But you are NOT paying with your $$$ (not saying you should give up your privacy ether). Personally I refuse to pay for any antivirus software and never would, unless maybe I was running a corporate network of some kind.

In terms of 'how to use words', all I was doing was making the point that in certain situations (talking about Linux only, not Windowz) it would be a valid security measure to use antivirus software, nothing more!

In terms of your link; a) that's one antivirus program. b) any other piece of software (including the Linux kernel itself) at some point in time has had security flaws in it (this is why 'white hats' exist, to discover them and get them fixed).

I do agree with you (at least I think this is what your getting at, anyway) that following best security practices (and using plain common sense, for that matter) can go a LONG way to protecting your PC, from being at risk in the first place.

But my original points remain the same and if you what to disagree, I'm not losing any sleep over it. Sorry.

Celtic Yokel left us on page one.

Not sure we are getting anywhere on this thread.

Maybe I should have mentioned that sooner.

2 members found this post helpful.

LOL!


Some may say bits of most modern Linux distros are malware, especially if non-free? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7qQ6_RV4VQ

As jefro pointed out I haven't posted on this thread since page 1. I have, however, been following everyone's comments, and thank you all for your input. My original question was answered, to my satisfaction, early on in the thread, in that the consensus of opinion seems to be that antivirus can be useful but not critical, and that backing-up any files, using a firewall and using lots of commonsense are still the best policy.

1 members found this post helpful.

I have never used anti virus/anti-malware software on my Linux boxes.

That being said, it is not true that if you don't run software with a user that can elevate to root that the software can't gain root privileges. There are all kinds of exploits/buffer overflows etc.. that can give software root permissions even if your user cannot escalate to root.

I just renamed my firefox folder because I did not like the way it was acting.

It's a lot cheaper than Norton AV I guess.

Even when I used Windows (in another time in a galaxy far far away), I didn't use antivirus software. I just formatted and reinstalled if I had major issues.