Do you use an antivirus? Why, or why not?

tubbadu@lemmy.kde.social to Linux@lemmy.ml – 89 points –

With the increase popularity of the linux desktop and the steamdeck, will new viruses and malwares be developed for linux systems? should we better use an antivirus?

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No. That would defeat the purpose of me installing Linux in (old) laptops. Windows feels sluggish enough with a sea of bad things wanting your minimum wage and have Windows Defender prevent it but not all of it, obviously.

I put all my attention to prevention and set strict rules on the router. It can be as simple as setting the DNS to stuff like dnsforge.de or DIY it with PiHole with hosts lists of your hearts content that update itself weekly, I do the latter. Nothing beats a cross platform solution that protects every device in the network, if you're after 100% performance. Of course you can still catch bad things, such as social engineering by email that happened over at Linus Tech Tips. You better stay vigilant no matter what solution you use and don't sleep on making backups, which can be as simple and automated when you use Syncthing for example.

I'm not sure if you recommended syncthing a backup tool, because it isn't one. Just making sure that there's no confusion...

You're right. Syncthing isn't a backup tool per se and the devs even tell you that in the FAQ. But forgive me if I did preach about it anyway, because you can enable file versioning (keep old and deleted files on each host) which kind of makes it backup incase something bad happens? Anyway it is my set and forget solution for Linux, Android and Windows. If you could recommend me a alternative that ticks these boxes I'd appreciate that. :)

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