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statistic of linux users

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Guy:
Several years ago, I used Ubuntu. At that time, I did not bother with a firewall. I finished up with malware on my computer many times. I think I was targeted by someone. It happened too often to just be bad luck. It only happened with certain versions. If I used an older version, it did not happen. I think the older version did not have the same vulnerability. I switched to Mint, and the same thing happened.

I studied Iptables, and for some time, experimented with firewalls. I chose to use Iptables from the terminal, rather than one of the graphical interfaces.

For some time I monitored what was coming into, and going out from, my computer. I learnt a lot. For example, there were more unsolicited things being sent to my computer from China, than from any other country. You may remember, Google complained, maybe a couple of years ago, about being hacked by the Chinese. Some of us believe them.

Another thing I discovered: There is one distro that I know of (there may be others that I don't know of) which, when you use it, every so often it automatically sends packets back to their server. The only reason for this that I can think of, is so they can monitor how many people are using their distro. I am sure, they have accurate statistics. But they are unlikely to publish this info, as it has been obtained in a way that some people may object to.

I now use Tiny Core, to avoid problems with malware.

jur:
Secutity has been discussed here before... would it be accurate to say tinycore is really inherently secure? Being effectively "installed" freshly at each boot, the system tcloop directories are read-only so obviously nothing can get in there.

Guy:
When I have had malware on the computer, whether running Linux or Windows, I would reinstall the operating system. This can take maybe an hour when running Ubuntu or Mint, depending what you do. With Windows, it can take a lot longer, as you install Windows, then Office, then other programs.

Because I had so many problems at that time, I considered the possibility that the malware may be hiding on the hard drive, and still be there when I reinstalled (It can, but it is rare). So I began to completely erase the hard drive before reinstalling each time. This meant it took longer.

I got fed up with wasting so much time constantly reinstalling.

For quite some time, I used a firewall, and this was effective.

However, I figured the answer would be to run Linux from a Live CD. But most live CDs take too long to boot. In many cases, you also waste too much time changing settings.

The end of the story is that now I use Tiny Core. I have had no problems with malware since using Tiny Core.

There are many things which make Tiny Core inherently more secure. As you mentioned, the read only operating system is one.

Another factor: Popular operating systems are targeted by those writing malware, such as Windows and Ubuntu. As relatively few people use Tiny Core, I suspect that nobody has bothered writing malware for it. Most of the malware that affects other Linux distros would not affect Tiny Core.

In years to come, as Tiny Core becomes more popular, there is a possibility that someone may attempt to write malware for it. For this reason, I recommend using the firewall.

Don't save anything of value to hackers, such as credit card and bank account details, on your computer.

There is no such thing as a computer connected to the internet that can be guaranteed to be totally secure.

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