🚀 go-pugleaf

On Wed, 24 Sep 2008 20:48:36 +1000, Erik de Castro Lopo wrote:

> sharonpst wrote:
> 
>> hi
>> 
>> i've just installed ubuntu 8.04 lts. i can't find the firewall and the
>> antivirus. i know linux is safer than windows, but i assume that people
>> still use a firewall, antivirus, spyware etc....
>> 
>> how safe is it to surf the net with the ubuntu cd live?
> 
> Completely safe. The default install of Ubuntu does not leave any ports
> open to the internet. No open ports means no firewall is needed.
> 
> As for antivirus, the few Linux viruses in existence have never been
> seen in the wild.

That's not exactly true. They have often been seen in the wild, but 
they're not spread in the way windows viruses are. Machines are generally 
only infected by them by manual intervention by someone using a rootkit. 
But, believe me, they're every bit as nasty as Windows viruses if you get 
one in your system!

Virus infection of a Linux system is, however, very rare - and, as 
someone mentioned, only really an issue for people running internet 
servers.

> Therefore anti-virus software is not need either [1].

I don't think anything that could really be called "anti-virus software" 
actually exists for Linux.



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