linux

Is it true that linux has no viruses? because i heard people saying that linux is very secure.

Its not the fact that Linux distro's have NO virus's, every piece of software is suseptable to infection......There are however, particular reasons why it would be less so than windows for example.

Here's my take on it...

1. FIrst off, Linux only makes up about 3-5% of the computers on the net. (Even though this does include 60-70% of web servers are Linux/BSD). The majority is simply windows. You want it to spread. Why write virus's for a minority OS?

2. Security practices of users. Even Linux noobs, tend to know a bit more about computers than the average person. They tend to practice safer surfing and installs of apps etc.
Linux users are using mostly open-source (e.g: free) software.
They're less likely to resort downloading 'cracked' applications from P2P networks.

3. Built in security to Mac and Linux/BSD variants. WIndows is the only OS where you have full admin/root rights from first boot. Rarely do people actually use the "power user" or other options in Windows. This is a huge advantage.

4. IE being interwoven into the OS has to be about the worst idea of all time, not to mention IE 6 and below (in terms of security) is a piece of crap. And no, this is not MS bashing. It's fact.
Viruses don't directly infect operating systems. They infect vunerabilities in the embeded software first (weakest point of resistance). So ... dont imbed software as part of the OS! Especially an app that's main use is accesing the internet.

Having said this, Linux is very vunerable to VM Rootkits, especially a variant known as SubVirt, a proof-of-concept virtual machine rootkit!
These are the new major viral threats out today and NO ONE is safe from them as they currently remain undectable by antivirus software.
Read more here:
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/VM-Rootkits-The-Next-Big-Threat/


Regards

cool... very informative digitalocksmith.

oh ok... so i see now, it is because virus makers want to target the lager population, like windows...ok...

I have another question, i have heard about linux flavours, what is it actually? and what is all the distro and ubuntu about?

@jpika_2k wrote:oh ok... so i see now, it is because virus makers want to target the lager population, like windows...ok...

This is only part of the reason.....yes!

@jpika_2k wrote:I have another question, i have heard about linux flavours, what is it actually? and what is all the distro and ubuntu about?

Distro is a short name for 'Distrobutions' or 'Flavours'......This simply means the different versions of Linux that are available for you to choose from.

Which 'flavour or 'Distro' you pick depends on what you want to use the Operating System for?

Some examples of different versions i use are: Sabayon / Ubuntu / Knoppix

There are many others: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Linux_distributions

Wo! Linux has so many versions?

Thank you for helping, Digitalocksmith. At least now some doubts are cleared... thanks again!