As regards the word “virus” I didn’t use it, I said “malware” which has a much larger definition. I would personally accuse Apple marketing though, of knowing that most non-savvy users use the word “virus” to refer to ANY malicious software, including the Trojans I referenced, and thus their ad campaigns are at best unhelpfully misleading. It is not helpful when we judge “standard computer users” by our own knowledge. I am sure most non-technical folks would have real trouble explaining the differences between the different types of malware, and to be honest, they shouldn’t have to. They do deserve though, clear and honest information from the companies with whom they do business

First, there are still zero viruses for Mac OS X (there were viruses for Mac OS before they switched to unix, but who cares about that now). There are a few trojans (that won’t spread on their own), and Apple is beginning add some protection against them. Even without this and without any other 3rd party anti-virus, Mac OS X is still less likely to become compromised than a Windows machine running internet security software. So adding a buffer in case somebody was dumb enough to download a pirated program that is infected with a trojan to prevent infection can ONLY further the idea that Macs are indeed more secure.

And second, are you sure that only a few Apps have the protection? That screenshot shows “eject disk image” as an option, not “delete.” If the disk image was just downloaded by a program, it wouldn’t be mounted, and the button would say “delete” instead of “eject.” However, if it is a tool built into the Finder (which would provide protection when downloaded from ALL programs), only then would it scan only once mounted and be able to show a button to eject it.

Cheers,
Rik

Or not.