For those who are wondering, yes, Wine is malware compatible so be careful about the EXEs you run!
You really don't think Linux has viruses? I'm confused by this post. Is it an excuse to shit on wine and windows?
this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2023
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They're super rare. I've not gotten one once in decades, whereas I've encountered countless viruses on Windows. Linux is more secure, but also it's just a smaller target. Best way to avoid viruses is to use an OS nobody else wants to use *taps head
I think you have a false sense of security with regards to Linux vulnerabilities and exploitations. There are dozen of known exploits throughout the Linux ecosystem that are publicly disclosed frequently.
What makes you think Linux is more secure than windows? I'm not trying to start an argument here I'm just curious.
I find the Linux ecosystem has far better updating mechanisms than Windows and it doesn't have as much backwards compatibility cruft as Windows. That and the open source nature I think is better at having exploits uncovered. I'm not saying Linux is perfectly secure, but that it's more secure than Windows. But I think the biggest reason it's less likely to get viruses is just that it's a smaller target and that hackers aren't spending as much time trying to attack it, plus the users are more tech savvy meaning any attacks will be less lucrative.
it’s a smaller target and that hackers aren’t spending as much time trying to attack it
It's the most popular server system, so I'm not so sure about that.
The target user base is much smaller. Most viruses are spread through user error and server administrators are far more competent than a typical OS user. Also, typical server exploits lead to exposing credentials rather than spreading viruses.
Software is usually installed from repositories and not random websites, so there is less room for user error in general. Even if you download an executable file, you will most likely have to give it permissions to run first. So I think it's more immune to viruses not because of its users, but because of the way it's designed.
“Well no problem, they can’t run without root privileges!” -/home left the game
Time to go back to our "roots" then.
Image Transcription: Meme
[Gru, the long-nosed protagonist of the "Despicable Me" franchise, presents to the camera, pointing into the air and smiling. Behind him is a flipchart with text reading:]
And the best part about using Linux: No viruses!
[Still presenting, Gru has his hand in a C shape and his head down as he peers at the gap between his fingers. The text now reads:]
Look at this, a website downloaded a malicious .exe on my machine.
[Gru now has his hands pointing down, fingers splayed, still presenting. The text now reads:]
*Double Click*
See? Nothing happe...
[Gru looks back to the flipchart in a double-take, his eyes round and wide and his mouth downturned. The text still reads:]
*Wine is launching*
[The Wine logo: a slightly tipped wine glass with red wine sloshing inside it.]
I am a human who transcribes posts to improve accessibility on Lemmy. Transcriptions help people who use screen readers or other assistive technology to use the site. For more information, see here.
Good human
Does Lemmy not support alt text? I can't add alt text from Infinity for Lemmy; is that because Lemmy doesn't support it or just my client? Because they really should.
It would be great if it had proper alt text. But since an image post can have an additional text body you can put an image description there. I guess it's a good idea to wrap it in a spoiler/<details> element.
Image description
Gru…
Image description
Gru…
This happened to me not long ago when I found a monero miner running on my laptop. Being a highly technical person, I feel unbounded shame.
How did you figure out it was running? How did you confirm? Teach me your methods
Please
It was pretty easy to spot in htop since it had really high CPU usage. Plus, the command line args it launched with included the word "Monero" multiple times, so that was a bit of a giveaway haha
Even better: Wine defaults to giving access to your whole drive to new prefixes.
Though "only" your personal files are at risk cause of permissions.
no matter what os you use you can get viruses on linux and macos the chanche is slimmer because they have a smaller user base. the only way to not get viruses is to use your brain. for those who don't know there are linux viruses and you can get them if you don't pay attention
People say this but I don't think it's true. The vast majority of internet servers run on Linux and they are much higher-value targets than your laptop. It is more secure than windows, not just because of the smaller user base. However you're right of course that you can still get viruses.
Which part are you saying isn't true?
That the lack of Linux viruses is mostly/specifically due to lower user base. It's probably a factor but I don't think it's the primary reason.
Did you read the thread you just replied to? Most of the internet, hundreds of millions (probably trillions but I'm being conservative) of servers, all run Linux. Linux is a minority on desktop computers, yes, but it's a majority of computers on the planet. For every one or two computers an individual might have there are a multitude of servers (that's not just base servers but all the virtual servers, docker containers, IOT, and mobile devices). 10's of these per person if not hundreds. All linux. Your argument that it's a smaller user base is patently false. You're using linux right now and don't even know it.
Thb, I don't think that holds water.
Most Windows viruses spread because non-tech users download crap, open email attachments, download pirated software and then just run all of that with admin rights.
How many Linux servers are used by non-tech people to download and run random garbage from the internet?
Server security and desktop user security are two entirely different things and malware written for one of these use cases will almost never hit the other user group.
This even goes both ways. Log4shell was a massive issue for servers, but hardly anyone non-tech desktop users had issues with it, because they don't tend to run publically accessible server software. Iloveyou was a massive issue for desktop users back in the day, but there were almost no infections on servers, because nobody opens and runs email attachments on servers.
Android (which is the only popular mobile Linux) is so different from Desktop Linux, that malware running on one will hardly ever run on the other system.
There are huge amounts of malware for linux servers, IoT and Android, but very little targeting non-tech desktop users.
And now some normie is going to think that Wine is actually a virus.
Wine also mounts your home directory by default so... yeah...
I use Nix, so I’ll just reinstall my system if anything really bad ever happens. Sometimes I reinstall just because. My important files are on a delegate drive I have to manually mount, so I’m not too worried.
~~Vulnerable to malware~~ Malware compatible
I didn't know malware compatible was a term, oh it's wonderful! I'm gonna use it on people in real life hehe
how could it be though? a malware written for windows isn't the same as one written for linux, even if it got out to your computer it shouldn't be able to do really anything since it can't orient itself around an operating system it wasn't written for
I feel like, for some weird reason, nobody on lemmy knows how meme templates are supposed to be used.
People bitching about meme usage. I am home.
It's like watching my parents try to meme and I'm here for it.
I just got a real bad malware on my windows PC and I'm legit considering using Linux as a response. What's the best into to someone who isn't a programmer but understands computers relatively well enough?
Try a few different distros. People often recommend Mint for a beginner. I use Fedora personally, I also like Debian, it's stable but a bit boring and can be outdated. You can also creat a bootable live USB and try before you install!
Tbh, I consider "a bit boring" a pretty good feature for an OS. "Exciting" usually means dozens of hours to fix simple things.
LTS releases get more and more attractive with age.
That is very trueˆˆ