There are no anti-virus programmes for GNU/Linux -- the main reason
for this being the lack of virii for this OS. UNIX/Linux virii usually
exploit security holes in software. In every case security fixes had
been available long before the attacks. In other words, the few who
were affected by virii suffered only because they had not kept their
systems up-to-date with the latest packages. The best virus protection
you can have is to keep you system up-to-date with the latest official
Mandrake package releases. Software Manager is ideal for this.
In the M$ world, things are different. M$ don't bother fixing the
holes that virii exploit, instead delegating the job to virus scanning
companies, who can merely scan for virii, not fix the holes.. This
means you have to frequently scan your discs, and if something *does*
get through the "protection" (no virus scanner is 100% accurate)
you're seriously stuffed.
You may see virus scanners available for GNU/Linux -- these are made
to detect Windows viruses (which can't harm GNU/Linux at all). This
can be useful if you have multiple OSs installed, or if you share a
network with WIndos boxes.
On Mon, 11 Jun 2001 16:07, Robert Basye3rd wrote:
> Is it necessary to run a antivirus program on Linux Mandrake 8.0? If
> so which one is the best and are there any free antivirus programs
> out there?
--
Sridhar Dhanapalan.
"There are two major products that come from Berkeley:
LSD and UNIX. We don't believe this to be a coincidence."
-- Jeremy S. Anderson
