I use Puppy 1.04, loading it into RAM and removing the disk so I can record things and save files, etc. Because of all the malware around, I almost always use Puppy when I access the internet. Here is my question: can someone still plant trojans, viruses, etc on my computer through Puppy, even though I never mount other drives or partitions when I'm online?
I have asked amoung my friends (whose knowledge of computers varies considerably) and gotten all sorts of different answers. For myself, I think that someone probably could put malware on my computer, but I don't think it would be as easy.
Malware infection: is Puppy really safer?
Malware infection: is Puppy really safer?
Linux User #336564
Hi Michigander! 
If you download & save photos, emails, music, videos, programs, etc and save them to a disc, anything bad they contain will be on the disc too, except for memory-resident malware.
Using such a disc in a nonprotected Windows machine could cause problems, but you can easily scan the files from a protected machine before opening them.
This is the Typhoid Mary rumor that M$ likes to spread; exactly the same thing would happen if it was 2 winmachines. For now, Linux is attacked much less, and less powerfully.
Puppy has firewall & AV components built-in too. Check'm out!
If you download & save photos, emails, music, videos, programs, etc and save them to a disc, anything bad they contain will be on the disc too, except for memory-resident malware.
Using such a disc in a nonprotected Windows machine could cause problems, but you can easily scan the files from a protected machine before opening them.
This is the Typhoid Mary rumor that M$ likes to spread; exactly the same thing would happen if it was 2 winmachines. For now, Linux is attacked much less, and less powerfully.
Puppy has firewall & AV components built-in too. Check'm out!
Thanks for coming back so quickly! After I asked my question, I went back and read it and thought it sounded stupid the way I worded it, but I left it there.
I don't download anything --- no music, photos or anything. I'm a news hound and also like to research things on the net, using it like a library. When I find information I want to keep, I copy and paste just the text I want into a document and save that, usually on removeable media. I don't do that for safety; early in my internet experience I decided that downloading entire pages was sort of dumb. Who wants all those links and ads and other garbage. In more than 10 years I have only ever had two viruses: one was removed by antivirus software and did no damage at all, the other was a rabbit virus that filled up my hard drive in a matter of days. I wiped the drive and reinstalled and all was well.
Lately there seems to be an upsurge in viruses and other mischief; my machine is not completely unprotected but I want to be careful. I started using Puppy on the net because I noticed I don't have to worry about cookies. Someone said, "Well, then you don't have to worry about any kind of malware." and that started me wondering. Thanks.
I don't download anything --- no music, photos or anything. I'm a news hound and also like to research things on the net, using it like a library. When I find information I want to keep, I copy and paste just the text I want into a document and save that, usually on removeable media. I don't do that for safety; early in my internet experience I decided that downloading entire pages was sort of dumb. Who wants all those links and ads and other garbage. In more than 10 years I have only ever had two viruses: one was removed by antivirus software and did no damage at all, the other was a rabbit virus that filled up my hard drive in a matter of days. I wiped the drive and reinstalled and all was well.
Lately there seems to be an upsurge in viruses and other mischief; my machine is not completely unprotected but I want to be careful. I started using Puppy on the net because I noticed I don't have to worry about cookies. Someone said, "Well, then you don't have to worry about any kind of malware." and that started me wondering. Thanks.
Linux User #336564