linux q's

[jamabikes]

just got a pc with a linux based os, ubuntu, and was wondering if anyone had any tips for anti virus software and any bits i may need?

 

[JohnH]

Hi JB. Check this out...

http://ubuntulinuxhelp.com/does-ubuntu- ... -software/

 

[Tad]

Ubuntu is brilliant and free I use it. Worth going to their website and making a boot CD or USB stick with the latest version.

 

[JohnH]

I was very impressed when I tested out Ubuntu 9.04 last year; even on a slow computer (1.35GHz, 1Gb memory) it ran very smoothly.

 

[orange71]

Another +1 for Linux

 

[barry2017]

I'm no expert when it comes to security, but a few thoughts:

Never install software from outside of the repositories. The Linux idea of all software being held in safe repositories instead of being installed from anywhere is one of its big advantages with regards to security.

Encrypt your home folder. Run Tiger. This isn't an antivirus tool, but it will give you a nice report of some things (never all!) that you might want to look at.

Start a terminal, and type

sudo apt-get install tiger

to get it (you'll need to put in your password)

then type

tiger

Security in Linux is really a mindset, rather than a tool you pay extra for like you do with Windows.

Give me a shout if you get stuck, I'll help if I can.

 

[JohnH]

Security in Linux is really a mindset, rather than a tool you pay extra for like you do with Windows.

Amen to that. Unix was built from day one with process protection and user protection at its heart.

 

[Easy_Rider]

I've been on Ubuntu for a while now, not bothered to install any AV, don't think you really need it do you?

 

[JohnH]

I've been using Mac OS X (which is, essentially, another version of Unix) since 2004 and I've never installed an AV program.

 

[Neil]

Security in Linux is really a mindset, rather than a tool you pay extra for like you do with Windows.

Amen to that. Unix was built from day one with process protection and user protection at its heart.

As was NT, which is what the Windows versions now, evolved from.

As to paying extra - well there are plenty of security offerings (AV and antispyware) that are free, and the Windows OS is very much more targetted for things like exploits.

As somebody who's had long-term Unix experience (from around 1990) I can assure you, security has had to evolve, somewhat, for Unices, too - as has the various architectures for the OS.