wheel - 4:41 pm on Nov 15, 2012 (gmt 0)

>>>It seems that paying attention to security on Linux involves keeping track of a lot of arcane news that involves in-depth knowledge of the particular *nix variant you happen to be running.

Nu-uh. It's nothing of the sort. Paying attention to security on a desktop linux machine involves nothing more than installing it and forgetting it.

I've never heard of a desktop linux install getting a virus. I'm sure it's possible, but it's effectively hypothetical - and that's with no attention paid to it whatsoever. No updates, no reading, nothing. Install it, and forget it. The odds of actually getting a virus are effectively 0. Doesn't matter why or how, but it IS. If you want a virus/worry free desktop, go with linux.

On the server level, I don't recall a virus ever hitting any of my servers either. And that's also with minimal security. The only time I've seen hacks are due to mysql injections on old scripts - easy enough to close and frankly, that's just basic security at the server level anyway.