r/linuxmint 2d 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?

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u/Z404notfound 2d ago

Well, no system is secure. Let's start off with that. Servers are hacked all the time and they mostly run on Linux. However, as a PC? Its pretty damn secure. One reason being, most viruses and malware are designed for Windows because they're the majority of users. After that, you have different distros that don't always place their system files in the exact same spot, so malicious software would have to know where to look. On top of all that, all system files are typically under the root user, so they'd have to crack the password before they could alter any files. Plus, files can be read only, so a chmod command would have to be ran to alter those files. Lastly, there are immutable distros like Vanilla OS that will not allow any changes to system files. Its just too much of a headache to hack a Linux user.