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Windows is a commercial OS, so it should probably be the more secure one, as it's the moral/professional duty of people who are making money out of it.
But Linux, which is open-source to both good and bad people, is way more safe than Windows. Why is it so? Might it be related to how the Linux kernel sandboxes processes? (Does Windows do anything similar to that?)
packetChor
Posted 2017-04-15T19:55:03.057
Reputation: 69
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There is a piece of software, ClamAV, designed to help detect malware for Unix (including Linux... I'm aware Linux didn't descend from Unix, but I'm using the term broadly based on software mostly-compatibility/design).
Windows used to be far easier to break, due to being much less secure. Newer versions of Microsoft Windows have become notably better. (Win XP SP2 was much better than Win XP, and Windows Vista has been much better than Win XP SP2.)
Still, Microsoft Windows is used by a lot of people, including a lot of people who don't want to put much manual effort/thought into being secure/safe. The people who tend to use Microsoft Windows is one key reason why Microsoft Windows continues to appear to attackers as an attractive target that they feel is worth attacking.
TOOGAM
Posted 2017-04-15T19:55:03.057
Reputation: 12 651
1As for the "sub-question": Windows 9x did not do much of this at all. Newer versions of Windows provide more process protection, but I would expect the implementation may be significantly different in some very technical way. After all, this code was designed by different groups. – TOOGAM – 2017-04-15T21:01:42.940
1Malware tends to be platform specific so authors must choose their target platform. Naturally they will wish to reach the largest numbers of computers possible. With the huge user base of Windows systems malware authors will focus their attention on that platform. Most malware authors do not consider Linux as worthy of their time. As a result there just isn't that much Linux malware out there and it has not reached the sophistication of Windows malware. – LMiller7 – 2017-04-16T03:58:06.013
3Aside from being off-topic, half the assumptions in the question are wrong. Unix had malware before Windows existed. – user1686 – 2017-04-15T20:06:57.517
@grawity could you point them out, I would be glad to edit the question, so that community can participate and help. :) – packetChor – 2017-04-16T06:20:50.153