The main argument apple users have against windows users contain words "windows" and "virus" in the same sentence. I have not had a virus in about 10 years now. I install two antivirus software every year, update definition and scan everything I have, and then I remove both to prevent them from slowing my system down.
I always thought antivirus software makers just need to generate some false reports to scare you into buying their software, because if there are no viruses, there is no reason for them to exists and charge for their software.
Someone told me that bitdefender finds a virus in my software and I installed it so I can file report bitdefender support. Even though it did not report anything on the software when I scanned it, it did report a threat in a test project I created to explain something to a friend.
I thought it would be funny for you guys to see and also make you think about antivirus software business. Take a look at this screenshot:
Antivirus/Anti malware software is good to have just as a last line of defense. Mine really only has to block a handful of things a year. Just when something slips past my script blocking and whatnot. Something snuck through not too long ago through an ad. It was on a site that I wanted to support, so I had disabled ad blocking/allowed the ad scripts to run. If you're careful, you can avoid most things... but every now and then something will sneak in. That's where having active virus protection comes in handy (and a weekly anti malware scan). Sure, I could have removed it myself (if I had noticed it at all), but it caught it for me.
So, yeah. I more or less trust my free software to catch the odd bit of malware that slips past my forward lines of defense/safe browsing habits. Of course, I know the score for the most part. There are many many many people out there who do not. AV software is a much more important component for those people.
Tech savvy people criticizing others for using AV software is like a mechanic criticizing others for taking their car to a garage for routine maintenance. Not everyone has the same knowledge base, and it's important to keep in mind.
Oh, and as far as false positives, that's mostly due to heuristics scanning. The program is just looking for virus like activity. Whether that's a file that can actively edit system settings/registry, or communicates information to a remote server or whatever... all the program knows is that it's a potential threat. It can be hit or miss for sure, and some are better than others at it.
The best virus protection you can get doesn't actually reside in your computer as software. It sits on your shoulders.
Unfortunately, this is actually the weaker component for most people, so AV is always a good idea.
Don't run 2 though, that is very bad for performance and totally unnecessary. You'll end up with a scanner scanning a file and another scanner then scanning that scanned file.... Yo dawg, I heard you like AV?
