Your browser lives in /usr/... .. And there is no way how it could get infected there with anything unless you were so incredibly stupid and were browsing the web as "root". Your normal user simply lacks the abilities to do anything about the binaries over there in /usr and other critical locations, and any nasty program would run under the account of the user that triggered it. So if your user cannot do any harm to the binaries in /usr neither could any "virus" or anything similar. Re-installing your browser is thus absolutely pointless.D1Wayne wrote: if you get an infection, the fix is usually simply re-install your browser
I'd be more worried about the profile settings in your /home directory ... e.g. /home/youraccount/.mozilla/* ... It's those settings that would be executed again even under a new browser installation
I use Linux since 1996 and have not ever encountered any Windows-like virus outside of some highly experimental lab environments ... And even those viruses I have seen in the labs either needed to be compiled into the kernel by "root" (so what's the point? You already need to be "root" in the first place in order to install this thing!) or you need to trick "root" into executing a certain binary to get the infection started (simple: never ever execute any unknown binaries as "root" ... ) ... how pathetic.
Running a Linux server is a different story however: there is a certain risk that a hacker might find a flaw somewhere and hack his way into your system. That's the real danger here: intelligent human beings who know a great deal about network protocols and got too much time on their hands ... not stupid viruses.
See above. Pointless exercise in my opinion. If any "infection" of any sorts would occur, then in your /home directory and all the "dot" files and sub-directories there (.gnome, .kde, .profile, .mozilla, .config, .bashrc .... ) and not in an area where your user account doesn't even have write access toD1Wayne wrote: or first completely un-install it then re-install it,
SHOW ME. (Linux user since 1996 ... Internet user since 1992 .... never ever seen such a thing ... )D1Wayne wrote: Yes there are sites that have malware that will attack Linux, of this I'm certain,
The worst surprise you can get is this: you think you download Hollywood's newest blockbuster movie but then it turns out that some moron faked a file and you've in fact downloaded some silly p0rn movie ... and not what you thought.D1Wayne wrote: the worst is are the torrents where one can download all kinds of seemingly nice stuff, but beware many are laced with naughty surprises.
That's it. Everything else is just FUD
Why would you do that in the first place? Everything is in your apt repos, you never ever even have to surf the web and hunt for programs ... This ain't WindowsD1Wayne wrote: So if you are downloading programs from sites you know nothing about
OK, better cautious than sorry .... But I honestly never used such a program on Linux. Because I simply don't have to. Most of those virus scanners serve the purpose to protect Windows, e.g. when you use your Linux as a file server for Windows clients. So this anti-virus scanner would make sense: it scans the files the Windows clients upload and thus stops Windows viruses from spreading .... it doesn't stop Linux viruses simply because there are almost noneD1Wayne wrote: Grisoft AVG for linux is available as well as clamV
I use AVG to scan things I download before and after install of packages that I'm not sure of the source.