23
Does linux need some form of antivirus? (hexbear.net)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/technology@hexbear.net
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and if so any suggestions? i have like 6 on my windows phoenix-bashful

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[–] 14 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Nope, not really. The way Linux keeps userspace very limited in what it can do means that as long as you don't do something very unwise like deliberately giving more privileges to a shady program you're not really at risk. Just try to only install stuff through your package manager if you can help it and only directly install programs that you trust. If you want to pirate software it can be a little tricky to do safely, I run my games through Lutris and Wine which creates a layer of isolation.

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  • [–] 10 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    What I don’t like about Linux is that a lot of things require you to sudo to install if you’re installing outside of the App Store, which is often. Even then a lot of apps require you to sudo to download from the store.

    I have no problem with it because I understand my computer, but it just seems like a disaster waiting to happen for a noob who wants to install a bunch of shit and all the tutorials just casually instruct them to do so without warning of the implications.

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  • [–] 8 points 2 years ago

    Indeed, it's a big problem with Ubuntu/Snap but I haven't been burned yet. Other distros have better app managers, and of course it does depend on what the user is doing. Most people should only need LibreOffice, Firefox, Steam, and some random apps here and there since almost everything runs on the browser nowadays, so it really isn't a huge problem.

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  • [–] 8 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

    Most of this software can be installed without sudo by changing the prefix in the (pre-compile) configuration step. The prefix usually defaults to /usr/local, which requires root, but you can change it to (e.g.) /home/your_user_name/.local and install without special privileges. You need to add the directories to PATH/LD_LIBRARY_PATH etc. but then it works practically as an overlay on top of your distribution-provided packages without any permanent side effects or impact on other users.

    You're right that most instructions don't explain this, though. They just kind of assume GNU Autoconf / CMake / Meson is intuitive to mere mortals.

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