finding and installing software

[techsupport-hotmail]

hello all. pretty new to ubuntu but how would i be able to find and install antivirus, facebook and messenger on ubuntu.
need it in simple english as im still learning my way around the computer.
many thanks.

[monkeybrain20122]

You don't need antivirus on Linux. for messenger https://linuxhint.com/install-messenger-facebook-chat/

[vanadium]

As far as I know, Facebook is a website? Ubuntu comes with the Firefox browser out of the box. What is messenger? Indeed, I second the advice of monkeybrain20122 where you can safely safe system resources not running anti virus software. On Linux, that is not needed.

[bicycleshow]

Instead of installing an antivirus, think about instead installing an adblocker on your internet browser. If you open Firefox, click the hamburger menu on the right, click "add-ons and themes" and search for ublock origin. This will block a lot of the advertisements and popups that can infect your computer. Other than that, don't open weird emails or download strange software.

[TheFu]

hello all. pretty new to ubuntu but how would i be able to find and install antivirus, facebook and messenger on ubuntu.
need it in simple english as im still learning my way around the computer.
many thanks.

Most Linux distros, including Ubuntu, don't force users to to go out into the internet to hunt down software. Use the "package manager" - what name that is on your ubuntu is dependent on the DE flavor. There are something over 65000 packages available for most Linux distributions. You can install synaptic and use that as a package manager, if you like. The "Software Center" can also be used, but it merges different package systems in ways that you may not like. As someone new, you may not care, until you are trying to accomplish somethings and the "snap package version" of some software refuses to allow access. Typically, this is an issue for added local storage or network shares. Whereas normal packages - debian packages - that have been around over 20 yrs don't have this issue. Synaptic will only install that 2nd type of package.

Websites use a web browser. Which web browser will work with any website is a different question. I prefer Dillo, but it doesn't support Javascript, which many websites refuse to work without. For trusted websites, I'll use firefox, which is almost always the default web browser installed in Ubuntu DEs. There is also Chromium (the F/LOSS version of Google Chome spyware), which works fine, as needed.

The best antivirus I know is my brain. There are tools available for Linux that are A/V - both F/LOSS tools and commercial - someone is always willing to take your money. There are reasons to have A/V on a Linux system - for example, your corporate E&O insurance may require that all computers have current, supported, versions of A/V software because those contracts are written for Windows. For the most part, running Linux without A/V is fine, provided you didn't go out of your way to break the system security and have a brain. If you didn't to do administrative tasks and there's a popup asking for the admin password, then you shouldn't type it in. OTOH, if you are doing an administrative task and a popup asks for a password, then it makes sense to enter the password. Most humans can figure that out. Normal user accounts don't have administrative access, so there is very little damage that can be done to a system, hence no need for A/V ... unless you just want to scan for Windows viruses.

A/V is a 50% solution on all platforms. A few yrs ago, I read a study about the effectiveness of MS-Windows A/V software. Any single product was 50% effective. To get more overall effectiveness, run multiple A/V tools, in series. Running 4 different programs brought the effectiveness up to over 80% ... and nobody does that. If you are concerned about Ubuntu Security, visit the Ubuntu Forums Security sub-forum and read the sticky threads at the top. Then do the things they recommend.

BTW, if you stay off social networking websites, your security is vastly improved too.

[grahammechanical]

We look for Linux equivalent applications or applications that are compatible. Sometimes there are Linux versions.

This is developed independently of Facebook which might be a plus factor. But remember we put greater trust in applications available in Ubuntu Software (an app store) than in software downloaded from the internet. Check Ubuntu Software for similar but compatible applications.

https://www.fosslinux.com/1124/facebook-messenger-for-ubuntu-linux-mint-and-fedora.htm

Regards