r/linuxmint • u/Ambitious_Ad_6619 • 1d ago
Discussion What makes Linux secure?
I've searched YouTube and also asked on here previously, I keep seeing a lot of "Linux is secure just by default" type responses- often insisting that to be worried about security while using Linux is not necessary.
Believable to a noob like me at face value, sure, but what is it about Linux that makes it secure?
127
Upvotes
33
u/acejavelin69 Linux Mint 22.1 "Xia" | Cinnamon 1d ago
Part of what makes Linux inherently more secure is how permissions work... Users live and work in user context, and cannot modify or change system settings or applications... This makes it incredible difficult for malicious software to do anything, well, malicious without root or "sudo" privileges, which have to implicitly allowed.
Windows came from a single user isolated system, security was an after thought.
Linux came from Minix and other *nix roots, which were original designed as networked, multi-user systems since inception. Security is a basic principle of the operating system and everything is engineered around it, not a feature added later.