Does anybody use antivirus software in Linux?
 

Just wondering how many people think antivirus software is necesary in Linux.

I dont know there were viruses under linux ?

maybe they can put on mail server for windows pop accounts but linux in general i dont htink theres viruses

Ya, there are.........but its only something like 11..........vs. the something like 11,000 in WinBlows ;)

go to www.f-prot.com to download a free anti-virus for linux.

it is good

I don't want to install unnecesarry software on my comp..........is it needed? Or is it a waste of hd space?

well, if you store files that are of no significant use to anyone, you are well protected by a firewall and you have a very good backup rotation with the ability to go back to a point in time before you became infected, since you may not know for some time... then no, you would be ok without it. But being ok, is being willing to be vigilant with all the above precautions. Now, if your system is serving mail for a windows machine or 20,000 and/or files for a lan populated with the holy grail of sieves ... windows, then it may be a good investment, as your machine could propagate a virus to one of your windows machines.

Now, if you are using an email server or web server, you may run the risk of being blacklisted if someone was to use your computer for malicious tasks... so, if your serving any critical functions, then it may not be a bad idea.

I don't personally run any on my home machines, but I do at work as I cannot afford to be blacklisted... or have any significant downtime.

nope. i only use open-source and always download from good sources. i would on a mail server.

I use amavis to screen mails. Particularly if I'm forwarding any to those poor souls who run Windows.

This is an interesting article to read: http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/56/33226.html

But one of the last articles in this search is an interesting response to the previous article: http://www.virusbtn.com/news/latest_news/granneman.xml

No antivirus for me. Come to think of it, I never used it on Windows either and ever since I've been using computers extensively since 1994, I've never had a virus myself. Watch where you download from and don't open up any mail you don't know who its from, etc.

Linux viruses? What the? Do you even need Linux antivirus protection? ;)

Well maybe if you run wine(X) - but even then - it will probably not damage your system - wine will just crash thanks loophole filled, mazy cross-referenced WinAPI. But not damage your system. Hey, running under wine is safer than running it on Windows anyway.

Firewalls too? Well true, maybe if you are running a server, but trying to hack into root access is practically impossible, unless you wish to spend a hundred thousand years or are really, really, lucky. Or unless you surf the net as root. Which some fools still do, and I find people in bzflag having the title (root@whateveryourisp.com).

Although I went to grc.com (excellent aid for your windows API loopholes, shuts down DCOM absolutely, etc.) and my ports weren't stealthed, but closed. (Better than open I suppose, and no big deal, considering I am not running live server)

There have been some rather heated discussions about this in the usenet newsgroups. From what I've been able to find out so far viri are a relatively small problem at this time. But root exploits and trojans are a completely different matter. Since I don't provide any outside services and am on a stand alone box I don't have an antivirus. But I use a firewall and keep chkrootkit updated and run it fairly regularly. Also taking a look at tripwire. Now, if I was networked with some windows machines or providing any sort of outside services I would seriously look at some sort of anti virus protection.

I have a virus detection programme (can't remember what it is called, though). This is not to 'protect' myself, but to verify if I have recieved a virus. Pretty cool things to read through, Windows viruses. It would seem that many of the really badly-written ones do not hide what they're doing at all. I have lost count of the number of times I have recieved a pif/exe/com file that blatently contains instructions to do something with SMTP... hmmm, I wonder what that does?

If I was running a mailserver, then sure I would, but for anything else, I wouldn't worry about it.

"The day microsoft makes a product that doesn't suck is the day they start making vacuum cleaners."
but vacuum cleaners DO suck, that's what they're supposed to do, so even makin vacuum cleaners microsoft would be making a product that sucked.... but seriously, i'm not afraid of a virus in linux as most of the virus writers don't bother writing a virus for a still relative small number of users that choose a REAL os like linux, when they can affect so many more users with less effort by attacking winblows users

"The day microsoft makes a product that doesn't suck is the day they start making vacuum cleaners." The whole point of that is that the vacuum wouldn't work, so it wouldn't "suck." ;)

I'm not using my computer to provide services to anyone, so I guess theres not much of a point in getting Antivirus software