Sophos Antivirus?

Support & Help Requests
#1

Right now I’m using ClamAv as my antivirus program, however I noticed Sophos has a free AV for linux here: https://www.sophos.com/en-us/products/free-tools/sophos-antivirus-for-linux.aspx

Is this superior to ClamAv? If so how do you install it? I know Linux is supposed to be safer than Windows security wise, but I like to grab all the layers of protection I can get-back in my windows days I’d use combinations of programs like Avast 7 free, malaware bytes, spybot, spyware blaster, comodo firewall etc to try to stay safe.

#2

From the looks of things, you’ll need to register via the link you provided and download their package, which I presume will take you to a closed source package for download.

While I have never installed ClamAV, it’s open source and available from the repositories - so it has been tried & tested for Ubuntu. Unless you absolutely trust Sophos, it’s up to you which one suits your needs. I personally don’t see a need for anti-virus, unless it’s a Windows machine.

Wild viruses are incredibly rare for Linux. There was a good quote along the lines of this I can’t find the source to:

Why write a virus to knock out a few thousand desktops, where a few hundred servers could knock out an entire continent?

While old Windows habits may be hard to break, Linux is a different architecture built in a way that makes it more immune to threats. Human error would be the cause of a lot of incidents, if any.

Take a look at these to understand Linux security a bit better:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Antivirus
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=510812 → “The Windows Mindset” part.

Remember, no system is ever 100% free from viruses. Some systems were historically made to give the user full administrative control (*cough* MS-DOS/Windows) :wink:

Don’t forget Ubuntu MATE also has a firewall built in, but disabled by default. Why it’s disabled by default, see here: http://askubuntu.com/questions/22667/why-is-the-firewall-disabled-by-default

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#3

@OldSchool40: Hi, I’m the newbie who got your Seamonkey going for you; so you may remember that we have a few past inclinations in common - I’m just a few months ahead of you on the curve is all. I am aware that it seems counter-intuitive, at first, but try and heed @lah7’s advice about this; and enjoy these newfound Linux freedoms; it is honestly different now :mask: .

#4

ClamAV is only an “On Demand” anti virus app, it will only scan what you tell it to do!.

Avast for Linux is quite good, also it is on demand only!:

http://howtoubuntu.org/how-to-install-and-update-avast-antivirus-in-ubuntu

As pointed out above, there are so few virus problems with Linux, this is mainly due to the constant changes in the kernel, the virus devs can’t keep up as the kernel changes so fast!. :smiley:

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#5

Hallo,

I’ve run ESET, Comodo, Sophos and ClamAV.

I my opinion, the gratis version of Sophos is only of use for users with more or less “administrator” knowledge.

As with all OSs, the integration of a powerful, real-time anti-virus usually causes problems somewhere down the line. Not being a power-user I’ve had to reinstall more than once to sort out the “problems”. But you should do something to help protect the windows users with whom you share files. I hope you find something that works for you.

#6

Sophos vs ClamAv:
Today I upgraded from Ubuntu 18.04 (not Mate) to Ubuntu Mate 20.04.
I was using Sophos for the last 4 or so years. The reason I'm using ClamAV now (loading as I type) is that too often I couldn't update (including to Ubuntu 20.04) or add a new program due to non-compatible libraries installed by 3rd Party Software. I was NOT able to resolve it this last time so had to FRY my computer yesterday (after backup) and load anew (choosing Ubuntu Mate 20.04 this time!).
Unless someone has superior Linux Admin Skills I'd recommend they stick with ClamAv.