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#941
I don't know much about classic Mac OS, but you're definitely wrong about Linux, and probably MacOS X too. There ARE already viruses on Linux, about a known dozen from what I remember.
A virus is a program that when executed, spreads itself to other programs by embedding part of its code in other executables, which in turn will do the same. Hence the association with the biological viruses which act similarly.
Under linux, by default an executable won't have enough privileges to do that, this is what lehnerus2000 was talking about. So, to be able to spread, a virus would have to be able to break this wall, which is called privilege escalation, and is a much, much harder task than simply writing a traditional virus.
So all the viruses that already exist on Linux don't do much, they just execute and at worst copy themselves to user directories, but never beyond. If you have a Linux OS, you can even for fun download some of them and see for yourself.
So yeah, there is something preventing hackers from writing viruses for Linux : they just don't work on it.
Again wrong. While it's true that Windows is the main OS for home users, and generally desktop computers, Unix-based and then Linux OS has been for a long time the main OS for servers/mainframes/super computers. So the business and especially government using mostly Windows is definitely wrong.
And of course, today Linux and OSes based on the Linux Kernel are becoming dominant on embedded and mobile systems.
Last edited by oneeyed; 02 Oct 2014 at 06:54.