I’m about to install bazzite on my wife’s older (2017) Windows 10 machine, and I’ve been going over how to recreate everything she currently has. Most programs (even proprietary ones) are not an issue, but I’m not finding much in the antivirus department.
I never even thought to install one on my Linux machine (also on bazzite, but I have used other distros in the past). So although I am no stranger to Linux, this issue blindsided me.
I know clamav exists, and I’m educating myself on how to use it, but a GUI would be nice for the wife. She’s not afraid of the terminal, but she likes the convenience of GUI programs.
Any suggestions? What do you use? Or is it just generally accepted that one should be careful and keep things up-to-date and that’s enough?
Long-time Linux user, have never run AV on my Linux machines.
A few years back, I was forced by compliance rules at work to install AV on a Linux server and started looking for solutions. I shopped around a bit and what I found was that even the commercial AV vendors who supported Linux had no more than 4 or 5 actual signatures to detect Linux malware, and they were all 5 or more years old.
Things may have changed since then, but this may be a good way to think about it… how much Linux malware can these tools actually detect?
Yes, Linux rootkits are a thing but if your AV doesn’t detect them, there’s no point running it.