Re: Woohooo! Dell + Linux
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Johannes Wiedersich wrote:
> Jim Hyslop wrote:
>> Ron Johnson wrote:
>>> There's [...] no need for Symantec anti-virus
>>> products.
>> I'm curious why you say that. I'm fairly new to Linux, but I understand
>> it is more robust and secure than MS Windows. Still, it's not totally
>> secure - nothing made by humans could be. So, do you mean that there's
>> no need for Symantec because of the freely available alternatives, or
>> because Linux just doesn't need anti-virus protection, or something else
>> altogether?
The main reason is because almost all virus programs target Windows and
will not run on Linux. However, proof of concept viruses have been
shown and when they are, the system is usually patched to not allow that
type of concept to work.
>
> Linux is not 100% secure. But it has a different attitude to security
> and to viruses.
>
Yes.
> If a virus hits a windows box, it is a personal mishap, but one can buy
> a special software to detect and delete the virus.
>
Unless it wasn't a real mean virus and wiped the user's pc clean.
That's one of the major differences. If one is using a user account in
Linux, a virus would be limited in its ability to damage files outside
of the userspace (ie. /home/username).
> If a virus hits a linux box (it rarely happens), it is considered a
> security hole. The developers analyse the path the virus got in, fix it
> and neither that nor any virus of similar kind will be able to spread
> again.
>
> This is a simplification, of course, but I hope you get the point.
>
> Johannes
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Linux_computer_viruses
nice link. It seems that most of the virus and worm programs listed
there are old and no longer a threat. Want a good comparison, take a
look at this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virus_statistics
Joe
- --
Registerd Linux user #443289 at http://counter.li.org/
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