Even there, not much can happen as long as the user doesn't dabble in untrusted random binaries downloaded from random places (and most software for *nix comes from vetted repos, or is compiled from source - which should be vetted by the user where possible - or at least researched to determine that it isn't some form of malware in disguise - I've never seen this, but it is certainly possible to occur).īeyond that - backups are your friend (provided you're backups aren't infected, either!). Linux as a desktop OS doesn't even register - while viruses and malware have been developed for Linux, nothing has really propagated, and most users (once they get over the learning curve) aren't naive enough to be running as root constantly (nor su'd into root) - and so any potential problem likely would only affect the /home directory of the user.

Beyond that, you have IOS (iPhone, etc) and Android (which is Linux-based - so that should be kept in mind) - both of which have been targets of malware, but only at a very small fraction of 'popular' desktop operating systems. Simply because virus authors write viruses (and other malware) for the platforms which have popularity - which currently are Windows, and to a lesser extent, Mac OSX. Its no guarantee, but the scale of the problem is several orders of magnitude less in practice.Īctually, unless by some miracle everyone switches over the *nix - something I've been waiting for since I switched in 1995 - it's almost certainly a guarantee that you won't have virus issues if you move to *nix. I'm not sure if it stores things automatically, or if I have to do something for that to work.Ģ) Desert Windows and move to an OS that's less plagued by malware? Never once had malware on Linux I'll have to ask the room mate what it's called. Theres nothing on my computer that would be worth paying for, but if this happened can you at least reboot the computer to factory settings? Even if that meant loosing everything, could it be done? I think I have some sort of cloud backup program installed. One of the more insidious attacks these days is where your entire drive is encrypted, and you are invited to pay hundreds of dollars to get the decryption key. It's like a programming morse code that never stops. This constant loading sound has me a little worried. I don't have anything valuable on the computer, I just don't want to have to buy a new one. I do have Ghostery downloaded, and use private browsing. * Personal info, passwords, banking info. I wouldn't keep valuable documents on a networked PC without some sort of protection. Hope this isn't likely to happen to the forum. I don't have the funding for multiple productsĪccording to avast, around 70% of infections distributed from websites are from trusted sites that have been hacked. You can't rely on a single product, however you should have at least one. Yeah, that was pretty much the 'nice' translated version of what the room mate said.

Avast slowing down computer