Graham Balin wrote:
> Thanks Mike.
>
> I'm having difficulty with the idea that NO AV/firewall is needed.
Unix and therefore Linux is qualitatively different from Windows.
Unix has been from the first a multi-user operating system. Windows,
prior to W2003TS has not been.
A multi-user operating system assumes that at all times there are other
people with access to the computer, and arranges to prevent them from
interfering with your (each others') data and operations.
> What if
> you get sent an attachment via email and [horror of horrors] open it - there
> may be no viruses now but surely it is only a matter of time?
>
It won't be an executable.
Windows regards anything that ends in .exe (.bat .com .cmd and sometimes
a few others) as a program, and anything else as not.
Linux regards anything with the executable flag set as being executable,
and nothing else.
I suspect that Ubuntu, being derived from Debian, has iptables tucked
away in its /usr/sbin directory, iptables is all that is necessary to
geenrate a firewall if you want one. But again, until you open up a
service, nobody can use it.
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