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Author Topic: Macintosh OSX support?  (Read 13486 times)

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laddepp

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Macintosh OSX support?
« on: October 14, 2004, 03:42:02 PM »
Hi,
I'm evalutating Anti-Virus solutions for my University.  Is a Macintosh/OSX version of Avast planned in the near or distant future?
Thanks
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Offline igor

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Re:Macintosh OSX support?
« Reply #1 on: October 14, 2004, 04:14:54 PM »
No, I'm afraid it's not.
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Offline .: Mac :.

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Re:Macintosh OSX support?
« Reply #2 on: October 14, 2004, 04:37:41 PM »
laddepp, I have tried to get ALWIL to make a Mac version to no Avail.  Try CSAV For Mac OS X

www.authentium.com
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laddepp

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Re:Macintosh OSX support?
« Reply #3 on: October 14, 2004, 05:06:28 PM »
Yeah we just dropped support for Command AV a couple of years ago. I'm not sure why b/c I was not here when the decision was made.  We are currently using Sophos.
I do have to admit that I'm surprised that ALWIL will not consider making an OSX version, considering that they are developing a linux solution. I'm not really a huge fan of Apple, but then again I'm not a huge fan of Microsoft, either. It seems to me that ALWIL would be in a great position to make a lot of money 8) from schools by supporting all the major operating systems (Windows, Mac, and Linux). You already have a great interface ... all you need to do is compile for Darwin/PPC (I know this is simplistic but in reality it's not like it's going to need to be completely rewritten for each platform).

In any case, I do want to say that I really think the Windows version of Avast is a great product.
Thanks!
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Offline .: Mac :.

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Re:Macintosh OSX support?
« Reply #4 on: October 14, 2004, 09:25:39 PM »
Alwil thats two of us who support a Mac Version  :) If you ever do it would need to support Mac OS 9 as well as OS X, many home users have not yet upgraded to OS X
« Last Edit: October 14, 2004, 09:26:40 PM by .: Mac :. »
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Offline igor

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Re:Macintosh OSX support?
« Reply #5 on: October 14, 2004, 09:56:57 PM »
Well, in my opinion there are a couple of significant problems here...

1. The people here have absolutely no experience with MAC programming... I'd say some of them have never seen a MAC with their own eyes (I remember having seen one in my life). And, we don't have any such piece of hardware. While MACs may be more common in US, they are quite rare here.
2. The previous item somehow implies that the market wouldn't be very big either - i.e. probably not worth the effort.
3. avast! for Linux doesn't have any fancy GUI; however, MAC users probably wouldn't be very satisfied with a command-line tool. ;D  Making a nice GUI is quite a lot of work - at least on Windows platform.
4. Some (important) pieces of avast! are limited to x86 platform. While we talked about some ways to overcome this limitation some time ago, the work hasn't been even started yet.

Of course, I cannot say what crazy ideas will Vlk come with ;), but I'm really not very optimistic about MAC support.
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Offline .: Mac :.

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Re:Macintosh OSX support?
« Reply #6 on: October 15, 2004, 01:35:51 AM »
Igor, making a GUI for os X is not easy either, it is very time consuming.

Quote
While MACs may be more common in US, they are quite rare here.
Yes they are quite common in the US, mostly because they are cheaper here.
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S.Z.Craftec

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Re:Macintosh OSX support?
« Reply #7 on: October 16, 2004, 12:39:53 AM »
Quote from: .: Mac :. on October 15, 2004, 01:35:51 AM
Igor, making a GUI for os X is not easy either, it is very time consuming.

You both are right, but that doesn't mean it's impossible... wanna try me ? I'm sure I can make your wishes comes true...  ;)  ;)  ;D
« Last Edit: October 16, 2004, 12:40:31 AM by S.Z.C »
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Re:Macintosh OSX support?
« Reply #8 on: October 17, 2004, 03:28:11 AM »
Sasha, If you get a mac I will send you all of my programs and have you make a GUI for each one! ( a windows machine could not even begin to understand the Cocoa programming language for OS X)
« Last Edit: October 17, 2004, 03:29:01 AM by .: Mac :. »
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S.Z.Craftec

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Re:Macintosh OSX support?
« Reply #9 on: October 17, 2004, 03:35:24 AM »
I'm not sure... I'm sure though, you've heard for Cherry OS  ;) Maybe we can do something that way...
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Offline .: Mac :.

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Re:Macintosh OSX support?
« Reply #10 on: October 17, 2004, 03:53:42 PM »
It would not work that way.

For instance Logic-Dag looks for your model of Mac upon startup and im pretty sure it would carash under cherry OS
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laddepp

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Re:Macintosh OSX support?
« Reply #11 on: October 18, 2004, 08:36:43 PM »
Here's my two cents... please be nice to me because I know just enough to make people mad at me.   :-X   ;)

OK. OS X is based on BSD Unix. Specifically, it's Open Darwin. (You can read about it here: http://opendarwin.org/ ) . You can install Open Darwin on x86 as well as ppc machines.  So in reality, all you would need to do ;) is port & compile over to Darwin on your x86 machines.  Igor you are right when you say that Mac people don't like the command line.  However, you can create a workable GUI interface that won't look too bad in very little time (OS X is more forgiving about this than Windows). And if you don't make a GUI, someone else probably will. Seriously, my experience is that most Mac folks just want to see a little icon next to their clock that says "virus protection running and up to date" when you scroll your mouse over it.  If other folks want more than that, then they can use the command line.

The Mac folks who read this forum... back me up here! This makes sense, doesn't it?
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Re:Macintosh OSX support?
« Reply #12 on: October 19, 2004, 12:54:43 AM »
Makes a Lot of sense!  (By the way im the only other Mac user here)

Igor, The Darwin core can be run on x86 as laddepp said, mabye you could do that?  As for not having a Mac in your office try Cherry OS, run Mac on Windows!
« Last Edit: October 19, 2004, 12:54:57 AM by .: Mac :. »
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Summoner Yuna

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Re:Macintosh OSX support?
« Reply #13 on: October 19, 2004, 12:56:58 AM »
Quote
(By the way im the only other Mac user here)
Mac, Don't Forget about me!  I would love to see avast for Macintosh.

And I agree you would need an OS 9.x version most home users still do run OS 9
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laddepp

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Re:Macintosh OSX support?
« Reply #14 on: October 19, 2004, 03:23:52 PM »
well, from what I understand, programming in OS9 is a completely different beast all together. And home users that are still using OS9 should really upgrade their machines to support OS X. Almost every major software company (including Apple) has already dropped support for OS9. I don't think it would make a lot of sense for an OS9 version of Avast to be developed since OS9 is past it's end-of-life. Classic did very well for Apple for a long time, but its time to move on.
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