Being virus and malware-free

We've all probably been infected with viruses and/or some type of malware at some point. Well, let me clarify, those of us that use Windows. I migrated from Windows XP to Fedora Linux about 2 years ago on 3 separate PCs in my home, and since then I've had zero maintenance on those machines. I had used Linux for over 10 years previously, but I was never able to make a complete switch from Windows on my personal PCs because there was always a piece of software missing that I needed. Finally though, Linux has matured enough so that switching was made into reality.

I didn't have much malware previous to this transition, but I had been hit a couple of times over the years. I also used to use Internet Explorer once in a while and as such, practically invited malware to my Windows XP PC. But, over the last 2 years, I have realized how much time I have saved by simply not having to deal with viruses, malware, and the like. Because those problems are like a double-edged sword. On one side, you have the malware itself which will take over your PC and can wreak havoc, even completely corrupt the PC so that it needs to be re-installed from scratch. On the other side, there is the task of constantly dealing with installing and keeping antivirus, spyware, and all of those scanning programs up to date. This is a pretty big burden, especially for corporate clients where you have hundreds or even thousands of PCs. These scanning programs are all well and good, but they seem to be getting more bloated and complicated, and malfunction more often. Symantec Antivirus had always been my first choice for its effectiveness and stability. However, in the recent 4-5 years, it's been getting more problematic. I've needed to help Windows users fix Symantec Antivirus, both the personal and corporate editions. And now with Symantec Endpoint Protection, it seems that problems are even worse. Things like the update engine randomly breaking and preventing updated definitions from getting downloaded, installation problems, and bogging down the PC so much that the user can hardly do anything. These are all problems that I've pinpointed to Symantec Endpoint Protection. The solution? Everybody likes to jump up and say "upgrade your hardware" as a first reaction. OK, go ahead, but there's a cost involved as well as time to migrate files, etc. Eventually this is necessary, but it's not always necessary to upgrade hardware as the first step.

So, in the end, you don't think about what you don't see, and in this case this I'm talking about malware. Being virus and malware-free is like a breath of fresh air, and peace of mind knowing that you can focus on using the computer rather than worrying about what things you can and can't do with it.

Talkback

You shouldn't get too complacent, try leaving port 22 open and see how many brute force root attacks you get after a few days.
AndyPagin 8 June, 2010 17:17 Reply

@AndyPagin, I guess I made the broad assumption that people leave the firewall on, which in the Linux distributions I've used it always is. I've logged ipchains/iptables data in the past for port 22 and yes it's amazing to see how much it gets hammered. But I never open port 22 for everybody, that's basically like running IE! :)

My main focus is on client computers that either have the software firewall enabled or are behind a physical firewall.
apexwm 8 June, 2010 21:53 Reply

I run Windows because all the apps I want to use are there. I made the conscious choice to do that, taking on board the security issues.

And you know what? I don't really have security problems either. I keep my OS patches up to date, I use IMAP for email and run a fairly aggressive spam filter on my email provider's server, I'm sensible about where I browse, I use Firefox not IE, I run Avast AV and the Windows 7 firewall (and before that AVG and ZoneAlarm), and all of these pretty much run themselves.

Admittedly, if I were an IT manager responsible for dozens or hundreds of PCs, it would be a different story and Linux would definitely be on my shopping list but on an individual basis, it's not so big an issue any more. And of course, what I don't do is claim that I'm a typical user...

PS: Disclaimer - Avast pays me to write a blog - after I became a user of the product.
manek 9 June, 2010 16:59 Reply

@manek, thanks for the comment. I definitely understand your point, and being a responsible user you have obviously avoided issues. I agree that using Firefox should significantly decrease your chances of obtaining malware. I too felt I was pretty responsible in the past, being selective of websites and keeping antivirus up to date, however I still got malware somehow. I agree that AVG and Avast are great products. Luckily it only takes a few minutes to renew Avast every year. But AVG seems like it has a new version that has to be installed every so often, which makes it a little more work to maintain. Overall I guess your mileage may vary. For me, I just became tired of keeping those programs up to date, and having to manually run spyware scanners.
apexwm 9 June, 2010 18:12 Reply