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Subject:Re: MS Office 97 Update and UNIX From:Matt Ion <soundy -at- ROGERS -dot- WAVE -dot- CA> Date:Tue, 16 Sep 1997 07:50:52 -0800
On Mon, 15 Sep 1997 10:59:26 -0700, McGowan, Ken (AFS) wrote:
>>The more I learn about Unix (I'm installing Linux on the new pooter)
>>the less I like Windows and all of its applications. Did you know
>>Unix/Linux is apparently immune to viruses?
>
>Ummm...well, not quite. I haven't worked with UNIX for a while, maybe
>there are more Windoze viruses than UNIX viruses nowadays, but _no_
>operating system is immune to viruses. On a historical note, the
>first virus ever written (i.e., the internet worm) was a UNIX virus.
Not "immune", but at least, highly resistant. In fact, most true
"protected mode" operating systems are.
Most viruses work by modyfying the disk boot sector and/or master boot
record. To do this, they must write directly to the disk. A system such
as OS/2 (I use that only because I'm most familiar with it) does not
normally allow software to directly access the hardware, and does route
its hardware calls through the BIOS. Thus, most viruses are simply
unable to do their dirty deeds in such an environment. (BTW, there are a
couple of OS/2 native viruses rumored to exist in a lab somewhere, but
they are apparently very difficult to create, and no-one I know
personally has ever actually seen one.)
Another advantage to using an OS that nobody else uses: nobody cares
enough to bother making viruses for it. :-)
Your friend and mine,
Matt
<insert standard disclaimer here>
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