Perhaps someone might know what is going on. My computer is set up to look for updates to SuSE every time I log in. Today, I had to download all sorts of security updates. Whats going on. I thought Linux was secure. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate having the ability to auto check for updates. I was wondering if this is a trend since Linux is becoming more popular that attackers are becoming more prevalent.

I often hear that Linux does not need the Anti-Virus scanners that Microsoft does. Is this true? I know that some companies are peddling av scanners, but do we really need them? What good do they do if we do?

Hello!

I use Linux for 10 years. Since i have a internet connection, Suse ships updates for the OS. Updates fix program bugs. Sometimes they are security relevant.

Virusscanners: just use the shipped antivir. Viruses do exits under Unix OS.

Greetings

All distros keep themselves updated, generally for the apps they contain. Firefox + Thunderbird to take two examples, regularly update with improve code + bug fixes in the same way all programs do. The main difference, in my opinion, is that the majority of Windows updates you download are core security patches that will seriously affect your system security, whereas the updates required for Linux systems are generally updates to applications, not the core system. My servers rarely have any updates to install, now and again kernel security issues or problems with something like ssh vulnerability, but not on the same scale as Windows. My desktop has half a dozen updates to put on a week at least, and that's running Debian stable let alone testing, but they're all very small, quick + easy to install and rarely would leave big holes in my system if they weren't patched.

They are not all Security Updates.

Many are small bug fixes / enhancements.

Next time read through some of the details of the updates to better understand what is being downloaded / installed on your machine.

Security updates don't just come when a vulnerability is being actively exploited. Someone looking through/testing the code might come across something that could possibly lead to a security breach of some sort, so they fix the problem before it does become something that is going to be actively exploited.