Linux is far from being free of malware??!!

[Aere Greenway]

On 01/04/2014 05:12 AM, Ali Linx (amjjawad) wrote:
> Hi,
>
> http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2197530
>
> What do you think? :)
>
> Thank you!
>
> -- 
> Remember: "All of us are smarter than any one of us."
> Best Regards,
> amjjawad <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/amjjawad>
> Areas of Involvement <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/amjjawad/AreasOfInvolvement>
> My Projects <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/amjjawad/Projects>
>
>
Ali, and All (hmm... the two names look very similar:


Not having technical insight into the area, all I can respond to this 
with, is my experience.

*Experience-area #1:*

All of my childrens' families (four of them) use Linux (mostly Lubuntu, 
but one Ubuntu, and one Kubuntu).

Though I encourage them to be careful, they (especially their kids) are 
not as careful as I am.  They have been using Linux since Ubuntu 8.04.

Since I am their 'computer help-desk', I would know about any computer 
virus or malware happening in those systems.  I also upgrade their 
systems, and check-out their old systems as part of that process.

To date, none of their Linux systems have become 'infected' with either 
a virus or malware.  There are multiple cases, however, where their 
Windows partitions have become infected.  That infection did not spread 
(as far as I can tell) to their Linux partitions.

*Experience-area #2:*

All the time I have been using Linux (since 7.04), I have also had 
Windows partitions.  I have a rule with using those Windows partitions, 
namely, if I browse the Internet or read e-mail with those partitions, I 
must have an updated anti-virus active.

Even if I don't read e-mail or browse the Internet on such partitions, I 
always keep applying updates.

When I abandoned using Windows in favor of using Linux, I no longer 
renewed my anti-virus subscriptions, and in some cases (where they 
became too 'virulent' in demanding I renew the subscription), I removed 
the anti-virus software altogether.

I currently do a lot of testing with all of my systems (including the 
Windows partitions, and also two Mac OS X partitions).

But on these test systems, if things went bad (got infected) I could 
easily wipe the infected partition clean, and re-install (and update) 
the system new.  I do not have anti-virus software on these systems for 
that reason, and (per my rule), I don't browse the Internet using them 
(other than a few trusted sites), and I don't read e-mail on them.

I have never yet gotten a Windows virus an any of my Windows partitions 
(abiding by the above rules).

I have never yet gotten any Linux virus (or malware) since I started 
using Linux with Ubuntu 7.04 (and a SUSE Linux system just prior to that 
time).  I do browse the Internet and read e-mail on those systems.  All 
of those systems have the 'wine' package installed.

As a side-note, I have never yet encountered a virus on my two Mac OS X 
systems (used since 2012).  I do not browse the Internet (other than a 
few trusted sites), or read e-mail on those machines.

Admittedly, I am pretty suspicious and careful, and don't click on 
things other people would click-on without thinking.  I refuse to sign 
the agreement to use FaceBook (and others), and (for the same reason) 
don't have a gmail account.

Anyway, that is my experience.


My plans for my two remaining Windows XP partitions, after Microsoft 
stops supporting XP, is to keep using them for testing (not browsing the 
Internet, or reading e-mail).  I still need to test on XP at present, 
and probably into the future.

I worry that if I ever had to re-install one of my Windows XP systems 
(after April 2014) if I would be able to 'activate' the re-installed 
system.  If activation is no longer possible, that machine would become 
a Linux-only machine (since I already have Windows Vista, 7, & 8 systems 
to test with).

I think if people have un-supported Windows XP systems (after this 
coming April), they can continue to use them, as long as they don't 
browse the Internet or read e-mail with them.

I suspect that the anti-virus companies will continue to supply 
anti-virus subscriptions for them, but they would still have some risk 
of some operating-system exploit (where there are no more OS updates).

People with such systems could install and dual-boot Linux on those 
machines, using Linux for browsing the Internet and reading e-mail. They 
could preserve their Windows partitions for running any software they 
have no equivalent for on Linux.


Anyway, that is my experience, and my future plans.  If any of you have 
information that might show my future plans to be risky, please 
enlighten me (and others) of it.

-- 
Sincerely,
Aere

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