Disinfectant (software)
Encyclopedia
Disinfectant was a popular anti-virus software program for the classic Macintosh operating system
. It was originally released as freeware
by John Norstad in 1988. New releases continued until the author retired the program in 1998, citing the new danger posed by macro virus
es, which Disinfectant did not detect, and the inability of a single individual to possibly maintain a program that caught all of them.
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
. It was originally released as freeware
Freeware
Freeware is computer software that is available for use at no cost or for an optional fee, but usually with one or more restricted usage rights. Freeware is in contrast to commercial software, which is typically sold for profit, but might be distributed for a business or commercial purpose in the...
by John Norstad in 1988. New releases continued until the author retired the program in 1998, citing the new danger posed by macro virus
Macro virus (computing)
In computing terminology, a macro virus is a virus that is written in a macro language: that is to say, a language built into a software application such as a word processor...
es, which Disinfectant did not detect, and the inability of a single individual to possibly maintain a program that caught all of them.