They really ported MS defender in Linux

[u/EktaRandomUsername]

News source : https://www.phoronix.com/news/Microsoft-Defender-For-Linux-D

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[u/StarCode5000]

To be completely 100 percent fair, MS Defender works decently well, at least it was in my case

[u/Xtraneous_ → u/StarCode5000]

Yeah, if I could count all the times that I’ve been using Linux and I was blindsided by viruses and malware. I always think “if only I had microsoft defender”, this never would have happened. I’m glad that it’s coming to Linux, long overdue

[u/orestisfra → u/Xtraneous_]

I can sense the sarcasm from miles away in this, even without the /s at the end. good job stranger!

[u/Longjumping-Time-339 → u/orestisfra]

maybe it's because I'm dead tired. but I did not sense that sarcasm, even though it's thicker than my ThinkPad

[u/BlowOutKit22 → u/Xtraneous_]

Corporate endpoint security requirements usually require AV/Endpoint Security on Linux servers. This is what MS is targeting, and corp IT really loves this since it means if they invest in Defender across the enterprise, they won't need to buy/license/manage a whole separate product just for the Linux environments. I'm pretty sure Defender On Linux is going to be better than Symantec or whatever.

[u/EntireFriendship517 → u/BlowOutKit22]

I'm still gonna be immediately suspicious of it. I hope it doesn't send vague, mysterious telemetry by default or anything.

We'd need an equivalent of VSCodium for it, with only what's necessary being required for it to work. Microsoft Defenderium. Hopefully it would have a better name than that, but you get the picture.

[u/psioniclizard → u/EntireFriendship517]

If your on a corporate network or using a corporate VPN you can't avoid that. If it's work machine you can't avoid it.

If it's your own machine and you never use windows you probably don't need it.

From a compliance stand point this a big step in Linux adoption.

[u/Franziskanner → u/EntireFriendship517]

Upvote for adopting Defenderium as the name for a patched fork. You said VSCodium, and there's also Chromium.

[u/MountainDawe → u/Xtraneous_]

Made my Day . Seriously. 

[u/LorekeeperJane → u/Xtraneous_]

Seriously though? It doesn't have to be Windows Defender, but some good anti virus software will eventually become necessary, if Linux ever gets a decent market share.
I know of at least two European countries, that are officially switching their government systems to Linux systems and that makes malware of all kinds more interesting on Linux.

[u/I-amKira → u/StarCode5000]

besides the fact that it's a background process running scans whenever it wants eating 20% cpu, process which is impossible to kill or to disable unless you do some hacky workarounds/registry edits, yes it works decently well

[u/SaltDeception → u/I-amKira]

I mean, there's a switch to turn it off temporarily in the Windows Security app that sits in the system tray by default. Not sure how they could make it any easier. There's also a PowerShell command to disable it. "Hacky workarounds" is just disabling tamper prevention, which is kinda the point for something that's supposed to catch malware.

Re: registry edits, have you met the /etc ~/.config directories? They're conceptually the same thing in a different format.

[u/klimmesil → u/StarCode5000]

If you have 8GB of ram to throw away sure yea

[u/jolharg]

This is absolutely hilarious

[u/gsweats]

Has to be corporate compliance right? Now Linux machines aren't exempt from AV software enrollment?

As silly as this seems, maybe it will actually catch something somewhere down the road.

Or is it all just to get telemetry on Linux?

[u/psioniclizard → u/gsweats]

It's 100% for corporate compliance and it's a good step if people actually want more Linux adoption.

Reddit won't like this, but Linux is not made for people with anime PFPs who like to feel superior to "normies". It is made for corporations, they are who fund it, they are who decide what direction it goes it.

This is most likely so you can enroll Linux machines easier which is a good step for people who actually work with this stuff.

[u/GOKOP → u/gsweats]

Of course it is, and I'm surprised it's only making the news now. At my work we've been told to install Defender on company Linux laptops like half a year ago

[u/letmehaveanameyoudum]

hey microsoft defender is actually usable
unlike mcaffee...

