Do I really need antivirus Software for Linux?

[luffy]

I know that Linux isn't virus free.
My question is:
If the virus can work on Ubuntu 11, will it work on Ubuntu 10?

[boyzee]

My question is:
If the virus can work on Ubuntu 11, will it work on Ubuntu 10?

All depends on what the virus is exploiting...?

For Antivirus software for linux you have Avast, BitDefender & AVG(command line only).

[hellnoire]

If you stick to trusted sites/repos, you don't need an AV.

[Alboguy]

Linux is vulnerable to some certain type of rootkits as far as I know. As hellnoire pointed out you don't need it if you use trusted repositories. BTW this would make a good sticky so that other members would not ask the same question again and we can also discuss in the future if new threats show up.

[sm1]

I am not sure whether linux needs an av or not. But as a precaution you can use atleast on demand av scanner and Bitdefender for linux comes with a nice GUI. You need to add Bitdefender to software sources list. For realtime AV NOD32 for linux is a good option. You can use the NOD32 license for windows in linux too provided it is on the same machine. I have used NOD32 in Ubuntu and Scientific Linux with no slowdowns

[Bluedot]

Luffy, you might want to take a look at this.

http://www.raymond.cc/blog/archives/2010/09/13/the-linux-threat-rootkits-and-how-to-remove-them/

And yes. It might. Why don't you try running it and see for yourself and also tell us?

[hellnoire]

I am not sure whether linux needs an av or not. But as a precaution you can use atleast on demand av scanner and Bitdefender for linux comes with a nice GUI. You need to add Bitdefender to software sources list. For realtime AV NOD32 for linux is a good option. You can use the NOD32 license for windows in linux too provided it is on the same machine. I have used NOD32 in Ubuntu and Scientific Linux with no slowdowns

And when it looks only for Windows viruses....

Rootkits, yes, you need security for, which is what bluedot linked. But viruses... not so much.

[leofelix]

All OSs are vulnerable and even though Linux distro are less targeted by malware (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_malware) you should install and use an antivirus because you run the rsk to infect Windows users or your Windows O.S partition, also

[Neo]

I have personally not heard anyone getting infected in linux... its a remote case.

If you are doing basic stuff and not installing any random app, you should be fine without an AV. No need to burden your PC

[Networx]

Avast for Linux says

Any Linux distribution (x86 platform only) with GLIBC version 2.1 or higher and pthreads libraries installed

Mine is a 64 bit system, will it work on this ? Using Ubuntu 11.10.