I know this isn’t Reddit, but r/peopleliveincities… When 90% of desktop users use Windows, it’s going to both be the most targeted by malware developers and have the highest chance of being operated by someone who doesn’t understand enough about computers to recognize that the shiny calculator app that just popped up after visiting a very legit Nigerian prince’s crowdfunding page probably shouldn’t need admin access.
And speaking of user error, I’m willing to bet that basic security practices like using full disk encryption, SecureBoot, some MAC layer (provided by antivirus on Windows, AppArmor/SELinux on Linux) and regularly applying security updates are way more common over in the Windows land - if I was in a situation where there was one completely randomly selected Windows PC and one also completely randomly selected Linux PC, and my life depended on being able to gain access to either of them (some kind of really messed up Saw trap? idk), I would definitely bet my life on the Linux one being misconfigured.
Don’t get me wrong, Linux can make for a very secure and private OS, but most installs most definitely cannot be described as such - just look at the popularity of random unverified PPAs on Ubuntu derivatives or AUR packages on Arch.
@Markaos Well I have a dual boot system, Linux / Windows 10, and have for decades, other versions of Windows but dual boot none-the less. The old days before grub used to chain-load from the windows boot-loader (ick) but over those years I’ve probably had to reload windows owing to malware I could not excise at least once a year. I’ve never had to do this, ever, with Linux.
@zwekihoyy Yea I’ve heard that excuse but on the Internet there are infinitely more Linux servers and still Windows is more often compromised. I think it has more to do with thousands of eyes on the code submitting bug reports and fixes.
I know this isn’t Reddit, but r/peopleliveincities… When 90% of desktop users use Windows, it’s going to both be the most targeted by malware developers and have the highest chance of being operated by someone who doesn’t understand enough about computers to recognize that the shiny calculator app that just popped up after visiting a very legit Nigerian prince’s crowdfunding page probably shouldn’t need admin access.
And speaking of user error, I’m willing to bet that basic security practices like using full disk encryption, SecureBoot, some MAC layer (provided by antivirus on Windows, AppArmor/SELinux on Linux) and regularly applying security updates are way more common over in the Windows land - if I was in a situation where there was one completely randomly selected Windows PC and one also completely randomly selected Linux PC, and my life depended on being able to gain access to either of them (some kind of really messed up Saw trap? idk), I would definitely bet my life on the Linux one being misconfigured.
Don’t get me wrong, Linux can make for a very secure and private OS, but most installs most definitely cannot be described as such - just look at the popularity of random unverified PPAs on Ubuntu derivatives or AUR packages on Arch.
@Markaos Well I have a dual boot system, Linux / Windows 10, and have for decades, other versions of Windows but dual boot none-the less. The old days before grub used to chain-load from the windows boot-loader (ick) but over those years I’ve probably had to reload windows owing to malware I could not excise at least once a year. I’ve never had to do this, ever, with Linux.
this owes to the fact that windows simply has exponentially more users and is therefore more valuable to target.
@zwekihoyy Yea I’ve heard that excuse but on the Internet there are infinitely more Linux servers and still Windows is more often compromised. I think it has more to do with thousands of eyes on the code submitting bug reports and fixes.