A lot of you new Linux Mint users are converts from Windows. For Windows users, there is no doubt that you simply have to protect your Windows system by a decent antivirus software, which hopefully will not only protect your systems from viruses, but also from all other kind of malware like keyloggers, spyware, backdoors, trojans and ransomware.
Therefore it should be easily understood that you seriously wonder, "Do I need to run an antivirus application on Linux Mint as well?"
Answers:
The answer to the question asked above is not quite as simple as it may seem. It is not simply 100% yes or 100% no.
Therefore we would like to point you to a number of written articles. The authors of the linked articles try to give answers to your question, "antivirus on Linux, yes or no", and also try to give reasons for their answers.
- As the Linux Mint main edition is based on Ubuntu, let us start with the official Ubuntu position:
Do I need anti-virus software? - The next article has been written by the initial developer of the application rkhunter:
Antivirus for Linux: is it really needed? - Why You Don’t Need an Antivirus On Linux (Usually)
- Do you really need antivirus software for Linux desktops?
- Does Linux Need an Antivirus Software?
- Do You Really Need Antivirus Software on Linux?
When reading each of the linked articles, it might be worth checking, what you can find about the author of the article on the linked webpage and about their qualification to give advice on the given topic. Might help understand, why vastly based on the same facts not all authors come to precisely identical conclucions and answers.
Still not sure?
In case the linked articles turn out not to answer your question in a satisfying way, then, please, feel free to open a new thread asking your question)s) in order to get other forum users' points of view. If you do, please, keep in mind, this is the Linux Mint user forum, not a congress of reputable security experts.
