Linux and Viruses don’t match

Viruses need to spread themselves in order to survive. There certainly are Linux-viruses, but they are very uncommon, and it has been a while since there was a worm plague.

It is just much harder for a virus to spread itself in Linux. Simply because every Linux system is different. You can change every file like you want to, it is not like in Windows you just have to put the virus in that file, in that folder.

It is open-source. There are far more chances a virus would be detected, cause everyone is looking into the code. And that isn’t the only good thing about open-source. People can rely on each others work, why reinventing the wheel, right ? Besides it takes much time, there are other disadvantages about it, but that is for later.

Now, before a virus can do his ‘job’, it has to run, it has to be executed. This goes really simple in Windows, you run as an administrator. Due to this, the virus can even infect system files, or load itself by a simple click of the user (mostly with a phishing-trick). I heard they have changed it in vista, and now you always have to check the ‘I am really sure’ box, kinda annoying I believe. Vista users out there, let me know ;). Now, in Linux, if you want to execute something you would have to give it permission, and then run the executable itself. Far more uncommen ;)