Security

Linux is a very secure operating system. I have been using Linux for just over a year and I have not had a virus or spyware infection. Nor have any of the people I know who use Linux.

Estimates of the number of viruses that have ever been written for Linux vary, but the number that I have seen most is around five hundred. About five hundred viruses in the nineteen years since Linux was started. Some operating systems are tested by five hundred viruses a day.

Also, of those five hundred, I have read that over ninety percent of them were created in a laboratory environment specifically to test the security of Linux.

Even if viruses were out there for Linux (and I will not claim that there are none, but I do not know anyone who has gotten one), they would have a lot of trouble infecting a Linux computer. There are several reasons for this.

One of the biggest obstacles for a virus on a Linux computer is the fact that most of the time the user is not signed is as the administrator. The default for Linux is to sign in as a user, not as administrator (called root user in Linux). One popular operating system automatically signs a person in as administrator unless they take the time (and know that they need to) to set up separate user accounts. A virus cannot do very much if it is not allowed into the operating system. And Linux users have to give it specific permission.

Another obstacle for Linux viruses would be the difference in the way Linux operating systems handle software, or packages. Debian, and the operating systems based on it, including Ubuntu as well as all the operating systems with which I deal, uses .deb packages. Now, if you do not know much about Linux, that may not mean much to you, but it is important. Because software cannot work on a Debian or Ubuntu based computer unless it is in the right format.

And .deb is not the only format. Red Hat operating systems, including Red Hat, Fedora, CentOS, and others, use .rpm packages. They work differently and they work only on the systems designed for them. Slackware Linux uses something else, and other Linux versions use something else.

The point of all that information is that even if a virus is written for Linux, it may be written for only one kind of Linux packaging system. A virus packed into a .deb will not do anything on a system designed to use a .rpm. And a .rpm virus won't affect a system that uses .deb. They could not get in because the operating system would not have the software to install them.

So to affect as many Linux users as possible, a person writing a virus for Linux would have to write several different versions and put it into several different packages. And then a Linux user would not only have to open it, but then enter their password to let it in.

There are other reasons a virus is unlikely for a Linux system, too. But this post is long enough already. I may write more about it later. Or someone may put something in the comments that helps. Just keep an eye out.