Linux.com | Note to new Linux users: No antivirus needed

Misleading claims and false advertising by virus protection rackets to the contrary, you simply don’t need antivirus products to keep your Linux box free of malware.

While I agree that Linux does not need antivirus protection, I consider it good practice to have some form of AV protection on a Linux computer. Not for that computer’s benefit mind (at least, not at the moment) but for Windows users. Email borne viruses may pass through your inbox by mistake.

Then again, some distributions come with AV built in; it’s also open source so there’s no licensing issues. If you read the verbose mode of Mandriva there is a reference to ClamAV. Grisoft also has a Linux version of the ever popular AVG Free for Linux.

None of this detracts from the fact that Linux is far more resilient to viruses. Sadly though there is no solution to human error relied upon by most phising attacks…