this post was submitted on 27 Oct 2025
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#8 reawakened my nervousness about the lack of virus protection on Linux. With every milestone we celebrate it becomes more likely that malicious people target desktop Linux with their malware, and I don't think the "Linux is inherently secure" mentality helps. I hope clamav's on access scanner is fixed and improved so it becomes commonplace before there's some big newsworthy scandal.
People were saying the exact same thing when I first started using Linux in 1999-ish
"I have never been hacked before. Why would it start happening now?"
No one said that though. What was said was that as more people use Linux we will see more malware. And they've been saying that forever.
Here is an article talking about it from 2003 https://www.theregister.com/2003/10/06/linux_vs_windows_viruses/
If I knew how to search Usenet these days I'm sure I could find something from the 90s
It's not untrue, actually, is common sense that there will be more malware, but it implies Linux's only advantage is security through obscurity.
People have been worrying Linux is going basically become Windows over the next couple of years for 2-3 decades now. Malware is a serious problem that Linux users should take precautions from, but it seems clear by now that what security advantages it has aren't based on obscurity.