23 Mar
2012
23 Mar
'12
9:15 p.m.
Reply to All / Reply to List
On Thursday 22 March 2012 18.17.46 Louigi Verona wrote:
Hey guys!
This is an Offtopic question, really, but I wanted to ask people I know
and people who are developers - what are the reasons there are (almost)
no viruses on Linux?
The typical argument is that there are not too much users.
...
If I should take a wild guess, It was not so many Windows users in
numbers back in around 1992/1993 either, but the number of viruses and
Co. was around 16 000. So yes, that number argument is not really good.
The smaller number of viruses and other problems in Linux is in my
opinion mainly because of this:
* The simplicity in file structure. Most programs and libraries
can be normally be found in just a few paths, which generally
makes it easier to control things. This structures also makes
it easier to install and run programs without being an admin
and messing with the system.
* It is the distro vendors that are doing the hard work of
upgrading packages as fast as possible when a security
hole are discovered. In a main stream distro like Ubuntu,
this can happen more that one time at day if needed. In
Windows this is once a week and in OSX, it can take many
weeks if they fix it. This is a very serious thing. Many
packages are in use in both Linux, Windows and OSX,
If I'm not mistaking, Openssl is one of them. So when the
world knows about security holes, it might take long time
before MS and Apple fix it.
So to sum it up: The distro take care of most of it in Linux,
MS and Apple usually only care about the OS related stuff.
In addition: for MS, antivirus and other security programs
are central for keeping things healthy. The passive nature
of the Unix systems are probably better here.
*Speaking about packages: They are often open sourced,
and many eyes can identify and solve problems.
This was only tree points, but one can probably find more. But now, I will
go and watch TV! :-)
Jostein