The Truth About Linux and Viruses

[MAG]

No problem here danxz.

I was just pointing out that if you seek a very wide user base you have to somehow make things both simple and safe.

The key point as I see it is that the system mustn't face users with impossible decisions by asking them questions that they can't understand then making them click either yes or no to proceed.

One of my earliest experiences of this was with an early windows application with a HIPS (I think it may have been a very early version of norton internet security). Every few minutes it asked me if I wanted to allow some file or other that I didn't recognise to carry out some activity that I didn’t understand, or know the implications of. It was probably extremely secure in the right hands, but it lasted about an hour on my machine.

I think a corollary of this is that a good OS 'for the masses' should therefore be designed to restrict functionality to a degree to avoid putting too much responsibility for safety onto the user. For some people this will be unacceptable. Fine - let them use a different OS.

[polonus]

Hi danxz,

Please, you folks, do not read anything broader than "knowing how to protect against malcode" or "security savvy".
With "illiterate" I refer to users that are "unsavvy" in these respects. This is not saying that users are not intelligent.
It just denotes that they did not learn how to protect themselves against getting infested with malcode
(malware in the broadest sense of the word from crap, unwanted ads, spyware, BHOs to more serious issues like rootkitted file-infectors).

I know of a category of users that will use "safe hex" practices and stayed malcode free for years and years.
Then there are those that haven't learnt to do this properly.
Or they are not  willing to do this because they "cannot be bothered" or only will wake up through working their computers into "doorstopper only state".
Then there is a category that does not even feel affected by such events.
They will just start on a new computer if the old one has become unworkable.
Good for the man in the computershop,  who will  cleanse these machines to resell them.

As the linux users form the 5 to 6% "top notch" of the user population
they start with another attitude towards security and most do not have the problems outlined above,

polonus

[Abraxas]

Personally, I see Linux as a user based platform with no dreams of following the Model of MS. It has no intention of being a Mega Million dollar enterprise, moreso an Academic enterprise.

Place like Libraries, Schools, University's, and some Government departments have been interested in taking up particular Linux platforms, kids love it. There have been projects specifically intended for young school children which have been very successful.

Linux certainly is not trying to become a corporate giant, therefore there is no problems on the horizon as far as malware.

Unix was the beginning.
"...During the late 1970s and early 1980s, the influence of Unix in academic circles led to large-scale adoption of Unix (particularly of the BSD variant, originating from the University of California, Berkeley) by commercial startups, the most notable of which are Solaris, HP-UX, Sequent, and AIX, as well as Darwin, which forms the core set of components upon which Apple's OS X, Apple TV, and iOS are based."

"Unix (officially trademarked as UNIX, sometimes also written as Unix in small caps) is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs."

"During this period (before PC compatible computers with MS-DOS became dominant), industry observers expected that UNIX, with its portability and rich capabilities, was likely to become the industry standard operating system for microcomputers."

In 1991, a group of BSD developers (Donn Seeley, Mike Karels, Bill Jolitz, and Trent Hein) left the University of California to found Berkeley Software Design, Inc (BSDI). BSDI produced a fully functional commercial version of BSD Unix for the inexpensive and ubiquitous Intel platform, which started a wave of interest in the use of inexpensive hardware for production computing. Shortly after it was founded, Bill Jolitz left BSDI to pursue distribution of 386BSD, the free software ancestor of FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and NetBSD.

In 1991, Linus Torvalds began work on Linux, a Unix clone that initially ran on IBM PC compatible computers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix

[MAG]

Linux certainly is not trying to become a corporate giant, therefore there is no problems on the horizon as far as malware.

I think canonical/ubuntu have aspirations to a wider user base at least. To use one of their forum quotes:

'Sometimes I feel like Ubuntu is designed by arrogant nerds for the projected needs of the imaginary non-nerds of tomorrow'

-and in my opinion they do a pretty good job of it.

[FreewheelinFrank]

'Sometimes I feel like Ubuntu is designed by arrogant nerds for the projected needs of the imaginary non-nerds of tomorrow'

"...people don't know what they want until you show it to them."

Steve Jobs.

I use Debian and Android myself. 

[Abraxas]

I've got a sticker on my fridge:
UBUNTU
linux for human beings
... if that helps 

Personally, I use PCLinuxOS KDE 2012.08 and enjoy the arguments and sartorial quips on the Family Friendly Forum.

That's: "The Truth About Linux and Viruses" 

If you want a better looking GUI for Avast!4linux, build one, should be fun.

[Thewizard]

For what it's worth I'll stick my ha'pence worht of thought in here with a quote about the word ubuntu which gave Linux Ubuntu it's name:

Ubuntu (Zulu/Xhosa pronunciation: [ùɓúntʼú]; English: /uˈbʊntuː/ oo-BUUN-too) or "uMunthu" (Chichewa) is a southern African ethic or humanist philosophy focusing on people's allegiances and relations with each other. Some believe that ubuntu is a classical African philosophy or worldview[1] whereas others point out that the idea that ubuntu is a philosophy or worldview developed in written sources during the second half of the 1900s.[2] The word ubuntu has its origins in the Bantu languages of southern Africa.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_%28philosophy%29

...my point being we all need to stick together to keep out the "bad guys" who want to wreck people's computers. :-)

[Abraxas]

Thaks Thewizard 

I really do want all who use a Linux Distro, who have joined their Distro's Forum/Community, and enjoy learning from the more experienced there, to feel quite safe as far as Malware, and Linux.

Don't Login as / (root), or use the command 'sudo',... but 'su'  ...; ask questions in appropriate places, read comments from your Distro's Developers concerning Software Updates, and just enjoy Linux, whatever its flavor.  The main threat is you, there's enough of a learning curve to worry about what is unlikely. Learn your stuff.