Surf safely with Linux and this will never happen to you.

Last week, I was running around trying to get several things done at the same time.  I booted my computer and logged in.  In between starting dinner and letting the dog out, I checked my email.  I received a message from a Facebook friend suggesting I visit a particular site.

Ordinarily, I recognize these phishing attempts and simply delete them.  However, this time, without thinking (I was running around, remember?), I clicked the link.

I immediately said to myself, “DOH!  No!  No! No!  Stop! Stop! Stop!  It’s a scam!!!  It’s a link to a virus!!!!”  Well, too late.  The browser had already taken me to the virus laden destination and….nothing.

That’s right.  Nothing happened to my system. No infection, no virus, no Trojan, no malware.  Nothing downloaded.  Everything went on normally.

Why? Because I run Linux.  Linux is immune to Windows viruses and malware, and trojans. I can surf safely all over the web  without a worry of anything infecting my computer.

If I accidentally click on a malicious link, chances are very good its probably written for Windows.  It needs Windows to execute and  deliver its payload.  Even if it were written for my specific version of Linux, I’d still need to give it permission at the administrator (root) level, plus modify its properties in order to get it to run.  The virus/trojan simply has too many hoops to jump through.

Even then, by force of habit, Linux users don’t install software from outside.  Linux comes with hundreds of programs already installed.  If you need anything else, you simply download and install from its repository, not from different websites scattered around the internet.

The majority of viruses are built to target and exploit Windows computers.  Get the target off your back.  Get Linux!