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Linux and Antivirus software

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Kintaro:
I have no further arguement with Muzzy, he is right and, Seig Heil.

Aloone_Jonez:
I agree with Calum, I think muzzy has raised some perfectly valid points and kintaro should just shut up. This debate has confirmed by suspicions that most people here can't see things from anyone else's point of view. When someone puts across a good argument for something someone else disagrees with but can't come up with an intelligent response they just get told to fuck off.

I think this is very stupid.

Calum:
i do not agree that kintaro should shut up though, i think he raises a lot of good points too, and i am very interested in his comparisons with muzzy's informational delivery and that of hitler.

nobody seems to notice that he wasn't saying muzzy was a terrorist or a racist or anything (as hitler was), he was simply comparing the propaganda styles, which i think is valid. i was very very surprised to see that kintaro's thread about this was binned, and i think the binning was inappropriate. comparing somebody to hitler does not break any of the forum rules, unless it is made clear that this is being done as a form of personal attack, and i think it was made clear that this was not the case, and then verified by muzzy saying s/he takes it as a compliment, even!

however yes, i do agree that people shouting others down hinders creative and interesting discussion. that has brought this site down into the muck before and is the reason we have so many moderators now, because when the forums start filling up with mindless drek, nobody with any real opinions can be bothered to visit here.

muzzy:
Well, there's this "hitler rule" which pretty much everyone has adopted because they're not interested in discussing hitler. However, this doesn't really belong to this thread now does it? I'm not sure if a new thread about it would be proper or not, because it tends to be more worthwhile to discuss things and not people.

To get back on topic, I'll reply to something a few posts ago, before the topic drifted:

--- Quote from: Aloone_Jonez ---By the way what's the chance of you loosing your work because a virus fucks the OS up whether it be Windows or Linux?
--- End quote ---


Most viruses nowadays don't try to trash anyone's work, however the potential to do this would be pretty much equal in both systems. At the moment, linux is safer because there aren't enough linux users to make linux system worth targeting. From point of view of a worm, Metcalfe's law holds true, and thus OS that has ten times more users is hundred times more viable for the worm to distribute itself on it. For spyware and other typical malware, the treshold of worthwhileness comes easier, and once linux begins to gain stronger hold on the desktop you'll be sure to see linux viruses about.

The popularity of firefox will definitely have people developing web exploits that target it, and most likely same attacks will work against linux as well. If you don't update your software constantly, you're going to be screwed. Ofcourse, windows users more so because they don't have any centralized common software update service, unlike some linux distributions.

In conclusion, I'm saying that the current "immunity" to malware that linux has to offer will be quickly disappearing, and the only way to stay safe is to stay current. You know, the same thing tends to work in Windows too. I'll be curious to know if not updating linux will be considered an user error by you guys while not updating windows wont ;)

Calum:
that is partially true, but firefox under linux is inherently less vulnerable than IE in windows i would say for several reasons.

one is the thing about firefox being totally seperate from the system (unlike the great concept of "integrating" IE into windows), also i think that since linux and firefox are open source holes are likely to get fixed before an exploit gets released that targets them, i have noticed microsoft tend to take a very long time to bring out patches a lot of the time, and in the meantime, nobody else can bring out a patch for windows, because it's closed source.

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