Hi, I have been using (dabbling in) Linux for about 3 weeks and obviously have no idea what I am doing and thousands of questions to ask.

One is, what (free) anti virus software should I install and how?

The 'how' part is quit important since since I don't know jet where to put programs so that they actually work for example with Mozilla and Ximian Evolution!
(Iinstalled Firefox, it ran beautifully and after reboot I can't find it anymore...no idea what happened to it)

Thanks for your help

What distro are you using?

I wouldn't worry too much about viruses with Linux. I have been using Mandrake Linux for over a year and haven't gotten a single virus.

Thanks,
If I understand 'distro' correct you mean this: Fedora Core (2.6.8-1.521)
In my Bootloader I have 5 options and I don't know how they got there....
Fedora Core (2.6.8-1.521smp)
Fedora Core (2.6.8-1.521) (this is my default option)
Fedora Core (2.6.8-1.358 smp)
Fedora Core (2.6.8-1.358)
other

I'll agree that anti-virus software right now is a waste. Remember that you'd have to be signed in as 'root' to do system changes, so any attacking program would be defeated automatically.

As to where you put firefox, it's probably in /home/firefox/firefox...but you can find it by opening a terminal and typing 'whereis firefox'. That will give you the location. Once you have it again, I suggest you drag the icon to launch firefox over to your desktop. Once you do, you'll be able to "link here" and it will put an icon on your desktop for easy launching. You can also change that icon design by right-clicking, choosing properties and browsing to /firefox/chrome/icon/default.

Now, as to where to install other programs, you would generally install them in /usr/local

Here's a few links that you might find helpful:
http://www.johnmunsch.com/articles/F...ettingStarted/
http://fedoraguide.org/fc2/fc2beginn...igureyummirror
http://www.fedorafaq.org/

Thanks for the links...some light reading for a Sunday Morning!
I know where the Firefox directory is. It has firefox-installer (38 items) (I found 'chrome''' there) and the tar.gz archive.
In the firefox-installer directory are a couple of 'application/x-executable files like firefox-bin but when I double click on them nothing happens.
Were do I find the file that actually runs Firefox?

there should be one called 'firefox' that will launch it.

While I agree that your risk level for contracting a virus on a Linux system is relatively low in comparison to a Windows box, I have to admit that I run an anti-virus scan on my boxes periodically (vice running on-going live scan and periodic scans on Windows boxes that I use).

Currently I am running Panda Antivirus for Linux, which is available as freeware. To date I have not discovered any virus on any of my Linux boxes, but I still find it a comfort factor that I am at least making an effort to look for potential problems before they could get out of hand.

I hope that you enjoy your on going dabbling.

Oh, by the way you can find Panda Antivirus for Linux at:

http://www.pandasoftware.com/download/linux/linux.asp

Your absolutely true, wishful thinking does not make for safe computing. In any platform.

Here is a free antivirus product for Linux
http://www.f-prot.com/download/home_user/

To find more just go to Google or Yahoo! and use "free antivirus linux" keywords.

There's an open source Antivirus software as well... it's called ClamAV, but I think it only scans mail (I think it's aimed to mail servers), but anyway, don't waste CPU usage on an AntiV software, it's close to useless... I mean, how many chances do you have of being infected by a Linux virus? Practically none, I think there have only been about 10 Linux viruses until now...