antivirus becoming a necessary evil … even on linux
antivirus, simply put, is a scam. sure virii are real. but one of the internet’s biggest legitimate money spinners is antivirus software. i’ve heard many discussions about this and my conclusion is that the conspiracy theorists are right: windows is flawed and microsoft have no interest in fixing flaws because billions of dollars would be lost if a windows os was secure.
let me say that part again: billions of dollars in antivirus software revenue would be lost if windows was secure.
that’s why xp, vista, 7, and future generations of the windows system will never be perfect. for proof, look at the other options (mac and linux). neither require much in the way of antivirus and the market for such things is small. in fact, i can’t find many paid linux antivirus programs. even the big companies are giving it away for free.
it’s become the biggest marketing ploy online. the threat of virii has made pc users paranoid. and it’s a scam of epic proportions — not only do you pay hundreds for an os, but then pay hundreds more to protect it. even microsoft’s own antivirus should be paid for. double dipping, me thinks.
so, amongst the anti-ms crowd, mac and nix have always had the moral high ground. both operating systems are cheap (or free) and require very little by way of protection. articles like this even go so far as to say no antivirus is needed at all if the user is careful about how they run their system. it’s an old article now, but it highlights an important point: things are changing.
as a linux user, it’s painfully obvious how much the os has changed. in the past, linux has been a hard core user’s system of choice. these are tech savvy people who can rebuild a kernel and port linux onto a gameboy just for laughs. but no more, linux is now in the domain of the average user. linux’s biggest undertaking (to make linux user friendly) is also its biggest downfall (that linux wil eventually become the target of virii). bringing new users into the fray will also bring people with the cunning to exploit those users.
i love ubuntu (karmic koala is beautiful, if not fully functional yet). but the more they market it as a friendly system to interact with, the more market share linux systems grab, the more attention they’ll attract from hackers.
google’s os, which will be built on linux, is going to make the problem exponentially worse.
it’s easy to say that this won’t happen. it’s easy to say that a user can control their system and carefully monitor preferences and privileges. but the more ‘average’ users who make the move to linux, or the more people who buy a netbook/notebook with linux as default, the more problems will develop.
many smart users won’t download or execute software that is harmful, but some will. it will be enough to make malware, spyware and virii the next big problem for linux users.
it’s unavoidable and is commonly known as the price of success.
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