Re: Linux/XP

Tech-Archive recommends: Speed Up your PC by fixing your registry

Bruce Chambers wrote:
Michael C wrote:
I was reading an article which was saying that Linux doesn't get virus's because it has better security. The article even said it would be impossible the write a virus for linux. Is there any truth to that?


None, whatsoever. In fact, just the opposite is true. Because Linux is Open Source, the specifics of it's "internal workings" are wide open to the public. Anyone with the necessary skills and desire could create malware to totally incapacitate a Linux computer.

Oh great, here comes Mr. Chamberpot sharing his huge mass of knowledge about linux. So then why don't those with the "necessary skills to create malware to "totally incapacitate a linux computer"? Go tip over and spill your undesireable contents somewhere else!



I would have thought the reason would be more along the lines of less people have got it and those who do are computer geeks so are not going to open sus emails. Therefore no one bothers writing virus's for it because they won't spread.


That's an accurate assessment. Malware creators want to infect as many machines as possible, in as short a time as possible. They want "more bang for their buck." So they don't bother targeting malware at the OS that has 3% of the market share; they aim at Microsoft's 95%. 

http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2005/11/07/november_2005_web_server_survey.html

3% linux to 95% microsoft? That's not what the above link says about web servers on the net. Can you back up your claims with evidence from a link? The link I cite here says approximately 70% apache/linux/oss web servers to 20% microsoft. So where would one attack to get the majority of the market on the net?

Another factor is that there are so many different, mutually incompatible versions (called distros) of Linux. This does make it much more difficult for the "black hats" to create something that can infect several different distros simultaneously. 

This would make it more secure, no?

Oh, and there have been
several viruses targetted at Linux machines; they just haven't made the evening news because the number of computers affected isn't "news-worthy."


I don't know what planet you get the news from, but here on earth we hear on the news fairly regularly that one or another website had been compromised by some nasty, and as stated above, 70% of those are apache/linux/oss servers. Do you think about what you post before putting keys to keyboard? Obviously not. You just wait until someone deficates on you, then share it here.


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