[SOLVED] Warning for spreading the word about ubuntu!

[NewJack]

I'd like to thank ubuntu for showing me that ignorance is not bound to windows users.

It's not Ubuntu or Windows fault that these two are ignorant. It comes with overall growth of computer owners (notice I didn't say Users). For instance, someone buys a Windows computer. They kinda know how to use it because they used one in school or at work. They never really get into the guts of how the system works and why things happen. Now they hear about this great OS known as Ubuntu. They read up on how to install it and they do. Now after reading about how to do certain things in Ubuntu through HowTos online or through these Forums, they learn just enough to get through their day to day operations. They never really learn anything else. It is the ignorance of the owner, not the OS.

For me, even though I have been using Ubuntu for 2 years, I am always still learning something. I keep notes, I save important bookmarks and I read books and online guides to educate myself. My perogative is to learn as much as I can. Most people just want to get through a day and don't care how much they learn and that is sad.

My .02 bits

/rant off

[lukjad]

Oh, thanks for aggreeing with me! Nobody else does. I use ESET Smart Security on Windows, which is a nice piece of kit!

I can't refute what you say, mainly because it's true. But in a sense, you are an alarmist. True, the greater the market share the greater the risk of an attack. But there are some risks that are worth it. If I stayed at home and counted all the risks in life, I would never do anything. But life is meant to be lived and operating systems are meant to be operated. Ubuntu is a relatively secure system and if the attack does come, then at least we will have a fighting chance.

[Drate]

Show of hands, how many of you believe this to have been a legitimate post?

[sub2007]

Oh, thanks for aggreeing with me! Nobody else does. I use ESET Smart Security on Windows, which is a nice piece of kit!

I didn't really agree with you. I merely stated that if Ubuntu did get a very large market share then it would become a potential target for malware writers. This has been discussed time and time again here and hence why this has been moved to recurring discussions. I certainly don't think that should stop people spreading the word.

Malware writers want money. At the end of the day, these days they are in it for money. Be it trying to get you to buy a fake security program, stealing your credit card details, showing you adverts, turning you into a spam bot - bottom line is they want money. They will target any platform that has enough people using it to justify the expense of writing malware for it. If Ubuntu gets enough market share then of course the malware writers are going to start looking at ways they can get their malware on. There are distro independent ways of installing things - .sh files and .bin files to name two. Or they could use .debs to prey on the people who don't really know what they're doing with their computers. They won't care about making cross platform malware, just malware that will get them some money. It doesn't matter how much more secure Ubuntu is, if someone wants ... video or ... screensaver then they are going to install it - the fact that they need to give it root access really doesn't cross their mind. How many people would add a repository for something they want just because they were told they had to? Who knows if that is infected or not - if it's not in your distros repositories you have to do a lot of trusting. People get infected with .exe's because people run them, after all. And I don't doubt that there are bugs somewhere in sudo and other parts of the operating system that can be exploited - they will get patched quickly but unfortunately the malware writers are one step ahead of the good guys usually. F-Secure recently said they never thought that malware writers could do something (what exactly it was slips my mind) and were very shocked to see it in the wild.

So, in my opinion, don't get hung up about security. Don't stop it spreading the word or using Linux, we're still a lot more secure than Windows and I love that. But in my opinion I do think that one day Ubuntu could become a target for malware.

[Patrick793]

Hmm, i have to say that i completely disagree. security on any (Well maintained) Linux distro is already leaps and bounds away from any windows product no matter how much you kitted it out with anti spy ware (in ten years time imagine how secure it will be!). To get a virus on ubuntu, the virus would have to be specifically designed for ubuntu, else it would be huge if it had to be compatible with all distros (this is presuming the virus would be downloaded as a binary, i doubt that the virus's creator would want their source shown to everyone). secondly i would actually have to download this virus ( because Firefox is just way to secure) and then i would have to run it, most likely giving it root permissions if it wanted to do anything serious. sudo killall virus

The more people that move to Linux the better, instead of being greedy people that want to keep their knowledge tucked away, would it not be better for us to tell the world and have more people on the secure os.

Rant over
---Ben.

I agree with this post completely.

Yeah, people would maybe try making viruses for Linux, but the end user would have to run it manually.

It can't do harm without us clicking it or running it from the terminal.

[Ripfox]

This warning is important, if you spread the word about Ubuntu. The way hackers are mostly hacking Microsoft Systems, if you spread the word too much, people are going to want to hack Linux and Ubuntu more. The number of people using Linux is increasing rapidly, so be careful. Now, here I'm not saying ANYTHING about Ubuntu being not good, because out of all Linux Distros, Ubuntu is the best by far. Take caution while spreading the word! Eventually, in about 10 years (if Linux lasts that long) nearly everybody will be using Linux, and I bet you we are going to have to buy a security product, not having an Open-Source one. Use Linux Wisely!

You actually have no idea what you are talking about. Sorry.

[clanky]

So rather than accusing the guy of being 1) stupid, 2) a troll or 3) a Balmer spy, 4) a M$ employee trying to prevent the spread of Linux why not try to point out why he is wrong?

Of all the replies to this thread only sub2007 has made any sense whatsoever, I agree that the issue in the original post is not much of an issue at all, but surely a reasoned response would have been better than a tirade of abuse?

Even if the OP was only trolling then they were probably trying to elicit exactly the response which they got. As for the forum staff, does marking everything which is slightly anti-ubuntu as solved and moving it to recurring discussions going to make the ubuntu world a shinier place?

[73ckn797]

None, i just know. Wait in ten yeears.

OTAY say Buuhwheet is it goin to be a long ten yeears?

[cardinals_fan]

I will not have malware issues if many use Linux for the same reason that I don't have malware issues when I use Windows: I don't do stupid things.

[dmizer]

Closed for review.