How secure IS my computer from malware running ubuntu?

[kiteboy]

Hey all, a recent post came up with lots of good discussion of rogue ads, popups etc. and I didnt want to troll it being one of those "HERP DERP I RUN LINUX WHAT'S A VIRUS" idiots.

I've been running Ubuntu for about 6months since my boot sector on vista got bricked by a dodgy download (standard, downloading media converter program.. the one time i forget to scan it with avg BOOM. blue screen. i feel ashamed.) but thanks to that and me not having a disk to restore windows with i've moved over to linux and haven't looked back.. BUT. You hear people going on saying how there are no viruses for linux really and it doesnt even come with an antivirus program.. i've setup a basic firewall but i was wondering how secure my system REALLY is?
should i install a light AV program to be safe? as far as i'm aware my systems not slowed or acting funny but you never know..

 

[The Artificially Prolonged]

While linux is generally more secure than windows it is still at risk to viruses and malware just like any operating system, taking the same precautions that you would with a windows install i.e. virus scanner, not clicking a untrustworthy link, will keep you quite secure from attack.

 

[Wintermoot]

better then Windows or MacOS since not that much people write viruses for Linux and the kernel is extremely secure

 

[Trolldor]

Hey all, a recent post came up with lots of good discussion of rogue ads, popups etc. and I didnt want to troll it being one of those "HERP DERP I RUN LINUX WHAT'S A VIRUS" idiots.

I've been running Ubuntu for about 6months since my boot sector on vista got bricked by a dodgy download (standard, downloading media converter program.. the one time i forget to scan it with avg BOOM. blue screen. i feel ashamed.) but thanks to that and me not having a disk to restore windows with i've moved over to linux and haven't looked back.. BUT. You hear people going on saying how there are no viruses for linux really and it doesnt even come with an antivirus program.. i've setup a basic firewall but i was wondering how secure my system REALLY is?
should i install a light AV program to be safe? as far as i'm aware my systems not slowed or acting funny but you never know..

Take precautions always, but given how few people actually use an OS outside of windows, you're unlikely to catch anything. The userbase is too small to invest any real time developing anything that would cause any problems.