I am involved in the installation of a couple of G5s for video editing
work. They will probably be connected to the internet via a
firewall/router and be on the same physical network as Windows & Linux
servers and Windows clients. They may be used for web browsing but not
an email client.

The question has come up, should we get Norton anti-virus and Norton
Sytemworks for the machines.

I am concerned that running this type of memory resident software will
slow the machines down for video work and is uneccessary. It also
costs a lot when you are only buying two licenses.

I'm not too impressed by the scare stories from anti-virus companies;
I know they would have us running their software on our digital
watches if we believed all they say about non-Windows systems.

For our Linux servers, there are no virii as such, only worms. I avoid
them by making sure the machines stay patched. As Mac OS X is a type
of Unix, would the same be appropriate here. Are the gateways of
infection that exist on Windows machines (e.g. Outlook) on Mac OS X
also? Does everything run as root?


Now, on to Systemworks. Is this _really_ necessary? They information I
got form people who told me I needed it I can only imagine applied to
pre Mac OS X when the operating system was a lot more unstable due to
no pre-emptive multitasking or protected memory etc. As it is now a
type of Unix, maybe if there was a serious problem I could boot of a
live Linux CD such as this one...
http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/gentoo-ppc-install.xml
....and repair the system or extract the data that way, as I would for
a damaged Linux system.

Comments please :-)

It's true about the scare stories though in the case of windows there is 
some truth in them.

I'd say as long as the users are reasonably sensible and given it's 
MacOS X, the risks are absolutely miniscule.

To be absolutely sure make sure the account your users normally use are 
not privileged (that'll cost a little convenience admittedly) and that 
backups of your precious data happen automatically and across the 
network to another machine (and/or non-writeable place). This can be 
done (among other ways) with a crontab entry and small shell script.

Jon

> The question has come up, should we get Norton anti-virus and Norton
> Sytemworks for the machines.
> 
> I am concerned that running this type of memory resident software will
> slow the machines down for video work and is uneccessary. It also
> costs a lot when you are only buying two licenses.
> 
> I'm not too impressed by the scare stories from anti-virus companies;
> I know they would have us running their software on our digital
> watches if we believed all they say about non-Windows systems.
> 
> For our Linux servers, there are no virii as such, only worms. I avoid
> them by making sure the machines stay patched. As Mac OS X is a type
> of Unix, would the same be appropriate here. Are the gateways of
> infection that exist on Windows machines (e.g. Outlook) on Mac OS X
> also? Does everything run as root?

There are at most three or four rumored MacOS X native viruses.  

However, if you install MS Office, you can be bothered by MS Office
viruses. Even with MS Office viruses, many of them do not handle the
difference in naming of files between Windows and MacOS.


> 
> Now, on to Systemworks. Is this _really_ necessary? 
Be carefull with system utilities.  Make sure you use one comptatible
with MacOS X.

My people have reported problems with Norton products like
SystemWorks.  Search these forums.

Some people like:

"TechTool Pro 4 now offers a new optimization feature for your Mac OS
X drive. The Mac OS X system contains thousands of files that fragment
quickly. TTP 4 lets you quickly and safely unfragment these and other
files so your system runs reliably at its peak.

Besides the new features, TechTool Pro 4 also contains updated
versions of its time-tested repair and diagnostic features."

There a like of new features in this release.  You may not want to be
a pioneer.

Also,  see "Micromat Drive 10 v1.1.X�  The first and final disk
utility for Mac OS X."


> They information I
> got form people who told me I needed it I can only imagine applied to
> pre Mac OS X when the operating system was a lot more unstable due to
> no pre-emptive multitasking or protected memory etc. As it is now a
> type of Unix, maybe if there was a serious problem I could boot of a
> live Linux CD such as this one...

Apple includes a bootable cd with each system.

> http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/gentoo-ppc-install.xml

Be sure it can handle hfs+ and MacOS X use of hfs+.

> ...and repair the system or extract the data that way, as I would for
> a damaged Linux system.
> 
> Comments please :-)

Might want to check out your backup strategy before going into
production.  Note: You will need to use MacOS X backup tools.  MacOS X
includes files with both a resource fork and a data fork.  The some
Unix backup tools will ignore the resource fork.

Robert

First - for the record: Norton Antivirus is part of Systemworks.

Robert <rccharles@my-deja.com> wrote:

> There are at most three or four rumored MacOS X native viruses.  

The keyword here is "rumored". I have yet to see any verification.
 
> However, if you install MS Office, you can be bothered by MS Office
> viruses. Even with MS Office viruses, many of them do not handle the
> difference in naming of files between Windows and MacOS.

They can still be obnoxious. They may crash Word or Excel, or in benign
cases drop into the VBA debugger, which is quite confusing to Joe (or
Jane) User, but quite entertaining for geeks, as it displays parts of
the virus code, such as "C:\Windows\win.ini"

You probably want an antivirus program if you:
- exchange a lot of Office documents with PC users - directly or though
   other Mac users
and/or
- use Windows file sharing (samba) on a local network with PC.s

> > Now, on to Systemworks. Is this _really_ necessary? 

> Be carefull with system utilities.  Make sure you use one comptatible
> with MacOS X.

IMO Systemworks is - now. At least the current version seems reliable. 
That doesn't mean it is better than others. E.g. I think DiskWarrior is
far better than Norton Disk Doctor. 

> My people have reported problems with Norton products like
> SystemWorks.  Search these forums.

The issues have mainly been with Disk Doctor and Speed Disk.
Norton AV 9 is rock solid. And they have finally come over the main
drawback it previously had compared to Virex; it now handles PC 
viruses too. 
Previous versions didn't, except for a few big ones like Loveletter.
OTOH you have already paid for Virex if you are a .mac member.
 
> Some people like:
> 
> "TechTool Pro 4 now offers a new optimization feature for your Mac OS
> X drive. The Mac OS X system contains thousands of files that fragment
> quickly. TTP 4 lets you quickly and safely unfragment these and other
> files so your system runs reliably at its peak.
> 
> Besides the new features, TechTool Pro 4 also contains updated
> versions of its time-tested repair and diagnostic features."
> 
> There a like of new features in this release.  You may not want to be
> a pioneer.
> 
> Also,  see "Micromat Drive 10 v1.1.X   The first and final disk
> utility for Mac OS X."

Don't forget Alsoft's DiskWarrior 3. It got raving reviews.