When people say that linux is "immune" to viruses, they're slightly exaggerating. The general idea is that with open source, there are so many eyes looking at the source that trojans and other malicious code will be found before it causes too much damage. This is partly true, although not completely.
Actually, that's not why people say that Linux (and other Unices) are virus immune. It's because unlike the braindead OSs from Redmond, you don't do everything with ultimate privileges (ie root) Since noone in their right mind uses their system as root unless they need to, the risk from virus infection is minimal (since a viral binary run as a normal user cannot overwrite a system file) -- James Ogley, Webmaster, Rubber Turnip james@rubberturnip.org.uk http://www.rubberturnip.org.uk Jabber: riggwelter@myjabber.net Using Free Software since 1994, running GNU/Linux (SuSE 8.1). GNOME updates for SuSE: http://www.usr-local-bin.org