On Tue, Sep 10, 2002 at 04:48:57PM -0400, Kevin MacNeil wrote: > On Tue, Sep 10, 2002 at 11:23:46AM -0400, Paul Greene wrote: > > I need a quick little factoid for something related to work. Does anyone > > know the exact number of virus that exist for Linux?
Exist how? In the laboratory? In the wild? > > (If not the *exact* number, then plus or minus, say, 2 or 3) > > Plus or minus 2 or 3, that would be zero. I've only ever heard of one, > I forget the name, and I don't think it was ever seen in the wild. The > problem is that you need to be logged in as root to do much damage, and > that's not how linux users use their computers. Windows, on the other > hand... > > I've only heard a story like this once, and it was from some clueless > mcse who never used a non-microsoft operating system. IIRC, there have been two reports (that I am aware of) of Linux viruses (virii, I know). But in each case the company that reported them seemed to stand to benefit financially from a Linux virus scare, so I would at least classify these as theoretical virus, and not viruses that spread in the traditional sense of the word, ie there are no other reports beyond the original (questionable) report. Who knows maybe they wrote the viruses just to drum up business. I suspect some of that goes on in the MS world. To say that there is *a* Linux virus, is a stretch IMO. Certainly none that dance the internet like the MS ones. -- Hal Burgiss -- redhat-list mailing list unsubscribe mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?subject=unsubscribe https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/redhat-list
