All anti virus software actually, not just free ones. The paid ones are probably even worse.
this post was submitted on 17 Oct 2026
353 points (99.2% liked)
Comic Strips
25827 readers
1806 users here now
Comic Strips is a community for those who love comic stories.
Rules
-
π Be Nice!
- Treat others with respect and dignity. Friendly banter is okay, as long as it is mutual; keyword: friendly.
-
ποΈ Community Standards
- Comics should be a full story, from start to finish, in one post.
- Posts should be safe and enjoyable by the majority of community members, both here on lemmy.world and other instances.
- Any comic that would qualify as raunchy, lewd, or otherwise draw unwanted attention by nosy coworkers, spouses, or family members should be tagged as NSFW.
- Moderators have final say on what and what does not qualify as appropriate. Use common sense, and if need be, err on the side of caution.
-
𧬠Keep it Real
- Comics should be made and posted by real human beans, not by automated means like bots or AI. This is not the community for that sort of thing.
-
π½οΈ Credit Where Credit is Due
- Comics should include the original attribution to the artist(s) involved, and be unmodified. Bonus points if you include a link back to their website. When in doubt, use a reverse image search to try to find the original version. Repeat offenders will have their posts removed, be temporarily banned from posting, or if all else fails, be permanently banned from posting.
- Attributions include, but are not limited to, watermarks, links, or other text or imagery that artists add to their comics to use for identification purposes. If you find a comic without any such markings, it would be a good idea to see if you can find an original version. If one cannot be found, say so and ask the community for help!
-
π Post Formatting
- Post an image, gallery, or link to a specific comic hosted on another site; e.g., the author's website.
- Meta posts about the community should be tagged with [Meta] either at the beginning or the end of the post title.
- When linking to a comic hosted on another site, ensure the link is to the comic itself and not just to the website; e.g.,
β Correct: https://xkcd.com/386/
β Incorrect: https://xkcd.com/
-
π¬ Post Frequency/SPAM
- Each user (regardless of instance) may post up to five (5 π) comics a day. This can be any combination of personal comics you have written yourself, or other author's comics. Any comics exceeding five (5 π) will be removed.
-
π΄ββ οΈ Internationalization (i18n)
- Non-English posts are welcome. Please tag the post title with the original language, and include an English translation in the body of the post; e.g.,
SΓ, por favor [Spanish/EspaΓ±ol]
- Non-English posts are welcome. Please tag the post title with the original language, and include an English translation in the body of the post; e.g.,
-
πΏ Moderation
- We are human, just like most everybody else on Lemmy. If you feel a moderation decision was made in error, you are welcome to reach out to anybody on the moderation team for clarification. Keep in mind that moderation decisions may be final.
- When reporting posts and/or comments, quote which rule is being broken, and why you feel it broke the rules.
Banned Artists
The following artists are banned from the community.
- Jago
- Stonetoss
- GPrime85
It should be noted that when you make reports, it is your responsibility to provide rational reasoning why something should be removed. Saying it simply breaks community rules is not always good enough.
Web Accessibility
Note: This is not a rule, but a helpful suggestion.
When posting images, you should strive to add alt-text for screen readers to use to describe the image you're posting:
Another helpful thing to do is to provide a transcription of the text in your images, as well as brief descriptions of what's going on. (example)
Web of Links
- !linuxmemes@lemmy.world: "I use Arch btw"
- !memes@lemmy.world: memes (you don't say!)
Other Comic Communities of Interest
- !bloomcounty@sopuli.xyz
- !calvinandhobbes@lemmy.world
- !cyanideandhappiness@discuss.online
- !exo@discuss.online
- !foxtrot@slrpnk.net
- !garfield@lemmy.world
- !moomin@sopuli.xyz
- !oglaf@discuss.online (NSFW)
- !outland@slrpnk.net
- !pbf@discuss.online
- !peanuts@discuss.online
- !smbc@discuss.online
- !theboondocks@slrpnk.net
- !thefarside@sh.itjust.works
- !xkcd@lemmy.world
- !NoseEars@lemy.lol
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
It actually bothers me that I have to spend Enterprise levels of money to get access to any type of Linux endpoint security a la Bitdefender Gravityzone.
