What computer/OS are you using?

[Nichi]

Yeah; I have what I feel is a good antivirus, so combined with being as careful as I usually am I should be fine.

About the only time a virus (Or in this case, worm) had me panic was with Conficker a few years back. My dad's desktop got infected, which lead to the first (and to date, only) use of what I call "Paranoia Mode"; I unplugged Frankenstein from the home network to protect it, since I didn't have an antivirus on there and really didn't want to reinstall Windows 2000 and download a decade of patches should something happen.

[Krizonar]

I don't have a modern Mac yet, but should I still panic anyway?

No.
There are no "viruses" for Macs, but there are some maleware that pop up every half decade or so (that require you to give it ((it being, that thing OSX says is actually a program)) your admin password or it can't do anything, EVEN if you download it).

It's about as hard to get malware on a Mac as it is to smash an XBOX with a sledgehammer when your TV says hitting it with a sledgehammer may damage it. It just ain't gonna do it by itself, you gotta do it and if you do, then who's the smart one?

[Nichi]

Good point. After all, common sense is the best protection (Something my sister's father-in-law lacks, after I learned how his laptop got so badly infected right after he got it)

[NejinOniwa]

Quite. Only problem I have is registry faults, and I employ a cleaner for that purpose.

[Krizonar]

That's the main point, on OSX if you use common sense, it's impossible for you to get hurt.

It could sit in your downloads folder for years after you download it and nothing will happen, even maleware has no power over Macs unless you, the admin, give it the power to do what it wants. And even then... LOL CMD+DEL BRO

[Nichi]

Also, you can't argue that MacOS isn't nice...even if the newest version of it I've used is 8.6

[Bella]

That's the main point, on OSX if you use common sense, it's impossible for you to get hurt.

It could sit in your downloads folder for years after you download it and nothing will happen, even maleware has no power over Macs unless you, the admin, give it the power to do what it wants. And even then... LOL CMD+DEL BRO

This this this this this this.

I do not use antivirus and I will not use antivirus, because I will not bog down my system because of the millions-to-one odds that it will get a virus.

My security plan is the one followed by Unix users since time immemorial:
1) I use a non-admin account. I have a separate admin account and only use it when I have to.
2) I don't download sketchy shit.
3) I don't INSTALL sketchy shit.
4) I use common-sense security precautions when using Firefox - Adblock and Noscript are installed, meaning I'm not going to pick up any browser-based virii.

TL; DR: Being scared of viruses on Macs is like being afraid of planes because of terrorism. YES, Macs can be susceptible to malware. YES, planes can be the target of attack. But the chances of owning a Mac that contracts a malware, or being in a plane that gets attacked are so. astronomically. low. that it shouldn't even be a worry. In both cases, you should be more wary of mechanical failures than anything else. -__-

[Krizonar]

TL; DR: Being scared of viruses on Macs is like being afraid of planes because of terrorism.

ehhhh, being scared of malware (there are NO VIRUSES) on a Mac is more akin to being afraid of planes because of your own ability to jump out the emergency door without a parachute.

[Nichi]

I only have antivirus on Asagi and 2k-tan just to get Windows to shut up about how I absolutely need it. On everything else, I don't waste the resources; after all, the Yeti took off like a rocket once I dropped the ancient version of Norton my mom had on there, and was doing things that Crappy would choke on regardless of it having 4 times as much RAM and a processor roughly twice as fast.

Which, since I never really said much about it, here's a rundown of what Crappy was like when it still existed:

The Replacement PC: Custom
Name: Crappy (It was a hastily thrown together piece of shit)
Processor: AMD-K6 (166Mhz)
RAM: 128MB
OS: Windows 98SE

After the botched 56K modem upgrade for the Yeti, instead of getting in contact of our old tech guy (Who did tech support for the computers at the family hardware store when it was still open), we instead went to this local guy everybody said was really good. Pretty much, he took one look at the Yeti and said we need to trash it because it's beyond saving, and we should buy a refurbished PC from him for $100; which, being in a bind because of how heavily my mom relied in the internet for the job she had at the time, we jumped on it. When we came the next day to pick it up, I saw this thing in the most hideous case possible (Which I saw in pieces on a shelf the day before), with a barely functional keyboard, an ancient, dieing monitor, and a mouse that was nicer than everything else. We brought it home and found it to be the most egregious piece of shit ever; after I was given permission to address the driver conflicts, I managed to at least get it to a point it was bearable to use, but it still was terrible.

This PC is pretty much was made me hate AMD processors and resulted in an initial unjust hatred of Windows 98; it was slow as hell, choked up on things the Yeti could do with ease, and had constant BSODs. It was eventually replaced with what's now known as Frankenstein Classic; a desktop built in the much the same way, but with a lot more love put into it (Also it had nearly twice as much RAM and a processor that was much more powerful). Crappy met it's end in '06; when I used it as a donor for parts to save Frankenstein, which had become a doorstop after it's hard drive gave out (At the very end, that hard drive was not a pretty sight...especially if you though of the 3 versions of Windows it held at the end as their OS-tan counterparts)

[Krizonar]

Hm, I've actually never even seen a computer with an AMD processor. Is there really much of a difference? I've heard that their processors are cheap, lower speed and power alternatives to Intel, but that's just what I've heard.

[Alex_Reetz]

well, I am using:
Windows 7 Ultimate(On my Gaming Desktop)
Ubuntu(School Laptop)
Windows ME(Dos Hentai game laptop.)

[Nichi]

@Kriz: These days, AMD is a nice alternative to those who want to save a little money and still have a great PC...although, circa '03, they had what where widely considered the best processors on the market (The Athlon outperformed the Pentium 4 at most everything while running much cooler, and the fact that it was cheaper sweetened the deal).

[Alex_Reetz]

It really depends,

AMD RANA and all the tricores are really unstable, i would go with a Deneb, the quad core
series is good for the price, but it lacks cache.

i would go with a used intel core 2 duo. nice cache, multipliers, and dependable.

i got a core2quad  2.8ghz on ebay for 40.00, and it can overclock to 3.40ghz, 3.90ghz on my watercooling.

[Krizonar]

Sadly to say, I've heard terrible things about the Pentium 4, especially when compared to PPC. Just I've heard very little about AMD other than "lol they're kinda cheap"

And yeah, I can imagine a tri-core being unstable.

Yup, C2D will always be my favorite.

[Alex_Reetz]

Pentium 4?

i am talking about the core 2 series.

lern 2 read.