I said in the last post that we'll be talking about viruses and some differences between Linux and Windows.

What can I do in Linux?
The correct question is "What can't I do in Linux, but I can in Windows?". The answer is: it depends.
The first real shock for people that use Linux for the first time is that they can't open *.exe files by default. (That's also the answer to the subject "Linux and Windows viruses")
Then, another shock is that they can't find Notepad or IE or whatever program they use in Windows and is differently named in Linux. Also, there is a program named WINE which runs Windows binaries.
You can do roughly 90% of the things that you normally do in Windows. If you only browse the Internet, or you facebook all the time, then you don't need to pay for an OS. Through WINE you can get the procent around 95-97, as a medium Windows user.

Are there really no viruses on Linux?
I did not say that. I said that Linux catches viruses harder than Windows. You can't open exe in Linux, so you can't open viruses. There aren't so many Linux viruses than there are for other platforms. I think that to find the number of Linux viruses, you have to calculate 1% of Windows viruses ot in the wild. That being said, you are 99% more secure than people who run Windows. (Don't blame me if my maths are wrong. I was never good at math.)
I think that being a hipster or "security through obscurity" is an advantage. You don't use an OS that 90% of the people use, so you can't catch that OS' viruses. Being a hipster includes running MacOS, Hurd, Linux, BSD, whatever.

You said that you can open exe files with WINE. Doesn't that mean that I can open viruses and harm my Linux?
You can open viruses via WINE, but you can't harm your Linux. WINE is limited on reading and wirting in a specific folder and on the partitions that you made visible for it. If that virus wants to delete system32, then it will succeed, but if it wants to inject its code in the memory of a program runned through WINE, then it will fail.

Is Linux that safe?
No. Yes. No. It depends. For example, if you have a unsecured VNC, it doesn't matter you run Windows or Linux or whatever. You are inviting anyone and everyone in your PC...
Let's just say that a fresh Linux install, without any modification and up to date packages is more secure (harder to hack) than a Windows install. There are far more exploits for Windows than for Linux.

But Linux is hard!
No. Linux isn't hard. It's hard to get used to it. Imagine that you are an Apple fan and you and your children have used only Apple's OS. You are put in front of a Windows computer for the first time. Your reaction: "Windows is hard! I don't know a thing about this OS!"

But the CLI...
If you don't want to use the terminal/CLI that's OK, you don't need to do that. MacOS has a CLI but I've never seen anybody in Starbucks working in CLI.

OK. I tried Linux. I want to try the terminal. I've seen some commands on the Internet, but they don't work!
First of all, you don't "see" commands on the Internet and then execute them without thinking. There is a reason that specific line won't work, and the reason is in 90% of cases written on the next line after executing the command. But think before you press enter!
Can rm rm rm? Yes. Can rm (the utility you use for deleting a file) remove itself? It should, because rm removes files. In the same way you can remove the package manager or the GUI, and you have to reinstall your sistem (even if the solution isn't that, but you don't know that yet).

This is all for this post. In the next one we'll talk something about Android, filesystems and why do I use Linux.
If you have any questions, leave them in the comment section below.

Until next time, stay classy Internet!