[Someone1234]

> Not sure what you mean by that. Does Linux have any protections beyond Windows to stop malware? Why does Android have a malware problem?

This is the key question that I'd like to hear the answer to.

People often claim Linux/OS X/et al are more secure but they struggle to explain WHY. What technical mechanism is in place in those systems that is not in place in [current] Windows? A few years ago you could definitely name a few things (i.e. before UAC, and a few other things) but now?

I'm certain something like SELinux or AppArmor makes for a more secure system, but last time I installed a consumer distro (namely Mint and Ubuntu) they weren't shipped as standard and often broke quite a lot of default packages upon their installation.

As an aside: In my experience Windows has become less "malware ridden" since XP. Vista, 7, and 8 often survive much longer without anything bad happening. It does still happen, it just isn't as common as it used to be (e.g. 1/5 consumer PCs now instead of 3/5 or more).

[okasaki]

Ubuntu ships with AppArmor enabled. Fedora ships with SELinux. It's been that way for a long time. Other distributions like Arch come with packages for other frameworks, including grsecurity.

But I think the primary "technical mechanism" that makes Linux more secure is the fact that users install software from distribution repositories, rather than from the web. The repos are basically impenetrable since packages are signed and contributor identities confirmed with WoT (I've never heard of there being malware in a major distribution) and security updates are deployed to everybody very quickly.

[wfjackson]

>I've never heard of there being malware in a major distribution

Not much to stop malware if desktop linux becomes more popular.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hardware/how-much-more-malware-is-...

[BitMastro]

I'll give it a try:

privilege separation and permission since the beginning

only super user was allowed to install new software

(simplifying) different distros and different versions created diversity making it difficult for an attack area to be widespread across all installations

typing a password for additional privileges requires more attention than clicking a button

apparmor has been enabled by default since a couple of years, it used to break some stuff but not anymore

(simplifying) new files are not executable, and they don't rely on extensions to determine the associated program

since linux is not the default it requires a learning curve that people using windows don't have, so users are more tech savvy

since the source code is available, more people COULD have a look at security vulnerabilities, and in case of emergency the don't have to wait for someone else to provide a patched binary

That said, I don't consider security on windows to be a disaster. It certainly is improving and in general they also pay a lot more attention to security.