Norton Antivirus 11, Full Edition (Mac) - Software and Utilities (Norton from Symantec)

Norton AntiVirus 11.0 for Macintosh (EN)

Customer Reviews of Norton Antivirus 11, Full Edition (Mac)

Siriam
London United Kingdom
5th May 2008

This is surely not the answer for protection on joint Mac/Windows running?
The issue of likely growing interest in viruses being written for attacks on Macs is an accident waiting to happen - as Mac User magazine (11th April 2008) recently wrote the fact pattern with growing use of Mac computers means that in their estimation 2008 will be the year the Mac hackers finally break through and recent experiments at the CanSecWest security conference demonstrated in an open competition between hackers how easy this is!

The problem with this offering is that it is Mac OS specific and so a system covering the Windows "side" if that is your set up through using Boot Camp or more likely Parallels or a comparable system on the same computer is left open to viruses. For such joint users this product will be of minimal value I concluded when researching to buy such protection!

Mr. Gavin Ian Barrie
Edinburgh, UK
4th March 2008

Completely Unnecessary
There is no known, real life, in the wild virus for the Mac platform. A couple of instances of a trojan horse have appeared, a very different thing, that requires your cooperation to infect you. You have a tiny chance of being infected with a Trojan Horse if, upon opening an email or running an innocent attachment you get asked to provide your Administrator password. Alarm bells should ring and a simple 'cancel' will protect you.

Google for 'Mac Virus Software', read some reviews or comment from respected IT publications and you'll see you'll be wasting your money, time and a great deal of your CPU power in installing this software. Of course Norton will tell you it's great and required, they make money from you. Don't waste your time. Anyone who tries to convince you to install a Mac virus checker doesn't know what they're talking about.

The Mac is not a Windows PC. It is physically impossible for a Windows Virus or Trojan horse to infect your Apple Mac computer as the operating system works in a completely different way under the hood.

Move along, nothing to see here.

Historical novel fan
London
21st February 2008

Simple, reliable and effective insurance for your Mac
Macs don't get viruses, right? Wrong.

The issue is that historically most virus writers have only focused on producing malicious code for Windows-based systems not Mac OS X. This is starting to change as the Mac gains market share. The increasing popularity of Macs (moving towards 10%) makes them a natural target. This means it is only a matter of time before a major virus attack causes widespread chaos in the mac World. Are you going to wait until you experience an unexpected hard drive meltdown? Maybe it doesn't matter if you lose all your data or have to spend days and days reloading your CD collection back into iTunes.

But there's another reason to consider getting anti-virus protection for your Mac. Office 2008 for the Mac finally provides a seamless connectivity between documents and files produced in either Windows or Macs. This means people can more easily send files via email, work on them, send them back and so on. So it is quite possible to receive a file that corrupts your other office data. You could also receive an infected file which you then work on and forward onto someone else without you knowing it contains a virus. In other words, if you receive windows files regularly you could be a virus carrier who exposes other people to the risk of infection.

Based on these reasons, now is a good time to start thinking about virus protection for your Mac. In case you are not familiar with anti-virus software, Norton is the best name in the business. I have used Norton AV for years on Windows machines and have always found it easy to use, ultra reliable and extremely effective. In its Apple incarnation, NAV has lost none of these virtues. Most of the time you'll never notice it is there. Unlike a condom, this is the kind of protection that doesn't get in the way of the experience when you use it.

So I heartily recommend Norton AV for the Mac. The peace of mind it provides makes it a worthwhile investment.