We changed to mac 11 years ago and have never looked back. No viruses, no malware etc. Updates go seamlessly. Wouldn’t go back to windoze if you paid me.
What does Linux do with “Driveby Downloads” of the type of adware that gets installed when you rollover a banner advert on a badly-written (On purpose?) webpage?
Viruses surely are geared around what code your device understands, rather than what operating system it happens to run.
.exe, .bin, and .com files on your machine - at the ones that will do the most harm IF that code gets re-written, saved back to your hard drive, and then you have a compromised machine that likely you don’t even realize is comprimised unless and until some symptoms appear, such as “slowing down” or the notorious “100% GPU usage” comes up on the task manager…
Winseer:
What does Linux do with “Driveby Downloads” of the type of adware that gets installed when you rollover a banner advert on a badly-written (On purpose?) webpage?Viruses surely are geared around what code your device understands, rather than what operating system it happens to run.
.exe, .bin, and .com files on your machine - at the ones that will do the most harm IF that code gets re-written, saved back to your hard drive, and then you have a compromised machine that likely you don’t even realize is comprimised unless and until some symptoms appear, such as “slowing down” or the notorious “100% GPU usage” comes up on the task manager…
Linux doesn’t use .exe or .com files, and .bin are not associated with the same tasks as in windoze (mostly). I’ve never had a virus or any other downloaded malware with Linux. I’m pretty sure most of them are written to work in windoze, not Lunux.
gardun:
Winseer:
What does Linux do with “Driveby Downloads” of the type of adware that gets installed when you rollover a banner advert on a badly-written (On purpose?) webpage?Viruses surely are geared around what code your device understands, rather than what operating system it happens to run.
.exe, .bin, and .com files on your machine - at the ones that will do the most harm IF that code gets re-written, saved back to your hard drive, and then you have a compromised machine that likely you don’t even realize is comprimised unless and until some symptoms appear, such as “slowing down” or the notorious “100% GPU usage” comes up on the task manager…
Linux doesn’t use .exe or .com files, and .bin are not associated with the same tasks as in windoze (mostly). I’ve never had a virus or any other downloaded malware with Linux. I’m pretty sure most of them are written to work in windoze, not Lunux.
These are MS Dos rather than Windows, but I get your point about them both being “Microsoft” though.
That would then mean that Linux has it’s own chipset - Yes?
How otherwise does it interpret it’s own set of command file equivalents?
Winseer:
gardun:
Linux doesn’t use .exe or .com files, and .bin are not associated with the same tasks as in windoze (mostly). I’ve never had a virus or any other downloaded malware with Linux. I’m pretty sure most of them are written to work in windoze, not Lunux.These are MS Dos rather than Windows, but I get your point about them both being “Microsoft” though.
That would then mean that Linux has it’s own chipset - Yes?
How otherwise does it interpret it’s own set of command file equivalents?
You are getting outside my knowledge now! I’m sure there are others on here that understand the Linux kernel etc. - all I know is that it seems more secure from virus attacks via the web, as most are aimed at windows being the majority OS.
All anyone who can code needs to do to make their machine “more secure” - is make it less vulnerable to MAINSTREAM mass-duplicated viruses that are written originally with a “standard operating system” to run on.
If 100 times more people are running windows than Linux, for example - then malicious code is going to be running on Windows more often than on Linux.
There WILL be Linux-specific viruses out there, but people won’t hardly ever encounter them, as the entire “auto update” infrastructure, by far the most vulnerable attack method of entry with windows - isn’t present in anywhere near the same degree.
“Auto Recovery” for windows - is even worse. Is there anyone left who keeps this switched on?
Without the virus being able to embed itself into the operating system itself - the malicious code merely sits on the machine as executable machine code files, .exe .com and .bin are just a few of the mainstream extention names for such files, but there are many others all the way down to “Basic” code (.vbs)
IF a file contains computer code that doesn’t need to be “compiled” or “interpreted” before it runs - then potentially that file IF executed - can cause the user’s machine any degree of harm.