I get it, "they don't make viruses for linux" or some nonsense. When a massive number of corporate servers run Linux, I think it's fair to say that's a target surface for people to develop attacks that can include viruses. I'm just over this idea that we're safe by default or something. You're not really safe unless you make your own personal computer use a giant pain in the ass of security steps just to access basics, anyway.
Anywhodles, anyone got the deets on some actual quality Linux virus/worm/malware protection beyond stuff like security hardening, key authorization, firewalls, dns blackholing for ads, and everything else I already have and set up beyond "virus protection." My servers may not be important, but they're still servers I'd rather not go through the pain of rebuilding.
I don't think people are saying there's literally no viruses for Linux, just that because Linux desktop use is so low, malware developers l developers focus on Windows because that's what most end users will be trying to run their software on.
It's not a secret that lots of Enterprise systems run Linux. Almost all switching and routing operating systems that run the entire internet are Linux based. But there isn't a person using those. They get configured and then run without user interaction. So their attack surface is different.
That's what people mean when they say there's no real malware for Linux.
Most "virus" infections this day are just programs that look legit and trick people into installing them. You're not going to get a Linux server that way.
First of all, username checks out.
Second, the thing about viruses (as opposed to other types of exploits) is that the user has to run them, and Linux doesn't make downloaded files executable by default the way Windows does. Nor are Linux users conditioned to download programs from random sketchy sources the way Windows users do.
Nor are Linux users conditioned to download programs from random sketchy sources the way Windows users do.
I think about this every time install instructions for something are "run this terminal command to add our repo to your sources". Would probably be pretty easy to get an auto-updating attack path for the unsuspecting. The first drop doesn't even need to be malicious, just ship the virus as an update.
Yea, I've got the same issue, i couldnt really find anything either so ive just been using portmaster and hopping that'll catch the virus if i ever get one.
I think a big part of the solution of this entire problem is some form of sandboxing. That way, if one of your sandboxes gets a virus, it won't have access to information that is outside of that sandbox, and you can delete the virus by deleting the sandbox. At least in Linux, when you install something as a flatpak, it's automatically in a sandbox. Another example is that some game launchers can automatically launch games in their own sandbox.
Of course, then you have the issue that certain programs have access to tons of personal data and also get used all over the place, like web browsers. Even if you install those in sandboxes, I'm not sure how you can protect yourself, apart from really locking it down and then vigilantly cleaning the directories that they can see. But that's a lot of extra work. A good solution would be more automatic.
Something easy you can do for web browsers is just have at least two installed: one that you use for personal info and trustworthy sites, and the other that you use for unknown/sketchy sites.
At least in Linux, when you install something as a flatpak, itβs automatically in a sandbox. Another example is that some game launchers can automatically launch games in their own sandbox.
Even then, however, often you have to give those flatpaks access to more system resources to work, which reduces the effectiveness of the sandbox and give viruses other paths to escape from. It's not a lot of flatpaks I've had to do this with, but for the ones I have, it's been a pain and a little bit frustrating that I have to open access to certain system/user files for it to work.
Also, I've just had trouble with certain flatpaks and their packaging for a long time now, but I've had various issues that are frustrating with both flatpaks and appimages that I simply don't have when installing from the apt repository. Sandboxing is useful in certain cases for sure, but maybe not for everything sadly.
So, the way I see it, there are three layers of managing security for sandboxes. There is the developer. There is the distribution system. And then, there is the user.
Flathub gives warnings at the top of each app's page. Ideally, they'd block publishing of apps that need a dangerous amount of permission, rather than just warning the user, but I understand why they don't. I think they need like a flatpak secure mode that removes dangerous settings when installing a flatpak, and then they add to the top of their pages which apps don't work with their safe installs.
I think then, that the future of flatpak security could evolve to alleviate the problems you mentioned. For one, as flatpak adoption increases, developers will end up at least looking at their flathub pages and have a desire to reduce those warnings.
Because right now, too much burden is placed on the user. I'm hoping that the technology will evolve to put all of the burden on the developer and the distribution system.