I generally am a pretty honest, open person. But there's one question that I always hope people won't ask me:
"So, Kevin, what anti-virus software do you use on your computer?"
The honest answer is that most of the time I don't run any anti-virus at all, or it's disabled. Considering that many of the people I know consider me a computer "expert," I don't set a very good example. It's even harder to answer the inevitable follow-up question: "Why?"
Why? Where do I begin? How about my favorite reason (also in the form of a question): "Where am I going to get a virus?" Really, where am I? I don't let anyone else use my computer, so it's not going to come in from a floppy, burned CD, etc. All of my incoming email is scanned at some point along the way. Even if one did get through, I know what not to open. I don't surf porn sites, mp3 sites, warez sites, etc. I don't accept strange files on IM. I'm not on a big school or corporate network.
Oh, yeah, and how about this reason: McAfee deciding that hundreds of legitimate programs were viruses? Whoops. I've also seen what Norton can do to a system. I've seen systems speed up by 100% or more by uninstalling Norton. I've seen the thousands of files that get uninstalled. What's in all of those files?!
I guess I'm just a bit jaded by the whole security industry. I realize that not everyone is savvy on the Internet and that most people need some help, but I think the security software that's available now is mostly too complicated, too bloated, and too buggy. Why do I want it on my computer?
I guess it's like anything else: if you know enough, you can save yourself a lot of money. If you know how to change your own oil, you can save a lot of money. If you know how to fix your own plumbing you can save a lot of money. I know how not to get a virus, and I can save a lot of money.
Maybe I should just start fibbing. It sure would make things a lot easier.
I'm with you here Kevin. I'm also one of those people who never gets viruses and avoids virus scanners. My reason is strictly for the resources that a virus scanner takes, I like my computer to run only the essentials. I do think that inexperienced people should definatly run anti-virus software.
My system is now approaching 3 years since winXP was installed, it has never run a virus scanner. About a month ago I ran an online virus scan and had no viruses on my system; the reason was to prove to my dad that he didn't need 2 virus scanners and 3 anti-adware programs.
I do have AVG installed, but it never finds anything. Thank goodness it’s pretty lightweight — it has also never quarantined my WHOLE inbox file (Mozilla mail inbox file) because I had gotten one spam with a virus I would have deleted a second later. Unlike Symantec…
So yeah. If you know what you’re doing, these are perfectly unneeded, other than a check-up like about once a year. I usually end up hunting spyware by hand anyway. It’s more fun.
My Windows XP was installed in July 2004, and is still running very happily (and clean!).
Oh man, you're gonna die. It's been good knowing you. :(
All seriousness aside, if it weren't for my wife and her E-mail buddies, I don't think I would use an AV myself. At least not resident.
I think if you're going to use a computer in any capacity other than the 1991 "I check e-mail" bit, then AV software is essential.
If you're watching movies, playing games, listening to music, and swapping files then you have no idea where the information is coming from nor where it's been.
I scan *everything*. Things on disc, things from inside my network, things from the Internet. I even scan things I've taken home from work myself. Any foreign software that reaches my computer gets scanned first.
There's an issue of trust. My question is simple: why trust anyone? Why even trust yourself? Why not simply be *sure*. If you DL something from, say, NVidia, who's to say a virus didn't slip through the cracks by complete fluke? Maybe a malicious employee. Hell, maybe a group of malicious employees. All it takes is that one instance of trust and you could be completely hosed.
As for AV software that bogs stuff down, I think that's a different argument. Being AV software doesn't make it slow. Being poor software makes it slow. I use Kaspersky Anti-Virus and have never had a problem. I also do not run it in the background. I scan everything manually. I've set up a context menu command so that I may simply right-click something and scan it. Easy as pie and I don't have to incur the overhead of running an auto-scanner.
Again, I don't see why this is a situation where trust has any advantage over virus scanning. We're not talking about trusting your spouse, brother, friend, coworker, or teammate. We're talking about a relatively easy action that can prevent absolutely dire circumstances.
Some people can smell an infected file a mile away. Many people have no trouble distinguishing high risk areas and situations, and easily avoid them.
I'm with you completly on this one, I don't use a virus scanner on my computer either. It slows down the machine way too much and it is unneeded. I do however install one on everyones computer that I set up for them just so they have to worry less about it. Most of them wouldn't know what files are viruses or not. I myself like to keep windows running processes down to a minumum. Currently I have 32 processes running and 8 of those are from all the programs I have loaded and am using at the moment. On person I know, I went to his machine and from a fresh boot open his process list and there are well over 70 processes running. To me that is just unnessessary.
Re: EvaUnit's comment... dude, you're overly paranoid... We've discussed this before... lol ;-)
I have to admit, I am on both sides of the camp... It's a love/hate relationship with virus/anti-spyware apps. I love the protection, but, I also hate the huge memory footprint. I should not have to have a gig of RAM just to make sure that I can still run my dev apps and also be protected. This is something that should have been built into the OS years ago.
Would I run on the net without virus protection? No way... not on your life... I like to think I am pretty good about backing up and such, but to be honest, one well placed virus and I'm out of commission for a couple of days. But, on the other hand, I do not agree with scanning everything under the sun. I do however utilize digital signatures religiously. If you're gonna kill my PC, I'm damn sure going to know it came from you... lol
Hopefully with the advent of digital signatures and digital signing of software and installer packages, we will be able to finally tell Norton, MacAfee, the other bloated scanners to take a hike! (I can dream, can't I?)
~d