this post was submitted on 27 Oct 2025
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People were saying the exact same thing when I first started using Linux in 1999-ish
What is survivorship bias aka gambler's fallacy?
I'm not saying Linux is immune, just that people have said that, practically word-for-word, forever.
That's not it though. Linux doesn't have a problem with viruses, didn't have it before, doesn't have it now. Predicting that it's going to start right now 20 years in a row isn't a good idea refardless, and pointing it out is a right thing to do.
Which doesn't mean it couldn't really start one day.
"I have never been hacked before. Why would it start happening now?"
No one said that though. What was said was that as more people use Linux we will see more malware. And they've been saying that forever.
Here is an article talking about it from 2003 https://www.theregister.com/2003/10/06/linux_vs_windows_viruses/
If I knew how to search Usenet these days I'm sure I could find something from the 90s
It's not untrue, actually, is common sense that there will be more malware, but it implies Linux's only advantage is security through obscurity.
People have been worrying Linux is going basically become Windows over the next couple of years for 2-3 decades now. Malware is a serious problem that Linux users should take precautions from, but it seems clear by now that what security advantages it has aren't based on obscurity.