Lindows sells virus protection [LWN.net]

Lindows sells virus protection

Posted Feb 20, 2003 2:52 UTC (Thu) by svachi (guest, #2177)
Parent article: Lindows sells virus protection

I have heard that people running Lindows always run as root.
This might be a cause to take extra care about the virus issue. If a user happens to run a trojaned binary, it might be able to screw the system, but the antivirus *may* be able to prevent the disaster.

Of course, the cheaper solution is to use appropiate user account instead of root account. But that will harm the business plan :-)

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Lindows sells virus protection

Posted Feb 20, 2003 18:36 UTC (Thu) by jzbiciak (✭ supporter ✭, #5246) [Link]

The always-run-as-root issue is a pretty major one, IMHO. Just as MacOS X and WinXP finally start bringing "Administrator vs. Mortal" to the masses, Lindows takes a step backwards. *sigh* It'd be far better to always run as a mortal, and then have an administrator password for installing software, whatever. MacOS X does this in a pretty non-intrusive and intuitive manner, so I think it can be done.

If nothing else, VirusSafe should behave like Tripwire and detect changes in files that shouldn't be changing. It also should detect and stomp Windows viruses so that Lindows boxes don't become Typhoid Mary's, unaffected by viruses but acting like a carrier for them.