Every few months or so I'll load Norton AntiVirus, grab the latest latest virus definitions, and do a full scan of the entire system, nothing is ever found. After the scan is complete I uninstall it.
The importance of Antivirus software is waaay over exagarated. For people who aren't willing to adopt the few simple practices that would keep them safe, AntiVirus software may have some value. However, for anyone willing to adhere to a few basic rules, AV software is mostly the modern day equevelent of Snake Oil, it's a waste of money and CPU cycles. Regards Bob Young > -----Original Message----- > From: Midnight Toker [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Wednesday, March 15, 2006 1:57 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] antivirus > > > If you've been running without Anti Virus software for years now, how > do you know the machines are clean of virus's? > > > On 8 Mar 2006, at 20:24, Bob Young wrote: > > > Here, here. It's really not about the OS, or what "protection" > > software is > > or isn't installed, it's about the habits and practices of the > > user. Any > > computer can (and probably will) be compromised if the user is > > careless or > > naive about what they do and where they go on the Net. Like you, > > I've run > > different versions of DOS, Windows (NT derivatives only), OS/2, & > > Linux. I > > did get a virus once in the early days when running DOS, but since > > then I've > > never had a Windows or Linux box compromised by a virus or malware, > > and > > that's without running any anti-virus software of any kind on any > > of the > > Windows boxes. > > > > FWIW one of those Windows boxes is currently a web/email/DNS/FTP > > server > > with seven public IPs serving between four and seven domains. There > > is also > > a Gentoo Linux box doing secondary DNS for the domains, the windows > > box has > > a firewall but no AV software at all, both servers (one Windows & one > > Gentoo), have remained clean and stable for several years now, as > > do all of > > my various Windows and Gentoo workstations, none of which run any > > antivirus > > software. > > > > In short if a user is getting infected a lot using Windows, > > switching to > > Linux is not curing the root cause. The basic problem is the user > > needs to > > understand what s/he is doing that's allowing malicious code to > > execute on > > their system and stop doing it. In the vast majority of Windows cases, > > simply *not* routinely logging on with admin privileges would > > probably stop > > 99% plus of the infections. > > > > Regards, > > Bob Young > > > > > > > > -- > > [email protected] mailing list > > > > -- > [email protected] mailing list > > -- [email protected] mailing list
