Re: [LUG] Virus scanners??

[Julian Hall <lists@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Grant Sewell wrote:

> Yeah, there are actually quite a few.  My favourite one is ClamAV.
>
> Grant.
>  
There's one advertised every time I install Mandrake ... Dr.Web.  
Russian website IIRC.  To add to Ben's comments though, IMHO there is 
one very good reason not many (if any) virii get written for Linux.

Windows users by and large (and yes I am generalising here) know less 
about the computer and networking and how everything works than the 
average Linux user.  Ergo if someone writes a virus for a Windows box, 
the average user isn't going to know how to combat it other than just 
remove it.  However with Linux there is a higher degree of expertise 
(generally) and therefore the likelihood of the virus writer / hacker 
getting something nasty back is higher.

Simplest analogy is of a school playground bully.  He's going to pick on 
the first year kids smaller than himself, not the final year students 
who belong to the school judo team, who would probably hand him his 
teeth in a hat.

The other reason (yes OK... "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!" 
etc) is that quite simply Windows gives MUCH more opportunity for it, 
being essentially a collection of bugs (sorry "features") joined 
together by annotation and the occasional (and probably accidental) bit 
of code that actually does what the programmer intended.

Kind regards,

Julian

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