Hey, what antivirus software if any do you guys use for linux? And is it slackware friendly too? Preferably free ones because I'm very poor ^_^' I was for a little bit using bitdefender free edition but I just recently did a double reinstall of two slackwares and the bitdefender ftp site won't load and it's been that way for two days now.

Most people don't use antivirus on Linux at all. Hell, I don't use antivirus on Windows. Just don't download the various crap programs that all those advertising sites out there would love for you to have, and you'll be fine. Besides, most assaults against Linux are privilege escalation against specific targets -- not worms or viruses meant to attack indescriminately.

Promit is right in that you really dont need antvirus software on linux, however, I tend to download windows stuff in linux for friends using windows etc and its nice to be able to check it so I use Clam (there is a windows version of it too). I have yet to actually find any viruses though, so I dont know how well it works ;)

As Promit said above, generally unix/linux systems dont have problems with viruses but if you are running a unix/linux fileserver that shares out to some windows boxes it might be worth while investigating some possibilities...

Panda Antivirus for Linux - Although I generally wouldnt trust Panda Antivirus on the windows platform at least it would find the old destructive viruses. Bonus being that its free :)

F-Prot - This is usually considered 'the choice' for unix/linux systems when it comes to antivirus, though its not cheap.

For small home networks you would probably be best served running the antivirus on a Windows box and if you have many Windows boxes that run 24/7 just set up a network scan over night.

I would highly recommend Mcaffee Anti-virus software though almost like Operating Systems you will find everyones oppinion of 'which Antivirus software to use' different :)

Why use antivirus for linux? It is so few viruses for linux so you can be relaxed ;)

Quote: Original post by Mare
F-Prot - This is usually considered 'the choice' for unix/linux systems when it comes to antivirus, though its not cheap.

According to F-Prot's site, it's free for personal use on Linux and BSD (in fact I'm using it on my FreeBSD system right now), so I'm not sure of what you mean by saying it isn't cheap.

I (like most Linux users) don't have any AV software on my machines.

However, I really believe that in some cases it is quite necessary. Remember that Linux may not have very many viruses, but it can still have Windows viruses in its files.

In most cases it's helpful to detect these so that you can avoid spreading them (even though Linux usually can't execute Windows viruses itself)

Mark