have you ever gotten a virus on linux?

At the HelpDesk where I work, we have people come in all the time saying "I think I have a virus." When I ask why, they point to slow performance and stuff like that. When I actually take a look, nine times out of ten (or maybe more), I don't see anything that even looks like a virus infection, a whole bunch of bloatware, yes, occasionally hardware issues, but rarely viruses. I think people think that viruses are more prevalent than they actually are. That's not to say that I don't see viruses a lot too, it just seems like people think that viruses are the only thing that can go wrong with a computer.

 

Anti-virus companies are actually more powerful than Microsoft in this regard. People complain all the time about Microsoft force them to upgrade and extra money from them(and they may get fed up and switch to linux or OSX), yet Norton's and the like profit from the simple "you have to subscribe to us or risk catching virus/spyware tomorrow". It is not unusual to see a computer with 5+ such software running all the time.

 

That's actually one of the things I look out for when clients come in complaining about slow performance. This is not one of the more common problems, but I sometimes see people come in multiple Antivirus programs, and THAT can bring a computer to its knees! Kills performance more than any virus I've seen.

I've also grown a hatred for Security Suites, especially Norton Internet Security (which seems to be bundled with pretty much every new computer nowadays). Whenever someone has a network connectivity issue, and they have a security suite installed, most of the time, uninstalling it fixes their problem. Even "disabling" or "turning it off" doesn't help, it has to be a full uninstall.

 

Have to thank them though(and people who pay for the subscription) as these security companies subsidize my new notebook.

 

This should have been a public trolls to avoid the trolls who said they had deadly viruses.

 

Open source baby Even the polls should be open... hehehe

 

I think that other people had dual booted Windows as well, GRUB does a good job of detecting and helping you boot into the virus...that's what I think people were talking about.

Then again, I voted that I never got a virus. I lie.

 

Yeah, GRUB needs that hole fixed.

 

I do believe those who voted they had a virus need to give us an explanation or be forever branded as trolls

lol!!! Awesome