Linux virus?
Security for Linux comes by way of obscurity. However, yes, I’ve heard of plenty of viruses for the Linux. But, not something worth talking about, since, not too many people will have to worry about it. ;)
However, I’m happy for you. You found something that makes you happy, and I’m not about to take that away from you. I too discovered Linux a long time ago, but, I’ve never been excited about it, and I’m on the technical side of things, but, life moves on and, I’d rather have things done the easy way.
I’m calling BS on this “slightly” Here is an article that actually quantifies the number. Oh - it’s 30 as of 2009.
http://tuxgeek.me/2009/04/27/debunked-linux-oss-and-viruses/
Linux has had a better security model than Windows since day 1 mainly because it was evolved from a multi-user system originally, not a single user system. There was some really BAD ideas that Windows adopted early on like keeping the GUI system in Kernel Space instead of User space, etc. for performance reasons. Linux has ALWAYS had a permissions system built into it because Unix did.
The article also spells out some of Linux’s weakness in this area, not the least of which is the code is freely available to find holes in it!
As a rule - you need to keep your distro up-to-date to avoid being a target for hackers of all varieties, i.e. there are other problems beyond just viruses out there. Linux can have vulnerabilities due to outside applications such as Flash just like any platform can.