Got the mac but what next? AV/Office suite and virtual box

[nicholab]

I got a mac and I am working out whether I should run office 2008 or Open office? Also the wife is not keen on me running virtual box will it upset the precious mac to much? Also what AV should I run?

[Arthur]

Office 2008 or OpenOffice?

If you already have a copy of Office 2008, I would install that instead of OpenOffice/LibreOffice. Otherwise, LibreOffice is fine for most things.

Also the wife is not keen on me running virtual box will it upset the precious mac to much?

If your Mac is running 10.8.2 (Mountain Lion) don't bother installing VirtualBox. It doesn't work due to a bug. Even when it is working, it isn't as good as VMware Fusion (£39.99) or Parallels Desktop (£77.34).

The VM doesn't have to be running all the time, so your wife won't even notice. I normally suspend the VM since it is quicker than shutting down. Make sure you have enough RAM in your Mac though.

Also what AV should I run?

ESET CyberSecurity is good, although not free.

[mezmerrick]

I've used a Mac daily for over 10 years and have never needed anti-virus.

Office is OK. But I personally prefer the iWork suite of apps (Numbers, Keynote & Pages).

For a VM I use Fusion. Solid and reliable.

[mr_moonface]

I've used a Mac daily for over 10 years and have never needed anti-virus.

Office is OK. But I personally prefer the iWork suite of apps (Numbers, Keynote & Pages).

For a VM I use Fusion. Solid and reliable.

I agree with all of this. iWorks is a joy to use.

[grant_girdwood]

1) Office for me.
2) I'm a fan of Parallels £77.34 is a bit steep however I got it alot cheaper than that - keep an eye out on their twitter feed. You'll find regular deals from them.
3) AV I use Sophos - never had an issue as of yet.

Welcome!

[Arthur]

I'm a fan of Parallels £77.34 is a bit steep however I got it a lot cheaper than that

Yeah. Parallels Desktop is often included in various software bundles so I find it's often worth waiting until the next bundle comes a long to save some money. The most recent being the one from iStack where you got ten apps for £33.21 (one of which was Parallels Desktop 7). I reckon the latest version (v8.0) will probably be included the forthcoming MacHeist bundle, although that is just a guess at this stage. Another way to get Parallels cheaply is to download the 30-day trial of VMware Fusion and use the product key you get with that to buy Parallels for £34.99.

In terms of performance, there isn't much of a difference overall between VMware Fusion and Parallels Desktop, although Parallels is better for gaming. Personally I like Fusion because you can easily swap VMs between VMware's other products (Workstation and ESXi).

Something else to keep in mind is that with OS X updates coming out every year, if you upgrade your Mac's operating system expect to have to update the virtualization software too. i.e. if you upgrade to 10.9 next year, you will most likely have to buy Fusion 6 or Parallels Desktop 9 to ensure there aren't any compatibility issues between the host OS and the VM app.

[GrumbleDook]

Office 2011, Parallels 8 and Sophos.

As for not running AV ... it is a must. Whilst the risk of your machine being hit is so much lower than a Windows box there is still a risk, as has been discussed many times.

Then there is the other issue ... you become an un-knowing middleman as a virus in a file might pass through your system and go on to someone else (eg emailed word documents) and there is a chance to deal with it on your own machine. If nothing else ... as a civic duty ... you should be able to spot and clean / delete any file that passes across your machine no matter what the OS is. (sorry ... Monday morning rant finished now!)

[rdk]

I use VirtualBox every day on a Mountain Lion machine (10.8.1) and have not had any issues. There is a timetabling program that only works on Windows (the only piece of software at school that needs Windows) and network connections including printing work fine. The only issue is that I can't get USB pass-through to work but no big deal for me - the virtual machine can open and save from the mac desktop.

[teejay]

I've used a Mac daily for over 10 years and have never needed anti-virus.

If you've never had anti-virus software installed, how do you know you've never needed it?

[mezmerrick]

If you've never had anti-virus software installed, how do you know you've never needed it?

Because i've never had any problems with my system, files swapped between my Mac OS and Windows OS (with A/V installed) and files I've sent to other people, either by email or other means.

As far as I'm aware, Mac OS X now has built in Malware protection which automatically updates. With regards to other "nasties" running on Mac OS X, I understand that because it is built on Unix, you are required to enter your password for something to access your system. Frankly, I'm not naive enough to do that.

So unless something drastically changes, I never plan on installing any. Nothing wrong with that. Plenty of recommendations here for the OP to choose from if they wish. Each to their own.

[teejay]

Because i've never had any problems with my system, files swapped between my Mac OS and Windows OS (with A/V installed) and files I've sent to other people, either by email or other means.

As far as I'm aware, Mac OS X now has built in Malware protection which automatically updates. With regards to other "nasties" running on Mac OS X, I understand that because it is built on Unix, you are required to enter your password for something to access your system. Frankly, I'm not naive enough to do that.

So unless something drastically changes, I never plan on installing any. Nothing wrong with that. Plenty of recommendations here for the OP to choose from if they wish. Each to their own.

Look at http://zerodayinitiative.com/cve.html and you'll see that Safari and Macs can be hacked to allow remote execution of code. This doesn't even scratch the surface of the vulnerabilities found in browser plugins and other software.

[mac_shinobi]

At the minute I am a middle ware man as I did try a few AV's but with my really slow 5400 rpm laptop hdd in my mac mini it was painfully slow with an AV installed and running. I am not saying no to AV, am just saying its too much on the slow hdd so until I get a faster hdd / ssd I am leaving AV. I do have clam xav but obviously that only runs when I run it which is not ideal I know.

Plus one to vmware fusion from me, think 6 was the last version of parallels I tried and I couldn't get on with parallels. AV Wise not really looked that much into it, I tried sophos and AV From Eset ( linked above ) and as stated it slowed my mini down to a halt so had to take them off until I sort an ssd out for it ( Which won't be for quite some time due to money ).