Puppy over DOS - malware risks?

[bobst]

After my last little dabble with NTFS/Wine, I decided to reformat my hard-drive, install a FAT32 file system, install Win98 (which - honest to god - managed to crash on initial boot. WTF!).

I killed it and installed XP instead, leaving the FAT 32 / DOS 7 system underneath. (DOS is my security blanket - leave me be

My question: Does having DOS (or a subset thereof) still pre-dispose me to Windows based problems (spyware, virii etc?). I assumed that Windows needs to be running before malware can act, but now I'm not so sure? Does anyone still target DOS? And if so, can this affect me in Puppy?

Is it worth my while getting the F-prot pup file?

[GuestToo]

i run WinXP on a fat32 drive ... Microsoft themselves recommended at one time (maybe they still do) using fat32 instead of NTFS on a smaller partition (less than 32 gigs, i seem to remember)

and i can access the drive from Win9x and DOS

if you are running Puppy, you should not be affected by DOS or Windows viruses, unless you are running WINE or DOSemu or QEMU something similar

if you boot from the hard drive, a boot sector virus could be enabled when you boot, though it might not do much while you are running Linux

antivirus programs like F-Prot and ClamAV will mostly try to detect Windows viruses ... it can be useful to scan your Windows partitions for viruses from Puppy

[bobst]

if you are running Puppy, you should not be affected by DOS or Windows viruses, unless you are running WINE or DOSemu or QEMU something similar

Interesting, because I do intend to use WINE where necessary.

Has anyone had any typical virus/malware issues when using WINE that they can share?

(and BTW: where is the latest pup file for wine? The one listed here is dead http://puppylinux.org/wikka/WineUse

[Flash]

...Has anyone had any typical virus/malware issues when using WINE that they can share?...

As far as I can remember no one has reported a confirmed instance of a virus, or any kind of malware, in Puppy. This is not to say it is impossible, or that Linux is magically immune. I think attempts are inevitable, as Linux continues to gain acceptance as a "real" OS and more people use it. So consider your recovery strategy and be ready to implement it. The simplest solution is to run Puppy from the CD, Then it is easy to boot a guaranteed pristine Puppy, to mount the save file and root out the offending code.