but they are certainly capable of getting them.. and as discussed in the *Trojan reported etc...* thread, it all depends what you'll be doing with your Mac =]

uniQ · 8 Nov 2011 at 16:30

Use the inbuilt firewall & don't login with your admin account.

Mail.app works fine for handling multiple emails. Sparrow is a good simpler alternative and Postbox 3 is another option if you're a power user.

I may get pitchforked for this but outlook 11 isn't half bad either.

dav3evans · 8 Nov 2011 at 17:30

Have to agree with that, there are a lot of people that use it at work and have found it way better than Mail or Entourage

theheyes · 8 Nov 2011 at 19:18

The best thing to do as a new mac users is try all the built in apps. A lot of them are pretty good and do the job.

Sophos anti virus is free and worth a look. Personally I don't think antivirus on macs is necessary... yet. I don't run it on mine.

MagicBoy · 8 Nov 2011 at 20:42

Mac user since 2006. Mail.app and no Anti-Virus here.

AV isn't really needed if you are reasonably careful and stop Safari from automatically opening disk images, zip files etc. I've not had a problem ... yet.

dav3evans · 8 Nov 2011 at 21:11

theheyes said:
The best thing to do as a new mac users is try all the built in apps. A lot of them are pretty good and do the job.

Sophos anti virus is free and worth a look. Personally I don't think antivirus on macs is necessary... yet. I don't run it on mine.

Agree on the Sophos front. Again I've not had any issues with viruses, but there's a first time for everything.

Faustus · 8 Nov 2011 at 23:18

Well I'll turn the argument round on it's head and say that not using anti-virus such as Sophos is just plain dumb. Sophos takes up almost no resources is free and just sits in the background so why not use it? It's like those who don't back up their systems then bleat when their HD goes belly up.

You may not need AV but there's always a first time - why wait until it's too late. I certainly run it on my Mac.

MagicBoy · 8 Nov 2011 at 23:25

Faustus in calling people dumb shocker.

There are no OS X viruses out in the wild apart from the dodgy torrent sites. I don't use them therefore there is no risk.

meghatronic · 9 Nov 2011 at 10:04

I like mail.app

uchuff · 9 Nov 2011 at 12:48

I use sparrow for email and no antivirus software as it's not needed. Mail.app on Lion looks nice, unfortunately my Mac is limited to Snow Leopard so I haven't checked it out.

dav3evans · 9 Nov 2011 at 13:05

Mail app on Lion functions as well as Snow Leopard, the only thing I've noticed thats different/useful is the different coloured flags for emails... something I missed from Entourage and got in SL with "Flagit!" Other than that...it just seems like aesthetics imo.

Vonhelmet · 9 Nov 2011 at 13:40

dav3evans said:
It's not about being an utter idiot, even if it gives someone peace of mind it's worth doing, Macs don't get viruses generally but they are certainly capable of getting them.. and as discussed in the *Trojan reported etc...* thread, it all depends what you'll be doing with your Mac =]

You mean downloading warez from an untrusted source?

I'm going to file that under being an idiot.

Vonhelmet · 9 Nov 2011 at 13:42

uniQ said:
Use the inbuilt firewall & don't login with your admin account.

You don't have an admin account. You have an account in the sudoers group. So either any hack needs to ask for your password, or it needs to use some form of privilege escalation. If you fall for the former, you're an idiot. If the latter, then whether you're logged in as an admin or not is probably going to be fairly arbitrary.

dav3evans · 9 Nov 2011 at 14:42

Vonhelmet said:
You mean downloading warez from an untrusted source?

I'm going to file that under being an idiot.

Torrent sites are hardly untrustworthy these days, and what about people that aren't fully aware of what they consider to be trusted or untrusted? Something could look perfectly legitimate and not be, Warez or otherwise. You can't assume everyone has the same proficiency in browsing the internet.

fez · 9 Nov 2011 at 14:52

dav3evans said:
Torrent sites are hardly untrustworthy these days, and what about people that aren't fully aware of what they consider to be trusted or untrusted? Something could look perfectly legitimate and not be, Warez or otherwise. You can't assume everyone has the same proficiency in browsing the internet.

This is the issue isn't it. At what point do you say enough is enough. If someone is so incompetent on a computer that they allow themselves to install dodgy software then you can't protect them.

Everyone on windows seems to run anti virus but that doesn't stop them getting a virus. They let their databases get out of date, subscription expire, turn it off when it bugs them etc.

If someone doesn't have a basic level of competence they need to learn. You shouldn't be browsing the net if you cannot take the most basic of precautions.

Torrent sites are still viewed by the wider community as portals for piracy and I would suggest that the more informed you are, the less you would hold this view. Inexperienced users would be less likely to dabble in torrents than a more advanced user.

People need to understand that they must be responsible for their own protection on the net or they will have problems at some point. Installing a largely pointless anti-virus will simply give them a false sense of security.