The old market share chestnut.
Posted 01-20-2011 at 04:32 AM by rich_c
I'm sure we've all seen a discussion about malware where the old argument of "There's no Linux malware because Linux market share is tiny. No point in writing malware for it..." Well, it just dawned on me that's a bigger crock even than it used to be. Why? Android! OK,so Android isn't a desktop OS. None the less, it's close enough! Android devices get used for the same tasks that are a vector for most malware. Web browsing and email. Maybe as Android market share takes off, more black hats will have a go. They'll find it difficult and it's unlikely to overly worry other Linux platforms. Linux distro diversity wins again!
Total Comments 3
Comments
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I am a linux lover all the way but I think the main thing that keeps it down as a desktop app is its ability to detect and operate external hardware without digging for a driver. As long as these equipment manufactures ignore unix apps with their drivers it will be a fight.Posted 01-20-2011 at 06:43 AM by Larry Webb 
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On the peripheral thing, you're right. If you want a printer or suchlike, you certainly need to do a bit of research.
Having said that, Mrs. C got given a laser pointer/remote with a usb 'dongle' that flips presentation slides back and forth. I tried it on my laptop with OO.o Impress and it worked!Posted 01-20-2011 at 07:17 AM by rich_c
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I call it Android Linux or just Android. But I do not call Android, 'Linux'. Yes it uses the Linux kernel and it may use xorg and some other things as well as some gnu tools in the development process... but it's not really GNU/Linux which often gets shortened to Linux. I agree that if malware happens, it's going to happen on Android and not mainstream linux. But that's probably because they will be using the Android SDK to write the malware. However, I don't think it would be much of a step to seeing malware on linux after that.
As for the laser pointer/usb dongle, it probably just transmits regular left right arrow keycodes. This is what my bluetooth mouse does for the left/right scroll wheel tilt and the back/forward keys are really XF86Back/XF86Forward instead of mouse button 6/7. Unfortunately my left/right tilt is completely useless as it's a press/release event.Posted 01-20-2011 at 11:49 AM by lumak
