A question from LINUX beginner

  • Thread starter Thread starter Johnson L
  • Start date Start date
Johnson said:
I heard from my friend that LINUX and UNIX was virus-free, but I wasn't sure
why, and he too.
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the confusion stems from the fact that that is in fact false...

the first academic treatment of computer viruses had them replicating on
a professionally administered unix environment without the cooperation
of the admin...
Could anybody explain the anti-virus mechanism of LINUX to
me please?
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as others have pointed out, it's a less popular target - that's why you
don't hear about virus and other malware attacks on that platform, which
in turn is why people have gotten the mistaken impression that the
platform is virus-free...

it also tends to be used by people who know a thing or two about
technology and security and they tend to do things like only get
software from trusted sources and run with least privileges...
Does it mean LINUX users can only use applications that have the
certification?
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there's no such thing as far as i know...
 
Johnson L wrote:
[snip]
I don't want to run into philosophy, since it is too smart for me. I already
understand both Windows and Linux can be infected by Virus. Now I want know
if LINUX is better than WINDOWS in security if we put them into the same
situation, say same volume of savvy users. If YES I also want to know the
degree of how LINUX is better than WINDOWS in security, almost the same, or
much better?
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impossible to say - it depends too much on the user... and the version
of windows, as it happens (vista has some significant differences over
previous versions)...
 
kurt said:
being examined my many people is no guarantee, unfortunately...
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Yes, that is true, to some small extent. However, it is a lot safer than
downloading a freeware Windows app, that's written and compiled by a
single person.
furthermore, just because it's available to be examined doesn't mean
it really and truly is examined...
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We can only hope...
 
kurt wismer said:
being examined my many people is no guarantee, unfortunately...

furthermore, just because it's available to be examined doesn't mean
it really and truly is examined...
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Additionally, as there is translation between the examination of source
code and the execution of an executable. Compilers themselves can
introduce vulnerabilities during translation.

I'm not saying that they do, only that they can.
 
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