I thought you were talking about Max Zorin?
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Zorin
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Zorin
If you dislike Windows so much I wonder why you're bothering with a dual boot? Why not just install a Linux Distro and forget Windows for now? You can always install Windows again if you feel the need.
As for your questions, I don't know any of the answers except that Linux will see your pix and music ok, just the same as with Windows. I don't know the answers to the other questions as I've never felt the need to install AV software within any Linux Distro, Malware and Viruses are quite a rare occurence with Linux.
I've never heard of Zorin but I do know that Mint 17, Debian or Ubuntu based, is a very easy OS for a Windows user to get their head around.
Be aware though that some things just won't work with Linux, apart from many many games that is. You may have trouble getting drivers for printers & scanners, some software won't work in Linux and some hardware won't work within Linux either, my Focuswrite Scarlet i2i Audio Interface isn't seen by Linux for instance.
But Libre Office comes bundled with Mint and it will open and save MS Office Word and Excel files.
You could consider buying a hard disk caddy for your computer and swap different hard disks in and out of the machine, that's what I do. This saves all the worry about having to configure dual booting.
You're not a tosser, there's nowt wrong with wanting to save money and it's also quite noble, imo, to cheat Microsoft of more cash to add to their swelling billions, especially when you consider their track record.
Whatever you decide, good luck with what you end up with and remember - if you have any doubts or need help - ask
some hardware won't work within Linux either, my Focuswrite Scarlet i2i Audio Interface isn't seen by Linux for instance.
I recently purchased a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 audio interface with the intention of using it with Mac OS X, Windows and, primarily, Linux. In the interest of increasing the signal-to-noise ratio of the Internet, here follows a brief report of the Scarlett–Linux experience.
I can confirm that, after a bit of configuration, it does work with my 64-bit Arch Linux system using ALSA. The configuration in question is simple, but took me some time and googling to figure out. There exists some sort of conflict between the Intel audio module and USB audio; I don’t know what exactly the problem is, but as I have no intention of using the integrated Intel soundcard, the fix was to simply disable it:
Having done this, the Scarlett works flawlessly.
Mr Half-a-Bee said:most modern hardware will work on a linux install though you may have to jump a few hoops.
a free version and a paid version full of bells and whistles for less than £20.![]()
[*]No risk of getting viruses
That should be changed to minimal risk of viruses![]()
Yes minimal, but still there I think Linux users are lulled into a false sense of security, I will be installing Bit Defender
![]()
No, you do not need an Antivirus (AV) on Ubuntu to keep it secure.
You need to employ other "good hygene" precautions, but contrary to some of the misleading answers posted here, AV is categorically not among them.
There seems to be a confusion in some of the answers here between two issues:
These two are not the same. There definitely are 'viruses' that can run on Linux, but in order to make them run, a malicious user needs to get someone with local privilege to actively install them. This requires the owner of the system to trust the malicious user, download the software, and use sudo with a password to install it, (or run it as himself to cause some non-system damage). Not a trivial set of barriers to overcome.
- Existence of viruses for Linux and
- Ability to actually infect a system.
Unlike on some other systems, a regular user who keeps his Ubuntu system up-to-date on security fixes (very easy to do), cannot normally install something by accident (e.g. by opening an attachment, or clicking on something). The exception is unknown zero-day vulnerabilities, but for those AV will be totally ineffective anyway. A Ubuntu user doesn't run with admin privileges by default, and remote root logins are disabled.
In addition, Ubuntu comes with:
So to be secure, you need to adhere to basic rules of safety such as:
- Random address loading (foils most drop to shell attempts)
- Application restrictions/barriers via apparmor so an application like firefox can only access a very restricted subset of files and actions for example (see /etc/apparmor.d/usr.bin.firefox)
- Built in firewall (iptables) which can be set-up to be very restrictive
And similar good habits along these lines. If you do, you'd be way safer than you would be by installing an non-opensource 'AntiVirus' (how can you trust such software?) and falling into a false, and highly deluded, sense of security.
- Keep your software up to date
- Only run software downloaded from official repositories
- Only use your standard package-manager for installs. In particular do not install proprietary binary stuff from random sources which you can't audit by looking at the source code using apt-get source).
- Have a home firewall & do not run unnecessary services
- Reguarly run some log scanning to detect unusual activity (I recommend logcheck)
- Add a local iptables based firewall for another defense perimeter layer
- Keep your passwords long and secure (a good password manager is recommended)
- Use encrypted sessions (use ssh and scp, and not ftp or telnet)
Of course, if a malicious user asks you to download badstuff.deb from somewhere and install it by opening a terminal window and typing:
sudo dpkg -i badstuff.deb and you oblige, all bets are off, and you have only yourself to blame for being infected. An AntiVirus is pretty unlikely to save you in this case. Unless this particular badstuff.deb is among the finite set of blacklisted signatures.
As others have mentioned clamav "for Linux" is chiefly designed as a scanning server to other (non Linux) systems.
References: