Hey, I was just wondering if a virus scanner would be useful on a linux box. Or do most of the viruses out there affect only Windoze and Mac machines.

If I should be scanning my downloads, then is there a good virus scanner that anyone can recommend

There are virus scans for linux out there, but you are much better off spending your time configuring security on your computer since the chances of getting a virus on linux are extremely small.

well there isn't much of a need, but if you really want one you can do a search on this fourm about the topic at hand, and you'll find that this question has been asked/answered many of times, with many different suggestions given....but let me just leave you with a known fact ..
As of 2001, there was more than 30,000 viruses that affected windows, and only 18 known virus in Linux....but now a days if you want a somewhat approximation of how many there is, you will just double the figures i have given....as there is over 60,000 for windows and in the ballpark figure of around ~50 for linux...
oh and p.s. macs have basically the same threat as we linux users...

That's what I thought, thanks

Even though viruses and worms for Linux are very rare it's not a bad idea to go with a virus scanner. Take for instance the Samba scenario: If you run Samba and let Windows users write and read from your disks it's quite probable that a virus will end up on your hard drive at one time or another. By not running a virus scanner you could be letting the virus spread to other Samba users. Or you could forward an email with an infected attachment. In both scenarios it's *your* fault.

hw

hmmm

Could you recommend one to me??

Or could I wine mcafee??

f-prot, works great for me...

I highly recommend ClamAV.

http://clamav.sourceforge.net/

--jeremy