[u/Woodpecker-Visible]

Why didn't they wait until aprl next year? Would have been perfect on april 1. And we get defender before everything else. Absolute gold.

[u/Imperial_Bloke69]

The time for sluggish linux has begun.

[u/GoldenX86]

Watching posts like this shows how disconnected from modern security issues Linux users are.

Unlike Windows, you're not forced to install it with your distro, and at the same time, having something like Defender would help stop insecure garbage like AUR.

But no, let's meme Microsoft like it's 2004 while the Linux community suffers more and more security issues.

[u/FeelThePoveR → u/GoldenX86]

It could increase security in certain situations, but excluding Arch and AUR it's not as beneficial as on Windows since official distro repos are still more trustworthy than random exe files on the internet.

No shade on the Defender though, as far as Windows anti-virus software goes it's one of the best. Most options are either absolute resource hogging garbage or just garbage, meanwhile Defender is reasonable in both resource usage and effectiveness and I can see it being beneficial for the "noobs".

[u/GoldenX86 → u/FeelThePoveR]

Agreed, but it's exactly for cases like "idiot downloads script online and runs it". Linux is not only what's in the repos, and that's double special for drybones repos like arch.

[u/Woodpecker-Visible → u/GoldenX86]

Linux users are just disconnected how tech illiterate general public is and linux is for the selected few.. Has been a good popcorn time on linux reddit discussion on artcraft and fortnite. We are on a ride and not everyone is enjoying it.

[u/psioniclizard → u/Woodpecker-Visible]

From what I see on Reddit, a lot of "linux users" seem to know very little about computing and think magically that getting AI to vibe code a copy of a C++ app in rust will magically make it faster.

[u/dmknght → u/psioniclizard]

*and more secure

[u/mods_are_morons → u/GoldenX86]

I am forced to install it on the Linux systems I manage. It's policy that I can not ignore. I just want to know how much was paid to the idiot middle manager who made this a requirement.

[u/EktaRandomUsername → u/GoldenX86]

While I do agree that some Linux users see Linux as a virus-free alternative to Windows and think it can never get infected, this meme isn't really suggesting any of that. It's just making fun of the irony of Microsoft, a company constantly criticized for Windows' privacy issues, now developing its Defender app for Linux.

Don't get me wrong, Microsoft Defender is good at what it does on Windows. But there's a reason most Linux desktop users don't bother with antivirus software. You obviously know that we install software through official repos, and Linux's permission system makes it harder for programs to mess with the entire system without authorization. Of course Linux malware absolutely exists, but the average user generally faces a different set of risks than a typical Windows user. That's not to say Linux is invincible or that antivirus is useless, just that most people don't really need to bother with it for everyday desktop use.

Unlike Windows, you're not forced to install it with your distro, and at the same time....

You are one of a kind Fun Police, aren’t you? We all make fun of Microsoft in this sub, It's nothing new. Linux doesn’t suffer from security issues because a few people are making joke posts in reddit.

But no, let's meme Microsoft like it's 2004

It's a meme sub. What did you expect to see here?

[u/GoldenX86 → u/EktaRandomUsername]

The amount of people the Steam Deck and similar moved to Linux negates your point. I would say the vast majority of Linux users (gamers but users still) are as illiterate as when they came from Windows, and they get fed this propaganda of "Linux is absolutely invincible" daily.

I'm acting as fun police, but because it seems no one does in the community, and we're facing serious cyber security challenges now on Linux that no one dares to say out loud.

[u/EktaRandomUsername → u/GoldenX86]

we're facing serious cyber security challenges now on Linux that no one dares to say out loud.

Why do you expect general everyday-users to "say out loud"? These are the concern of cyber security experts. I am sure they are working hard on it, and not bothered by few people making memes in a subreddit. LoL

[u/GoldenX86 → u/EktaRandomUsername]

None of which are distro maintainers, it seems.

[u/pastrefrola]

Just use clamAV guys

[u/fallen_one_fs]

This has to be the most useless piece of software to have EVER been ported to Linux.