Mac OS is based on UNIX code as well basically (differences are more related to licensing than to actual technical differences)... Doubt Macs are less user-friendly than Windows... Also Linux evolves greatly during last years, latest releases are very user-friendly, I would say in most cases never more complex than Windows... Though if one uses Windows machine solely for trading - being behind good firewall, never instant messaging, never surfing the web (or at least never surfing suspicious sites) it is relatively secure too...
The biggest reason to move to the paid verison is that the free version of Avira doesn't have email scanning.
I have the paid subscription to Avira. It is really pretty cheap if you go ahead and get a couple of years. I used to have McAfee, which caused me more problems than it was worth and was almost impossible to get rid of. Then started using all the freebies, but got some bad malware, and after almost a month of running all the scans and using free analysis at geeks to go, I finally got all the crap off of my computer with Avira. The only downside of Avira I have found is that the web-based support and configuration info is not that great, and since it has an international following, a lot of the info in forums is in broken english and difficult to read. Avira is very protective, so you will need to learn how to configure it best for your needs right off the bat, because it will prevent you from using and downloading stuff you know is safe, especially in trading, because it will block live fees if you do not have it configured properly. But once I figured out how to exclude safe IP addresses from the firewall, and how to make it Vista compatible (Microsoft tries everything possible to make you use Windows Defender instead of anything else), no problems since. If anyone needs any help figuring out configuration, I will be glad to help.
Thanks CFerret for the reply. You are correct, I did some research and found out a lot of Macs. Hence, it looks like there are more secure and better options out there besides Windows. Hopefully, someone makes trading software that can run on non-windows PCs (Macs) and non-windows OSs (Unix/Linux).
Anyone think Nod32 is worth buying? I don't know if it's worth a premium over Avast! free or Avira free.
I haven't checked back at this thread for a while, seems it has taken off.... It's true that a lot of people have a lot of problems with Windows, but it is possible to run an XP computer problem free for years. I have nine computers networked in my large household and they are mostly trouble free. Most of my customers go years without trouble after I set them up. It does require being careful what you click on, there is no antivirus that can help without that. Macs do offer 'security through obscurity' but are far from problem free. I fix (and have built on PC hardware) macs also and a major problem with a Mac is a bigger deal generally than with a PC. You will find it harder and more expensive to find help fast. You cannot run many programs. You cannot use many peripherals or upgrade hardware easily. It is harder (at least knowledge and tools are less common) to recover data. And at the end of the day, most trading software just won't work, or if you find one that does you are stuck with it because alternatives won't work. Forget Mac - unless you have software you are 100% certain you will use for the life of your computer. Here is a pretty good article on the subject: http://keznews.com/5061_Six_reasons_OSX_will_not_go_mainstream (Warning: rude ads sometimes...) Somebody mentioned the lack of email scanner in the free Avira - this is not a problem but a bonus. Email scanning is worse than useless. If this sounds mad, read this before deciding: http://thundercloud.net/infoave/tutorials/email-scanning/index.htm P.S. In addition to Avira AntiVir Free (from www.free-av.com) I am now recommending the latest 1.6 version of Spybot (from www.spybot.com) as problems appear to be ironed out. Untick all options while installing except for a desktop icon and start menu entry. Manually scan weekly or as often as you like.