Are opensource antivirus softwares reliable?

Mexigore@lemmy.world to Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world – 27 points –
12

As with everything it depends. Would I trust ClamAV over McAfee or Norton? Hell yes.

Would I trust ClamAV over windows defender? probably not.

Huh? Clamav is open sourced though. Although, it is made by Cisco and not gplv3, it's under CC BY-ND 2.5 Deed.

Can you elaborate on the second point?

Not without knowing what you mean by reliable.

Reliable at detecting malware? ClamAV would not do as well as Windows Defender.

Reliable as in the code is safe from bugs? I can't read that kind of code so I can't compre them.

Unpopular opinion but antivirus isn't as important as it used to be. Just don't click on suspicious links and don't run sketchy programs and you will be good.

Depends on the software. Whether it is open- or closedsource has nothing to do with reliablity.