OS X Utility Software
Anti-Virus
Whilst OS X users may bemoan the fact that they are still in the minority, despite having great systems to work with, this is in fact an advantage. How so? I hear you ask. It's the fact that the creators of viruses, Trojans and other malware are going for the mass-market and today that is the PC. At present, there are no known OS X viruses circulating in the wild. Mind you, if you want to be safer rather than sorry, have a look at clamXav. This is a version of the award-winning ClamAV product adapted for use with OS X. You can get full details and download the software at http://www.clamxav.com.
Spam Blocker
The downside of being one of the chosen few is that the choice of software products isn't as great for OS X as it is for Windows-based PCs. The spammers don't know and certainly don't care whether their recipients are PC users, Apple Mac users or any other type of user. As a consequence, OS X users are just as likely to receive spam email as anyone else, but the choice of software packages to deal with it effectively is restricted. Spamsieve is one product that does seem to do the job and you can get all the details at http://www.c-command.com/spamsieve.
Maintenance
All systems can get problems from time to time and OS X is no exception. Fortunately there are a couple of great products to help, if this happens to you. The first one I'll mention is Disk Warrior. This is a first-class software tool for resolving disk directory problems. What is does is to completely rebuild the directory structures on a hard drive, giving back access to files and folders that were thought to be lost. It isn't free but nevertheless, very worthwhile the license fee. Get all the details at http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/.
To investigate and solve a much wider range of problems, take a look at Techtool Pro. This is the software package used by the Apple engineers as the basis for the Apple Hardware tests. The diagnostic tools cover both hardware and software and include features to get OS X running more quickly and efficiently. Once again, not a free product but one that I've been using for more years than I choose to remember. Get all the details at http://www.micromat.com.
Security
Apple's OS X has very many security features built-in. There's an overview of what's included at http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/security/. This page also includes links to PDF documents advising users on security configuration matters. For example, a manual on security configuration for the desktop user can be found at http://images.apple.com/server/pdfs/Tiger_Security_Config_021507.pdf.
