Hi Guys,

I'm a battler with a belief that free thinkers can rise up and make this planet a lot more pleasant to live on.

I saw a bit of a a post from a guy that was obviously looking for some help to crash the ms empire. Angry depressed and angry manic people do that and you guys giving them a good old public school caning only give them a dose of what the world has given them all their lives.

If you care then I have done you a service, if you don't then please disregard that I tried to help you.

To keep this post strictly in line with forum guides, I have some questions about Linux security :

How secure is the average beginner distro?

What is Linux doing to educate beginners in best practices?

BTW: Did you know that many beginners won't participate in forums because they are afraid of being ridiculed and called a "newbie" which they incorrectly view as an insult.

There are hundred's of linux distros and each is not good from security perspective.

Get the popular ones (listed in distrowatch website), they are well maintained and get security bug fixes in timely manner.

Linux doesn't educates beginners in best practices (Incorrect use of term 'Linux').

Instead there are people and websites doing the same.

A sincere and hardwork is neccessary to do the same.

Thank you veerain, you did your best to reply to my question. However I am still searching for an answer.

To a certain degree, I think that anyone who participates in any public forum needs to have a certain thick-skin. Always remember that the person who's replying is "talking," even though you are reading what she "said." (The impact between the two is very, very different.) If the person's comments appear to be directed at "you," give them the benefit of the doubt and assume either that they didn't really mean it or that they didn't have the diplomacy-and-tact skills that you might have expected or preferred.

Nevertheless: "stick to the topic," and try to read every response in regard to "the topic." If a particular comment (or, commenter) appears to be abrasive, or just "rubs you the wrong way," let it pass. Without reply. Maybe the next comment to drift by will better-answer your question and thus better satisfy the reasons you had for posting the question in the first place.

You can't dismiss people's comments on a forum ... you need them ... and yet, you most certainly can(!) ignore them! Without saying a thing. As the old song said, "Just .. walk on .. by ..." (And, if your third finger is giving "a perhaps well-earned expression" just keep your hand in your pocket for a moment or two.) Feels good to do it, but no point in waving it up in the air.

----
(By the by, I'm assuming that this topic really isn't talking about the medical condition of "mental health.")

...and to help you get your thread get the attention it deserves I've changed its title. Next time please post non-Linux-security issues in either the /General forum or your own LQ web log (its free).


Generally speaking secure enough to replace any other web-browsing consumer desktop OS?
Not sure what the answer should be as I don't know the reason for asking...


That's a way better question. Most Linux distributions have extensive user, admin and security documentation one should familiarize oneself with to get the most out of it right from the start. Not many seem to do so so there'll be much questions asked in fora, on mailing lists, IRC and whatnot. There's web log posts (watch out for incompatibility, wrong ideas or deprecated posts), tutorials about nearly everything and there's companies and institutions focusing on security providing guidance. In short there's a whole panoply of information sources you are cordially invited to read, partake in (and improve, should you wish to do so).

"
How secure is the average beginner distro"

Not very. There are many "best practices" that a distro could employ. Some of the hurtles are the fact that a beginner user wants all the security breaching apps and settings that allow intrusion.

Any Linux distro is more secure than every Windows version. If nothing else, the requirement that a password be entered before doing any administrative task and the fact that user does not have rights to change items outside of user's home directory immediately provides a higher level of security.

Generally, viruses are not an issue; there are no Linux viruses in the wild and many experienced Linux users do not use an AV program. I do, but I vowed back in my DOS days never to connect to the net without an AV, and I've simply kept that vow. With Windows, the first thing I do is install an AV; with Linux, I might not get around to that for weeks in a new install. Note also that Windows viruses will not run on Linux, just as Windows programs will not run on Linux.

Linux firewall capability is built-in; it's called iptables. Some distros come with a GUI frontend for iptables out-of-the-box; with other distros you may have to install a GUI front-end. gufw is my preferred GUI front-end, but you can use a script or configure iptables directly. Note that Linux firewall programs are not themselves firewalls; they are programs for configuring iptables.

The primary dangers with Linux are "social engineering" threats (dodgy websites, phishing attempts, and so on) and vulnerabilities in software; generally those are fixed pretty quickly once they are discovered.

Any of the major distros--say, any of the top 10 at the LQ ISO page--is reasonably secure for a beginner, but you should visit the distro's homepage and read their documentation about security early on in your using it.

Going Linux has some good articles on Linux security. Go the this page and search for "security." Ubuntu also has a good tutorial on Linux security.