On Wednesday 16 November 2005 01:29 am, Tasana Computers wrote:
This is my first time going all out with any Linux distro. I ran what was Mandrake about a year ago and never used it much, but I like SUSE much better. Do I need to run an AV program and spyware protection? These may sound like dumb questions, but I have no idea how well protected SUSE is on the Net. Thanks
Audio Visual programs? That's your choice. Spyware protection? You really only need that with SpyGlass(MS IE). OK, I'm being a wiseguy. No. In general you do not need these kinds of protections. You should try to understand the Unix file system, and the concept of user permissions. Glance at the man page for chmod. If your eyes go crossed, and it all seems like gibberish from mid 1980's documentation, that's because it is. The system works, and it works well. Don't login as root, and everything should be fine. I'm sure there are other pointers people can add, but basically, Linux is secure because the developers of Unix and thence Linux were not stupid about the degree to which they were willing to cut corners for the sake of user convenience. Steven