Sick of Virii? Get Linux.
Recently I’ve noticed a rash of Facebook based attempts to get you to install malware on your system. These strategies masquerade as a message from one of your friends that try to get you to click on a link that will then run a program on your system. Do you want to know a sure fire way to avoid these exploits? Don’t run Windows, use Linux instead. I know some people will think that you have to be some sort of tech guru to use Linux or they may not even know what Linux is. For these folks I’ll say that Linux is easy to use. It has lots of free software that let you create documents, browse the web, and do pretty much anything that you commonly do on your Windows system and, most importantly, it’s immune to pretty much all of the bad things that hackers perpetrate on unsuspecting Windows users. No anti virus software needed! Here are some links for various Linux distributions to find out more:
Feel free to contact me if you have questions.
Dur. I really expect more from you, Murphy. Your argument is tantamount to saying if you don’t want to get sick, just never leave your house. Or, if you don’t want to get sick, just move to a different country. I’m sure they don’t have diseases there.
First off, vulnerabilities can be found in ANY software, including Linux. The reason why most virii target Windows is simple, it runs on 90% of desktops. Why would I waste my time writing a virus that targets Linux? So it can run rampant through that whopping 1.43% of desktops? No thanks. And having said that, your statement is illogical. If everyone started using Linux, virii would target that.
Besides, most virii are propogated because the average computer user isn’t really all that knowledgeable about computers so they run things that they shouldn’t. That’s going to happen regardless of the operating system. Your own post even proves this!
I’ve used computers since I was 5 years old. Even though I run Windows (gasp!), I never run antivirus software and I have yet to be infected with a virus. I also won’t use Linux for the foreseeable future. It’s not that I can’t, I pride myself on my ability to pick up new technologies quickly. I just simply don’t like it. It feels cheap, it’s not very polished and, like it or not, it absolutely does have a significantly higher learning curve than other OSes.
Therefore, allow me to post a helpful link of my own:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/default.aspx
Comment by Tim Schmidt — November 11, 2010 @ 12:45 am
Sorry it took so long to post this Tim. Your comment ended up in my span queue. One thing you said I agree with is that Windows makes a bigger target and is targeted by more virus writers because if it. I really don’t know if one is intrinsically more secure than the other. I disagree in part with the higher learning curve bit. I think for developers that is true because MSFT makes it extremely easy to write code with Visual Studio however for end users I don’t think there is much difference. It’s all what you’re used to and Linux is free which gives it an automatic advantage over things that aren’t. Yeah, you get it pre installed on a lot of systems but you are still paying for it.
Comment by John Murphy — November 23, 2010 @ 9:34 pm
So which distro do you prefer? I’ve tried Fedora and found the GUI a little inconvenient. I ended up using the command line most of the time but that was for development.
Comment by Jason — December 2, 2010 @ 10:11 pm