03-27-2015, 07:31 PM
Adding to above, the vast majority of viruses are designed to exploit Windows -- so they won't work if their code executes on a Linux machine. The main reason anyone using Linux uses anti-virus software is to prevent themselves from spreading viruses to the Windows machines of others (primarily through email). If you on Linux get an email that is infected with a Windows virus, nothing will happen to you. But if you forward that email to Windows users, you could spread the virus to them.
If Linux suddenly gains much more popularity, who knows? Maybe then it will be targeted more. I'm not an expert on this stuff by any stretch of the imagination, but from what I've read it's harder to target Linux due to fact that things generally can't install themselves on the system without some kind of explicit authorization. That doesn't mean that ingenious hackers can't (or haven't already) come up with ways to do it -- just that it's more difficult. Combine that with the fact that Linux makes up such a small market share of the total users (targets) and I'd imagine that makes the extra effort less worthwhile.
The most vulnerable part of the system in Linux is the web browser. Things designed to exploit flash content or java script exploits can happen in Linux. Normally, if that happens the web browser will start acting strange, lock-up, etc. Generally speaking, if you ever run into something like that (should be extremely rare, but depends on the sites you visit I suppose), only the browser will be affected -- not the whole operating system. Shutting down the browser and clearing the browser cache should rectify the situation. One can drastically reduce the chances of this happening by simply using browser addons to block potentially malicious code as well as useless ad content. In Firefox, NoScript and AdblockPlus do a good job in that regard. (Using Firefox with those addons on a Windows system will help protect Windows from those things too -- so that's not a Linux specific thing.)
Sticking just to the "security" reasons why I use Linux instead of Windows, they are:
If Linux suddenly gains much more popularity, who knows? Maybe then it will be targeted more. I'm not an expert on this stuff by any stretch of the imagination, but from what I've read it's harder to target Linux due to fact that things generally can't install themselves on the system without some kind of explicit authorization. That doesn't mean that ingenious hackers can't (or haven't already) come up with ways to do it -- just that it's more difficult. Combine that with the fact that Linux makes up such a small market share of the total users (targets) and I'd imagine that makes the extra effort less worthwhile.
The most vulnerable part of the system in Linux is the web browser. Things designed to exploit flash content or java script exploits can happen in Linux. Normally, if that happens the web browser will start acting strange, lock-up, etc. Generally speaking, if you ever run into something like that (should be extremely rare, but depends on the sites you visit I suppose), only the browser will be affected -- not the whole operating system. Shutting down the browser and clearing the browser cache should rectify the situation. One can drastically reduce the chances of this happening by simply using browser addons to block potentially malicious code as well as useless ad content. In Firefox, NoScript and AdblockPlus do a good job in that regard. (Using Firefox with those addons on a Windows system will help protect Windows from those things too -- so that's not a Linux specific thing.)
Sticking just to the "security" reasons why I use Linux instead of Windows, they are:
- No need to bother with anti-virus, anti-malware, etc. nonsense and the resulting slowdown of the PC by running that stuff.
- There is no plethora of various programs mysteriously "calling home" (or wherever else they may be calling) without your knowledge within Linux.
- Generally speaking, I have much more control over what the computer is and isn't doing.
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