Why Linux Will Never Suffer From Viruses Like Windows

Hot Hardware ^ | 4 September 2012 | Jesse Litton

[dayglored]

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Very nice.

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Yeah, that'll tie itself and its host in something of a knot.

[ShadowAce]

Are “permissions”, (sorry, old Unix term), used with Linux?

Yes, permissions are used in Linux. They are granular enough that you can assign individual users to have rights on individual files.

If so, would you please discuss their significance to the security of a system?

Every process runs "as a user" of some sort--whether that is an actual user or a service account. Each account is assigned groups and permissions. As a normal user on a linux system, I would not have permission to delete or modify some system files, for instance. As the Apache user, I can run everything needed to operate a web server, but not really anything else.

For a piece of malware to perform any real damage to a system, it would have to run with elevated privileges--typically root. If I download a piece of malware, it would usually "belong" to me--that is it would have the same privileges I do. That is why you should never surf the web, or log in as root. If the malware were to run, it would only be able to damage my user account, rather than the system as a whole.

[cynwoody]

I ran a super secure computer system for over 20 years and it is still in service even though hardware support is now very difficult to come by.

Bernie's AS/400?

[bobo1]

I have been using linux since about 1997, can’t even remember the version, it was a boxed set that I got at Staples. Took forever to load up, shucks, it was a 75mghertz pentium (top of the line when I bought it).

Bought a Mandrake 7.2 package and then a 8.0 package after that. Really liked Mandrake for a while.

Bought some Suse 8.0 discs over e-bay, as I was putting together another computer. Ran Red-Hat and Suse on the same system along with Windows ME.

Didn’t really like the Gnome desktop at the time, and became accustomed to KDE.

Am now running Suse 12.2, KDE. Really like the KDE desktop, it is great (for me at least).

One thing I have never done, however, is use Windows on the internet.

I have some programs that I do use in windows, very few. I am not a gamer, I like card and board games, and tux racer is pretty cool when I can’t find anything else to do, and do not want to watch the “women” shows that my wife watches.

I use KDE because I am familiar with it, down through the years. Really like the interface on Suse 12.2.

I am old, but I can still go to the repositories at packman and can get the codecs to run anything I want in the way of audio-video.

never had a trojan or a virus in linux. I had McAffee, Norton, Avg, Avast, Zone Alarm, Spybot and a few others.

With linux I have bought nothing. It is a no fear operating system as far as been for my usage.

I block windows from the internet. Use a couple of things sparingly, maybe once or twice a month. And somethings I download in Linux and then import them to windows.

Still using XP, don’t see the point in buying anything else from windows. Bought 3.1, 95, 98, ME, XP, and then it became nothing but eye-candy.

For what I use a computer for, You can hardly update it anymore, I have everthing I want.

Linux has saved me hundreds of dollars over the last 14, 15 years by not having to buy extra programs.

‘course, I still use word perfect 6.0a, and have so many files in that, but basically use Abiword for everything else. Simple word processor, loads up fast, and meets the needs of 90% of people that needs a wp.

so it gets down to the internet. you are doomed and will spend a lot of cash to browse in windows. Linux is free and safe.

bobo