Phill Sacre

Anti Virus for Linux

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by

Phill Sacre
in

Yes, you read that right. You can download AVG Anti-Virus for Linux. Free. That’s all well and good, but — what would be the purpose of it? There aren’t any viruses for linux (well, very few at least)!

I suppose it might prevent you from spreading viruses through email if you’d downloaded a dodgy attachment, or perhaps check files which you downloaded, but in general I wouldn’t have thought it was particularly necessary.

Well, I might download it and try it out… see what we come up with 🙂 I’ll report back.

(Side Note: I mentioned a couple of days ago the lecture broadcast by the Royal Society on creationism / evolution. The Register wrote a short report on it today 🙂 )

Comments

4 responses to “Anti Virus for Linux”

  1. Zeth avatar
    Zeth

    For Linux, ClamAV is just as good in my opinion, if not better. Most Linux software that hooks into an AntiVirus software expects ClamAV.

    Why Anti-virus for Linux? To have an email server/firewall in front of a load of VWindows boxes.

    Reply
  2. Phill avatar
    Phill

    I know you might want an Anti-Virus tool to scan e.g. emails in front of Windoze boxes, but AVG looked more like an end-user scanner. Maybe I just didn’t read it properly!

    Reply
  3. Zeth avatar
    Zeth

    >t AVG looked more like an end-user scanner

    You are right I think, another firm has “F-Prot Antivirus for Linux Workstations – for home users”, this seems a bit pointless as you said.

    I think they are all hoping to cash in, even though you do not need it.

    I think most users right now would be fine with one of the many front-ends to Iptables such as Firestarter or whatever, aside from the firewall, there is really not a lot the big world can do to you if you stay relatively up to date.

    I’m sure there is a market for Antivirus for home Linux-users, even though they do not need it. Thing is, people who move to Linux are often the most technical-saavy people, the kind of people that would have made a good attempt to button up their Windows box with antivirus etc.

    So when moving to Windows, they expect the same set of software that will fulfil their previous habits, even though they are now in Rome and should do what the Romans do.

    Reply
  4. Zeth avatar
    Zeth

    > You can download AVG Anti-Virus for Linux. Free.

    Well free as in beer, not free as in speech.

    Interestingly, this review in Personal Computer World, that is highlighted on the AVG webpage, actually hints that ClamAV is better than AVG.

    I would certainly agree, there is also this article and others that argue that ClamAV and ClamWin actually catch more viruses than the proprietary products.

    Reply

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