Best Free Antivirus for Linux?

[Andrew999]

I have been using Zorin OS which is based on Ubuntu for a few weeks on my laptop. I was wondering if there was any free antivirus software on Linux? I looked it up online and it seems Sophos, F-prot, Comodo are all abandoned so it is quite sad. It seems like the only free antivirus is Clam AV but I am not sure it has real-time protection or not. Or do people think a firewall that is built-in is enough for Linux?

 

[wat0114]

AFAIK the only free AV for linux is Clam AV as you mention. I've never used AV in Linux and never regretted it. If you install updates from the official repositories, use the built-in firewall at default-deny, and harden the browser, then you should be perfectly fine, at least in my opinion based on my experience using Linux on-and-off over the years.

If you want to be a bit adventurous and really raise the security bar for your browser and what not, then firejail is a nice Linux sandboxing utility:

https://firejail.wordpress.com/

I wouldn't be surprised if it's already available in one of the Zorin default repositories.

 

[jetman]

It is unfortunate that the mainstream consumer AV brands (Kaspersky, Norton etc) don't include Linux as part of their multi-device licences for Windows, Android etc.

 

[Threadripper]

What are you trying to achieve by using an AV? If your machine sends/receives files from Windows or macOS then it makes sense, but otherwise you're wasting your time and resources.

Secure your network, use DNS-over-HTTPS, consider a VPN, enable simple firewall to block inbound connections, keep your OS and all of your apps updated (literally just sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y) as well as the auto-update settings, secure your browser and you're pretty much done.

 

[Zorro]

I have been using Zorin OS which is based on Ubuntu for a few weeks on my laptop. I was wondering if there was any free antivirus software on Linux? I looked it up online and it seems Sophos, F-prot, Comodo are all abandoned so it is quite sad. It seems like the only free antivirus is Clam AV but I am not sure it has real-time protection or not. Or do people think a firewall that is built-in is enough for Linux?

There is another free antivirus that you did not mention - FortiClient for Linux. FortiClient Linux Product Downloads Information

 

[shmu26]

The field of malware detection for linux is not so developed, and the market for paying AV subscribers is very small. Due to those two factors, there is no attractive AV solution for linux. Most linux users simply don't bother with it at all, as far as I can tell. If you are running a server, you need to be careful. But home users running linux are not typically targeted.