Is Linux For You?
By Ian Scott
I was originally thinking of titling this post, “Never Ever Get A Virus.” But that title wouldn’t quite be true. Perhaps a better title would be, “Never Be Infected By A Virus!”
But then I’m not sure I would be willing to back that up with a 100% guarantee. But I can guarantee that if you were to use Linux, the chances of you becoming infected by an email virus are practically zero.
But for many people, that’s not a good enough reason to switch to Linux from Microsoft Windows. Since using Linux myself for some years now, I’ve tried to encourage others to do the same. Some of my preaching has been successful; much of it has not been. The fact of the matter is, Linux is not for everyone. But at the same time, it can do almost everything that any Windows computer can do, and do it better in my opinion. But - there is a slight learning curve. Which many people seem to be afraid of.
Today however, I’d be confident that I could set up a Linux box for your grandmother, and she’d be able to use the wonderful, free GUI’s that are available for Linux without any problem. And likely, she’d never ever get infected with a virus. She’d be able to surf websites without any problem, read .doc files, create .doc files, send and receive email, listen to mp3’s, view most multimedia formats, and be quite productive on her system.
I use Linux and the KDE desktop and can do all of that without ever having to resort to command line consoles. There seems to be a myth about Linux that you need to understand command line tools in order to make it work. Nothing could be further from the truth!
If all you’re interested in is websurfing, email, access to an office suite, chatting on the Internet, and working at a computer, chances are Linux will be a wonderful alternative for you to consider. And you’ll likely never infect your computer with any virus as well!
I have to admit I have one Windows box that I use. The one thing I have not been able to find for Linux is a good accounting package like Quick Books Pro, that I use for my business. There are a few packages out there that are trying hard, but don’t quite make the grade yet, so I still need Windows in order to do my business book keeping.
As well, if you’re a hard core gamer, you might need Windows. But for everything else, Linux will more than meet your needs - and the nice thing is - there are never any license fees for any software. Need a tremendous graphics utility? The GIMP is your friend. With features and abilities that match up pretty good against Photoshop, and at the same time, free, you won’t have to pay Adobe the 900.00 or so that they charge.
Want a PIM? KDE’s Kontact is awesome. With a built in calendar, To Do list, Email, Notes, ability to set your own news feeds, and also able to sync with your palm pilot using Kpilot, you’re all set.
But one of the greatest features about using Linux is that you are practically immune to viruses. In fact, there are very few Linux viruses out in the wild. Some claim that this is because Windows is simply the most used Operating System, so obviously more viruses will be written for Windows than other operating systems.
Well, at first glance, this may seem true, but it’s not really true at all. The fact of the matter is, because Linux is a multi-user system, it would be all but impossible to send someone a virus, and then simply clicking on the virus attachment, have it infect an entire system. It can’t be done.
In a Windows system, in order to execute or run a program, all you have to do is double click on it. From a user perspective, this is a sort of nice feature. On the other hand, from a security perspective, it’s downright terrible!
A simple double click.. maybe you made a mistake.. and boom.. you’ve just run something you didn’t want to run. And this is where virus writers get to really take advantage of Windows users. It’s so easy to just double click on an attachment in an email, right?
On a Linux system, however, in order to execute or run a file you’ve received in an email, you have to do a couple of things. First, you have to save the file. Then you have to make the file executible. Those two steps alone will practically eliminate you infecting your system. The fact of the matter is, that when you wanted to open some file, that contained malware, you weren’t expecting it to be executible. You were expecting it display some image, or some data to you.
So why would you ever make such a thing executible? Well, you wouldn’t.
And even if it were possible to do such a thing under Linux, and click on a file that somehow became executible, all it would do would be to infect your directory. It would NOT be able to infect the system files whatsover.
In fact, the only way to really become infected by a virus on a Linux box is through what is called “Social Engineering.” Someone sends you an attachment, and asks you to install it, make it executible, and then run it. And, of course, become ‘root’ when you do that. That’s a lot of steps that you’d need to take in order to infect your system. Windows users don’t need to go through all those steps in order to infect themselves.
If you’re really concerned about security, then perhaps Linux is for you. Yeah, you’ll have to learn a few new ways of doing things, but with Gnome and KDE out there, it really won’t be hard to do. On the other hand, if you’re a gamer, or want to watch a large number of proprietary Windows format multimedia files, then stick with Windows. Other than that, Linux and software developed for Linux will pretty much do whatever you want to do!
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