[parandroid]

I have a MacKeeper related question: are apps such as this (cleaners, antivirus etc.) necessary for Mac computers? Judging by the number of users affected by this, there are a lot of people thinking they do need it, I guess.

[pidg]

I don't feel they are necessary, even for less advanced users. Apple do a reasonably good job of keeping things safe and up-to-date.

The number of users may also reflect their pushy "you need this!" marketing. I installed MacKeeper a few days after switching from Windows to Mac, as I had no idea what I was doing. Ended up uninstalling it, then reinstalling OS X from scratch just in case.

[parandroid]

That's what I thought, thanks. I'm a newish Mac user, so I was a bit confused by the whole situation, since other Mac I know told me not to install anything of that kind.

[mauz0r]

If you stick to official software and don't care to scan documents for windows viruses and such, you won't need any antivirus. I do however use CleanMyMac 2 to remove stuff I don't use, this is the only piece of "cleaning" software that I think is actually worth it. I like how it helps me getting rid of logs and language files in a lazy way :)

[s_kilk]

Not usually, but a lot of users coming from Windows just reflexively install a cleaner/AV anyway.

[parandroid]

Cool. I'll stick to the "no cleaners" personal policy then.

[marcosdumay]

The thing is, those apps aren't very useful at Windows either.

Get to any Windows user, and ask him when was the last time his anti-virus stopped him from doing anything. Malware has adapted since the 90's.