Linux Fanboys everywhere always boast that “Windozes” is infested with malware or can get infested just by being connected to the internet while Linux and Mac OSX do not and can not get infected with malware. In this post I would like to put out some obvious facts about this issue. (if you are a computer tech this post is really redundant to read so don’t unless you feel obliged to)
If we actually look at the amount of users on Windows, Linux, and Macs, we all agree that Windows OS’s own at least 90%percent of the desktop market, sorry tux and finder! This is where we as users need to think as writers of malicious code, if 9 out of every ten (normal) people use a computer running a Windows OS and you as an programmer with the intent to infect someones computer with malicous code, who would you go for? We have two choices (get notepad open) we can either go for the common Linux Maverick (like myself) who actually knows a thing or two about computers or we have the average Windows user who only wants to browse the web check email maybe web chat with family friends. Its really obvious who to aim for this is the sole reason for Windows having more malware on it. Lets not forget we also can write malicious code for that Mac Hippie but he may not notice since he will be to blazed from that bong so there is no point in even bothering. 
I know for a fact that are Linux-fanboys that think that linux is some almighty invinsible OS that is “incapable” to get infected with Malware, these people need to get poisoned for thinking such thoughts. Linux is a kernel it runs software (in a fashion that is somewhat similar to the fashion that the Windows NT kernel runs applications) A malicious program is simply code that is executed under this kernel, and is almost always written in the same fashion as a non-malicious program only (most of the time) with different intent. So speaking in a solemnly technical aspect it is possible to write malicious code for Linux. Who would’ve thought! There are Viruses out in the real world for Linux but there are to few to write about in this post We can just look at the way applications are executed under Windows vs Linux, under Linux a file isnt executable (able to be ran) by default the user would have to give it that permission, under Windows anything can be ran, even from email software such as Outlook, (im not even going to discuss the problems with that system) Going back to the idea of number of targets applies here as well. Linux and Mac OS both give some distinction between the administrator of the computer and normal user, (for Linux the administrator is known as root, while from what I understand Mac OSX’s administrator account is disabled by default) Windows on the other hand has not for several years, Vista now alleviates this problem. We can see under Windows XP how most users run as administrator every day and don’t even realize it. Imagine any piece of software ran under XP is give full access to your machine! Sounds scary right? The best thing to do is run as a restricted user or run as a careful user Linux is by default more secure out of the box and it has been for several years, while Window OS’s on the other hand have not. Remember windows 98? if you ever forgot the password to the machine all you had to do was press cancel and you got full access! The only thing needed to infiltrate a machine is access, if there is a chance it will be taken.
Some final thoughts, this article become more of a comparison of Linux and Windows, please forgive me for that. I will probably go more in depth with this article on a later date but this is just some thought I thought I would put out there for now peace out
