this post was submitted on 24 Sep 2024

12 points (67.6% liked)

Linux

5502 readers

176 users here now

A community for everything relating to the linux operating system

Also check out [email protected]

Original icon base courtesy of [email protected] and The GIMP

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

dwraf_of_ignorance

12

What if somebody wrote a virus that infected windows computers to replace the OS with linux? (self.linux)

submitted 3 months ago by onlinepersona to c/linux

10 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Would their owners even notice?

Inspired by Kaspersky deletes itself, installs UltraAV antivirus without warning

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 23 points 3 months ago (1 children)

That would be a hell of a virus!

But people would notice, and pretty quickly. Even if this megavirus could somehow manage to do it without data loss, mimicking every aspect of windows perfectly, making file structure work the same, etc; it couldn't do anything about the programs that simply don't work on linux yet.

Once the first person noticed, it would be a huge deal

[–] onlinepersona 7 points 3 months ago

It could be a "clever" one that only installed linux if linux compatible applications were installed. That might lower the risk of being noticed.

Anti Commercial-AI license