this post was submitted on 08 Oct 2025
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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I don't think OP's dad will host a misconfigured cloud service on their computer or set an insecure password, enable ssh and then also open a port in the router. Most attacks on that list are specific to how internet servers are set up. And well, insecure old embedded devices. And we in fact have those systems targeted regularly. My servers gets bombarded with malicious traffic trying to get in.
Yes. That is part of the insight. But the auto upgrade is a good practice for Desktop PCs, too. And the article shows, that there are vectors and counter measures. Root kits are known for ages.
Sure. We get security vulnerabilities in Chrome and Firefox all the time. Sometimes the libraries handling images are vulnerable and that's a big issue. And zero-days are a small fraction of actual attacks, most likely you're getting hacked because of old, vulnerable software. So updates are the first priority. And backups is something people also frequently forget to set up.
Good point. To get back to the original question, I wouldn't change the distro unless they are known to be slow with security updates. Anything debian and ubuntu based should work just fine.