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  #1  
Old May 26th, 2012, 06:05 AM
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WindowsXPer WindowsXPer is offline
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Ok, I just installed Ubuntu 12.04 LTS for the FIRST time

Now what?

Do I really need a firewall and antivirus protection?

Is it safe to use online banking & shopping on Ubuntu 12.04?

I know nothing about Ubuntu OS. What do you guys suggest?

Thanks
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  #2  
Old May 26th, 2012, 08:02 AM
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Jaytee Jaytee is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by WindowsXPer View Post
Now what?

Do I really need a firewall and antivirus protection?

Is it safe to use online banking & shopping on Ubuntu 12.04?

I know nothing about Ubuntu OS. What do you guys suggest?

Thanks
Although I never use an anti-virus in Ubuntu. It is recomended that you do to prevent polluting some one elses machine.
My personal choice is to never online bank with any o/s
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  #3  
Old May 26th, 2012, 09:36 AM
craisin craisin is offline
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I am not an online banker on my XP or Ubuntu or Mint
I would think it unwise to Bank online with free Anti-virus
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  #4  
Old May 26th, 2012, 10:29 PM
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WindowsXPer WindowsXPer is offline
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Ok, I guess I will go back Windows XP then. Thanks for your reply anyway.
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  #5  
Old May 26th, 2012, 11:50 PM
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Jaytee Jaytee is offline
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Ok, I guess I will go back Windows XP then. Thanks for your reply anyway.
Why on earth would you want to do that?
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  #6  
Old May 29th, 2012, 06:06 PM
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kage kage is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by WindowsXPer View Post
Now what?

Do I really need a firewall and antivirus protection?

Is it safe to use online banking & shopping on Ubuntu 12.04?

I know nothing about Ubuntu OS. What do you guys suggest?

Thanks
Firewall yes, antivirus no. A great firewall (ufw which uses iptables) is built in to Ubuntu. You can install a graphical front-end to configure it called GUFW. Take a look at the documentation for more details.

It is safe to do anything on Linux that you would do in Windows. Keep in mind that the security of something like a bank website depends on more than just your computer, though. (Do they use SSL to encrypt the traffic? Do they store login credentials in plain text or as a hash/cipher? Etc.)

Linux is in many ways a lot safer than Windows due entirely to the fact that it has a much smaller market share and thus it is not a valuable target for malware. Do you think a malware author would prefer to write 1 virus that targets 90%+ of all computers on the Internet (Windows) or multiple viruses that each target 0.1% of all computers on the Internet (various different Linux distributions). Think about it for a minute. Don't blindly believe that Linux is immune to all viruses -- no operating system is. Linux is far less likely to encounter a virus, though, due to a smaller market share and good security measures.
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  #7  
Old May 29th, 2012, 09:24 PM
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renegade600 renegade600 is offline
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I will only do online banking on linux and you DO NOT need an antivirus at this time.
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  #8  
Old May 30th, 2012, 09:51 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kage View Post
Firewall yes, antivirus no. A great firewall (ufw which uses iptables) is built in to Ubuntu. You can install a graphical front-end to configure it called GUFW. Take a look at the documentation for more details.

It is safe to do anything on Linux that you would do in Windows. Keep in mind that the security of something like a bank website depends on more than just your computer, though. (Do they use SSL to encrypt the traffic? Do they store login credentials in plain text or as a hash/cipher? Etc.)

Linux is in many ways a lot safer than Windows due entirely to the fact that it has a much smaller market share and thus it is not a valuable target for malware. Do you think a malware author would prefer to write 1 virus that targets 90%+ of all computers on the Internet (Windows) or multiple viruses that each target 0.1% of all computers on the Internet (various different Linux distributions). Think about it for a minute. Don't blindly believe that Linux is immune to all viruses -- no operating system is. Linux is far less likely to encounter a virus, though, due to a smaller market share and good security measures.

Thanks Kage.... I really appreciate your clarification. You seem to know a lot about Linux/Ubuntu.
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