With the increase popularity of the linux desktop and the steamdeck, will new viruses and malwares be developed for linux systems? should we better use an antivirus?
Haven’t really felt the need to. On Linux ad blocking + common sense has worked out fine. When I was still using Windows I just relied on Windows Defender since around the Windows 8.1 days, but either way my time downloading .exe files from sketchy sites is long behind me.
Anti-virus software is like a condom. If you don’t go sticking your computer in places it doesn’t belong you won’t really need one.
Today I learned what a dickhead my computer is
Most modern antivirus software is a virus in and of itself.
We always say that McAfee uses all the system resources so the virus doesn’t have anything to work with.
At home I have MS defender turned on by default on my windows machine. I was copying the contents of one nvme to another the other day and noticed I was only getting 60MiB/sec. I looked at task manager, realized why, turned off proactive scanning of files, and watched it jump to over 2GiB/sec. Really nailed that point home.
The anti virus industry boomed because of operating systems that were exceptionally vulnerable to attacks. Simply visiting a website could install software. The root cause of this problem isn’t that a user didn’t run third-party software. It’s that the operating system was vulnerable.
After many years of neglect by operating system vendors, there really wasn’t much of a choice in how to be responsible if you insisted on running a vulnerable operating system. Therefore, the industry boomed and it became status quo for users of these operating systems.
Or you could run an OS that regularly fixes vulnerabilities.
plus if your someone that makes malware are you really going to waste time making a linux version of your malware or just stick to the windows version.
This also assumes that Linux is vulnerable the same way that Windows is for the software, which is probably isn’t.
- Virus scanners only detect a fraction of the harmful programmes.
- Virus scanners can often be tricked.
- Virus scanners often have security vulnerabilities themselves, which are usually quite serious, since such programmes embed themselves quite deeply in the operating system.
- Virus scanners cause many users to become careless because they rely too much on such tools.
Therefore, from my point of view, the disadvantages outweigh the advantages. Therefore, I do not have such a tool permanently installed, neither under Linux nor under Windows. However, every 6 months I scan my Windows installation with a USB-bootable virus scanner. No actually harmful programme has been found for years.
In my opinion, the following things are much more important than any security software.
- Install updates as soon as possible. Under Windows, you can use tools like Chocolatey for this.
- Only install software from trustworthy sources.
- Only install software that you really need.
- Only use root or administrator rights if you have to. For everything else, the rights of the user account are sufficient.
- Create backups regularly.
- Think before you act.
Especially the last point is a problem for many users. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve witnessed someone receiving an alleged invoice from mobile provider A by email and opening it, even though they had a contract with provider B.
No. Not needed for the most part if you aren’t downloading dumb shit on the internet and keeping things up to date.
Run sandboxed software when possible and avoid doing unsafe things.
There is no useful AV for Linux desktops.
I don’t use antivirus on Windows, let alone Linux. Just be mindful of what you’re downloading and you’ll be fine.
Same here. Ever since I remember I don’t have AV, just staying out of sketchy sites is enough. Most of malware is targeted at the least aware and cautious users.
I don’t because no antivirus can protect you from yourself, I learned that the hard way while I was still using Windows many years ago.
I had antivirus and antimalware on Windows and I kept them updated and ran scans regularly, almost religiously, than I got a malware that antivirus couldn’t detect (they take a while to be updated with new viruses/malware that constantly come out) and the only way to remove it was a blank new install following a specific procedure to clean it all.
That day I understood that no matter how attentive you are about your antivirus, you’re never really protected until it’s you who learns what to do and what not while accessing the web, so I did a bit of research about how to better configure my PC, how to better recognize phishing/scamming, using adblocker, don’t download random software, stuff like that.
I basically learned “how to behave”. I stopped using antivirus/antimalware on Windows and I didn’t catch a virus since, then I switched to Linux and I still apply the same principles of “good behavior”.
That’s not to say I’m immune to viruses, I’m certainly not, but my mindset now is that if I ever catch a virus, it will be my fault for doing something I shouldn’t have done, and I’ll do my best to learn from it instead of relying on software to do that for me.
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You dont need an antivirus if you don’t run software from unknown sources, and you keep your machine up to date.
For the most part, if you do all that and you’re still attacked, they would probably get past an antivirus, anyways. I’ve never had an antivirus catch anything after decades of running Windows.
A bit thing to note for people running home servers is to watch what they expose to the internet. Insecure software and insecure configurations are huge targets for botnets these days.
No. That would defeat the purpose of me installing Linux in (old) laptops. Windows feels sluggish enough with a sea of bad things wanting your minimum wage and have Windows Defender prevent it but not all of it, obviously.
I put all my attention to prevention and set strict rules on the router. It can be as simple as setting the DNS to stuff like dnsforge.de or DIY it with PiHole with hosts lists of your hearts content that update itself weekly, I do the latter. Nothing beats a cross platform solution that protects every device in the network, if you’re after 100% performance. Of course you can still catch bad things, such as social engineering by email that happened over at Linus Tech Tips. You better stay vigilant no matter what solution you use and don’t sleep on making backups, which can be as simple and automated when you use Syncthing for example.
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I’m not sure if you recommended syncthing a backup tool, because it isn’t one. Just making sure that there’s no confusion…
You’re right. Syncthing isn’t a backup tool per se and the devs even tell you that in the FAQ. But forgive me if I did preach about it anyway, because you can enable file versioning (keep old and deleted files on each host) which kind of makes it backup incase something bad happens? Anyway it is my set and forget solution for Linux, Android and Windows. If you could recommend me a alternative that ticks these boxes I’d appreciate that. :)
Nope.
Why
I don’t have wine installed.
Even then, the good old “Reinstall if things feel sluggish” always helps.
No I don’t use an antivirus because I don’t download and run untrusted programs or scripts from the internet.
I do have some block lists on my firewall that block a lot of malware, phishing, and scammer sites though.Properly educating the users is far more effective than any anti virus software.
I usually haven’t, but I installed Clam about a month ago on my desktop, ran a full and complete scan, then left it running scheduled scans. Hasn’t found anything, and I get a lot of software from outside of my package manager, and use wine for a lot of it, so I’d say my risk/exposure is higher than most.
I think it’s fine to go without AV on a linux desktop, but I like the peace of mind. There will definitely be more things targeting linux sytems as/if more market share is acquired, but in terms of security it’s more important that you harden the system than run an AV.
