Re: [PLUG] Re: Linux on the desktop

["William H. Magill" <magill@mcgillsociety.org>]

On 01 Mar, 2004, at 08:08, George Langford, Sc.D. wrote:
> In the context of whether Linux is ready for the desktop,
> yesterday I received notice from my Symantec NAV S/W
> running on a PC under W98SE that there was a virus in the
> PLUG Digest Vol. 1 #1106..  Even though Linux is relatively
> immune to virus attacks, Linux users appear to be lulled
> into a false sense of security that leaves their emails
> vulnerable to infections.

Until very recently, Symantec itself refused to scan any
platform for anything which did not explicitly "belong" to
that platform. We spent 5 years beating Symantec with our
contract to get them to scan for Wintel email viruses on the
Mac -- Semantic completely refused to acknowledge the problem
of "typhoid Mary;" a system which is infected, does not show
symptoms, is not harmed by the infection, but which can pass
the infection along to others. They finally capitulated and
the most recent version of NAV for the Mac now scans for
Wintel viruses as well as Mac viruses.

But I digress...

The important point, which you hint at but fail to expand
on... TODAY, Linux is not a "target" of virus writers.

One reason is because Linux is not perceived as being the
"evil empire." (I loved the way SCO tried to enhance its
own ego by claiming that it too was as important as Microsoft
so as to become a target of virus writers.)

While people don't like to admit it, both Linux and Mac OS X,
enjoy CONSIDERABLE "security by obscurity." It is not so much
that any Unix environment is inherently "more secure," but
rather, there are far fewer resources around devoted to
attacking Unix based systems. (Remember, ALL forms of
non-Microsoft operating systems represent only 10 or 12% of
the desktops worldwide.)

"Obviously," if/when  Linux succeeds on the desktop, that
will change. Then virus writers will turn their efforts
towards devising Unix oriented virus programs -- "because
they're there."

T.T.F.N.
William H. Magill
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magill@mcgillsociety.org
magill@acm.org
magill@mac.com

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