Anti-virus for Lindows

Lindows teams up with Central Command to sell Linux anti-virus - a step in the right direction, but perhaps not far enough...

Of the Linux distributions, Lindows is possibly the most virus-prone - by default, you are the super-user, therefore you, and any code you run, has the ability to modify any file on the disk.

However, the makers of Lindows have recently announced that they have teamed up with Central Command, manufacturer of Vexira Antivirus for Linux, to offer a modified version of the product, called VirusSafe, suitable for Lindows.

The 'advanced multi-platform virus inspection technology' includes automatic updates, which is surely a good thing. They also have the decency to point out that 'the number of Linux viruses is currently low', although warn that this situation will surely change as more people use Linux on the desktop...

This is a step in the right direction, however the thought of Lindows in its current state ever becoming widely adopted is a worrying one: take a system that deliberately removes security safeguards by making the default user a super-user, add a good deal of misinformation about Linux being impenetrable to computer viruses, sprinkle with the 'raw-socket problem' (which is as applicable to Lindows as it is to XP), and garnish with some human stupidity, and you have a recipe for disaster.

20 February 2003

Tags: virus del.icio.us digg this