Apple anti-virus to protect the Win cuzzins?

I dropped of some files to be printed at a photo place (I'm in the process of finding a printer that works well with my color profile) and was surprised when they asked me if I had scanned the files with an anti virus. I am an OSX user- I don't dual boot. So my need for an AV is minimal. The printer, on the other hand, feels that even though the files may not effect my MBP, they might contain residual viruses that are dormant on my system. They feel that the files need to be scanned prior to drop off so that their work flow doesn't get corrupted.

Now I understand that they get a zillion files a day from the public. And I doubt I'll use these guys at all, since I don't like how they handle files before printing. But it seems there might be a point there.

Do Mac and 'nix users that share files with others need to worry about being carriers of viruses and various 'warez? If so, to what degree should we worry about it? Does it serve the windows user right for not seeing the light, or not securing their system? or should I start running an AV just to be nice and not infect others?

If so, which one? is there an open source option? Norton? Avast?

 

If they have AV software installed on their system, it would clean or quarantine any infection that would hypothetically be in place. I'm assuming these are photos you took and as such are definitely safe; doubly so since you're not on Windows (it would be very unlikely to spread in a photo regardless; MUCH more often in applications and odd formats that support code execution in some form). Competent users generally have no need to worry no matter what platform they use; unfortunately, the majority of incompetent users (and there's a lot of them) also happen to use the most insecure platform.

Absolutely no need for you to waste money and resources on software that accomplishes nothing at all. Norton makes an OS X antivirus, but for all intents and purposes all it does is install a new icon to your menu bar.

Quite frankly, if that's a major concern for the printer and they don't already have measures in place to deal with that should an issue arise, they're not worth dealing with.

For the record, I haven't run AV software in about five years on any system I have control over, and have never seen an issue. I also know better than to run crap sent from unknown people in email attachments and on sites that are, to me, quite clearly sources of infection. My work laptop has Symantec (Norton for business) installed and it serves no purpose other than to make the machine god-awfully slow.

 

I'll second Firehed's comment - if these guys have a concern about viruses (virii?) it is their responsibility to keep themselves safe, not yours. If their security 'plan' is to just ask every customer if they have "scanned the files" then they have a poor plan.

I'd keep looking for a more professional shop if I were you.

 

I decided against using them before I posted, for different reasons. But they made me think about latent viruii on a non windows system. I often share word or excel documents. and, obviously, images. My concern is getting a file which is infected, it doing nothing to my system, and then passing it along to someone else. I mean, it just looks bad.