Apt-get :: Antiviral - pls don't ignore this post

Quote (Guest @ Nov. 12 2004,06:46)

Grim Your post is meant to be provocative but I'll reply anyway (once only).

First off, don't do me any favors.  I'm just making sure that you don't go off and make any of these new Linux users think they have to run out and buy anti-virus because "Linux has viruses too".  For day to day use, the probability for infection, while running a Linux OS is virtually nil.  Compare that to "I just re-installed Windows a half-hour ago and I'm already infested again".

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1. F-prot currently scans for 408 known unix/linux viruses in addition to many thousands on a number of other platforms including Windows.

Really?  Name five.  The last major "virus" under Linux was the Ramen worm and it only targeted Apache on specific builds of RedHat (5.something) and it wasn't even a virus, it was a worm (yes there is a difference).  Not only that, it was a benevloent worm. Checking for rootkits, or exploit vulnerabilities doesn't amount to the same thing as removing virii.  Anybody that really wants to get the skinny on Linux "viruses" needs to subscribe to the bugtraq mailing list.

Sounds like you fell for the marketing hype, bub.

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2. I've scanned my (Windows) hds from the dsl liveCD toram and it's fast -  faster than scanning the same drives with eg Norton AV within windows, which takes all day.  Also, you never know what type of downloads I may want to scan in the future - not only linux files - or what type of use I may put dsl to. And I'm working towards a hd install.

So, primarily, you're using f-prot to scan for Windows "viruses".  Funny, when I said it, I was being "provocative".

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3. The idea that only mail servers should scan files seems shortsighted.

How else do you expect a virus to get into your system?  Through the browser?  Maybe if Microsoft ports IE to Linux.  The sad fact of the matter is that the email is the primary vector for infection.  For everything else there's file permissions.  If you run an untrusted executable on your system, you deserve what you get,

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You're an opttimist

 You don't know me very well.  Cynic, pessimist and pragmatist would all have been more accurate assessments.

And as far as the Mac OS  goes.  I've been running various flavors (8.6, 9.2, X) of Mac for the last three years, guess how many viruses in all that time?  None.  I've been running various flavors (RedHat, Mandrake, SuSE, Debian, Slackware, LOAF, tmsrtbt, DSL, etc...) of Linux over the past five years, guess how many viruses? None.

If you're running f-prot so that you can learn, then by all means, go ahead.  I'm not deriding you for running antivirus, I just don't want new Linux users to think that they have to go out and buy antivirus, because they don't.  You have a better chance at a threesome with Victoria Sercret models than you do at getting a virus under Linux.