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I installed Linux Mint on my desktop in place of Windows 10.

I am used to having virus/malware Scanners, defragmenters, Disk Clean up tools etc.

I was wondering if people here would be able to recommend similar tools for the Linux OS.

With regards to viruses I am taking the better safe than sorry approach as I have seen from my research that virus scanners are not entirely necessary on Linux however, I use my computer to run my online business and would rather not take any chances.

I would like to keep my computer running with good performance for as long as i possibly can

Addition

Another query I had is based around Wine With this running as a virtual environment, designed to emulate that of a windows machine. should I be worried about viruses on there? can it contract the same viruses as a windows device?

Rui F Ribeiro
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SupGen
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    your question is very debatable, it depends what you want to do with your linux... it depends of your setup it depends of your expectation. You could or could not install anti rootkit / virus malware... you could setup selinux to hardened the system, if paranoïd you could go up to installing your kernel with GR security... everything is possible with linux. – Kiwy Mar 28 '18 at 11:54
  • @kiwy To be honest, as the question states, I am totally new to linux. My understanding is that people in this forum include long term linux users who I hoped could use their experiences to advise what options might be best. My Windows 10 OS got infected with Ransomware and it has left me a bit on edge and would like to hear from others what security steps can be taken. Linux doesnt seem as straight forward as windows. everything in windows is given on a plate but linux seems a bit more complex – SupGen Mar 28 '18 at 13:39
  • Thing is default linux installation is as hard as default one on windows if you never use both system. But Linux allow you to find much more resources to work with and allow you much deeper customization. Regarding Your question though interesting, is not asked on the right site. Question on Stackexchange tend to be simple question (sometime complex) but that as in the end an answer that is not questionable. One could come here saying that you do not need antivirus on linux which other will tell you is fullish. As the debate is endless you'd better ask on another forum than here. – Kiwy Mar 28 '18 at 13:54
  • although this question is probably not at the right place, you're right there's on this site many super linux user that will be able to help if you came with a properly asked question. Feel free to consult the [tour] to understand how this site work a bit better. – Kiwy Mar 28 '18 at 13:56
  • https://unix.stackexchange.com/q/1729/53092 Your question has already been answered ;-) – Kiwy Mar 28 '18 at 14:17

2 Answers2

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While theoretically Linux viruses exist, the risk of getting one of them is extremely low so you don't need an antivirus. (Related question: The myths about malware in Unix / Linux)

Disk fragmentation is usually low on Linux filesystems so you don't need any defrag utility.

About tools that blindly perform "disk cleanups", I don't recommend these neither; it's a much better approach understanding what is in your system and get rid of whatever isn't needed (e.g. remove unnecessary services, uninstall unused packages, etc.) For this, a solid understanding of Linux is very important. (Related question: help with making the move from Win to Linux)

dr_
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  • thank you for your reply. Whenever I read things I tend to get conflicting information and unsure what is correct. And I would assume that each version of Linux has differences as well. Are there any particular resources you could recommend that might help increase my knowledge of linux so that I can begin to understand the system better? – SupGen Mar 28 '18 at 10:12
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With Linux, more important to an antivirus are user permissions, understanding what you're installing and checking with the man pages what the commands that you enter in the terminal will do. You can obtain help about commands and their options by typing man <nameofthecommand> in the terminal.

Instead of being connected to your system as root, you should login as another user that can will pass commands requiring administrative rights by prefixing them with "sudo" when necessary. Such administrative user must belong to the "wheel" group or be added to the sudoers file. For the daily work, you should login as a normal user without administrative rights, i.e. that cannot pass sudo-prefixed commands.

If you really care about security, better use a server-oriented distribution that is known for its renowned for its stability rather than for the latest innovations. (eg. in the RedHat family: CentOS rather than Fedora) You can increase the security and stability by installing only the core and then build yourself a minimal desktop and install the only softwares that you need. It is a longer way, but also a good way to learn.

If you really want an antivirus, you can use ClamAV. Some people say that such antivirus is more useful to protect Windows users connected to a Linux server used to shared file, than to protect the Linux machine itself.

OuzoPower
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