I remember back in the 80’s - someone challenged me to write a piece of code that could “physically damage a micro”
The argument went “If you cannot tell this machine to turn itself off from software, then you won’t be able to damage it from code alone”.
Wrong.
Run a program that opens and closes the tape interface over and over.
The internal relay rattles itself so much that there’s a danger it’ll overheat and catch fire, definitely causing damage to the machine in the process…
Of course, we don’t use tape interfaces anymore - but the point I make here, is it is software control of physical devices that can be made to cause “code Damage” to machines - and this applies to ANY age and generation of computer.
Write some code that tells a physical device to make actual movement - and hey presto, all manner of things are then possible…
Winseer:
What does Linux do with “Driveby Downloads” of the type of adware that gets installed when you rollover a banner advert on a badly-written (On purpose?) webpage?
Seeing as that has never happened in over a decade of Linux use, I’d have to say Linux is impervious to it.
Winseer:
Viruses surely are geared around what code your device understands, rather than what operating system it happens to run.
Dude… an OS is just a big collection of code, “You’re implying a disparity where none exists” said Alice Krieg as the Head Borg in “First Contact”
Winseer:
.exe, .bin, and .com files on your machine - at the ones that will do the most harm IF that code gets re-written, saved back to your hard drive, and then you have a compromised machine that likely you don’t even realize is comprimised unless and until some symptoms appear, such as “slowing down” or the notorious “100% GPU usage” comes up on the task manager…
None of this has ever occurred on any of my Linux boxes (BTW, Linux does not have .exe files…).
For a dedicated conspiracy theorist you’re really miles behind the curve on software.
Zac_A:
Winseer:
What does Linux do with “Driveby Downloads” of the type of adware that gets installed when you rollover a banner advert on a badly-written (On purpose?) webpage?Seeing as that has never happened in over a decade of Linux use, I’d have to say Linux is impervious to it.
Winseer:
Viruses surely are geared around what code your device understands, rather than what operating system it happens to run.Dude… an OS is just a big collection of code, “You’re implying a disparity where none exists” said Alice Krieg as the Head Borg in “First Contact”
Winseer:
.exe, .bin, and .com files on your machine - at the ones that will do the most harm IF that code gets re-written, saved back to your hard drive, and then you have a compromised machine that likely you don’t even realize is comprimised unless and until some symptoms appear, such as “slowing down” or the notorious “100% GPU usage” comes up on the task manager…None of this has ever occurred on any of my Linux boxes (BTW, Linux does not have .exe files…).
For a dedicated conspiracy theorist you’re really miles behind the curve on software.
I learned to code back in the 80’s. 6502 assembly, rather than Z80 which was more widespread at the time, used for coin-op arcade games as such 8-bit code was back then.
“VIruses” were code that corrupted your media back then.
Programs that corrupted memory were easy to solve by switching the machine off and on, and re-loading a fresh unaffected saved version of the now corrupted program, that was wiped from memory as soon as you switched the machine off…
Switching the machine off THESE days, doesn’t wipe much, as the virus would have duplicated itself all over your hard drive, meaning it’ll just re-load itself on powerup.
There’s no difference to the processor of machine code that happens to have different file extentions, that don’t even exist at the DOS level.
If you can encode the BIOS at start-up - that’s all you need to do to take over the machine for that then, switched-on session you’ve just started by powering up. We all have a choice as to which Operating System to load, be it Windows, Linux, etc. - but the machine code ultimately is the same, and built around the chipset the machine happens to have, rather than the removable peripherals plugged in, such as the current HD0: drive in particular.
As long as the BIOS chipset isn’t compromised - you can merely boot from a different plugged-in drive to overcome even the very worst of modern viruses.
They get saved on the device, rather than the motherboard, after all. Corrupt the BIOS though? - It is a different story.
I don’t know anyone who hasn’t disabled “write to chipset toggle” IN the Bios menu. Do you?
“Eternal Blue Screen of Death” is likely to result - should one’s BIOS ever be compromised.
Even then - it is possible to pop the on-board battery, and force a re-load of the factory installed BIOS from a standby chip - that isn’t accessed at any other time, other than when the BIOS is blanked from the battery being removed for about 5 minutes…