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Microsoft bringing Defender to Linux desktops. Repeat: Microsoft bringing Defender to Linux desktops
(www.theregister.com)
Lolno. Not happening on any of my machines.
this post was submitted on 17 Oct 2026
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Who on Linux is going to consent to Microsoft telemetry on their machine?
Corporations
You know... Morons.
"I install the malware to protec me from malware"
It’s just gonna be part of security audit theater. “Prove your organization is [x] compliant.”
IT: you have to use windows so we can add your computer to intune
Developer: no
IT: Microsoft pls
Microsoft: Ok it’s on Linux now, that’ll be another seat license for clamav wrapped in our logo or something
IT: omg we’re so secure
Auditing company: omg they’re so secure
Wait til you learn about EDR like crowd strike
IT departments that need to check the box thats says "does your organization have antivirus or anti malware protection on all desktops?". Common in soc audits and cyber insurance attestations.
ClamAV exists...
Yeah but clamav doesn’t have “a centralized dashboard with mdm and intune integration” e.g. a spreadsheet that says when everyone’s last scan was and that their definitions are up to date so the security theater can exist. Not to worry, more likely than not this is just built on a mountain of open source software like clamav that’s probably MIT licensed so MS can slap their logo on it and charge for it
There already better alternatives like clamav but I guess that assumes the IT department is actually Linux proficient.
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“does your organization have antivirus or anti malware protection on all desktops?”
Talk about suggestive question phrasing. Where better organisational security could often be accomplished by assuming every device attached to the network is a potential threat, and focusing on the network security, shielding devices against each other with only whitelisted protocols, plus locking down all devices that are configured by corporate IT.
Practical IT security in most orgs these days is "configure a big firewall with default settings from corporate provider, assuming everything is safe inside." then they get one compromised device (USB stick, cell phone transfer, exploit, whatever) and the whole ass network is fucked. and they have a "oh well, we did everything we can" excuse. fucking BS.
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Same people who use Microsoft Edge on Linux.
Don't forget powershell. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/scripting/install/linux-overview
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Edge on Linux is great for getting boomers to use Linux.
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On their own machine, maybe not. On their employer's machine, maybe if the employer demands it.
I didn’t realize businesses used Linux. Every place I’ve worked it’s been windows and Chrome/Edge.
It's mostly Windows of course. But some people in those companies may prefer to use Linux, and this gives a them a higher chance of being allowed to do so. I for one am running Linux in a company that's increasingly pushing for Microsoft stuff.
Defense industry, and basically every 3-letter agency. Probably a lot of state- and county-level government offices too.
People agree to Google telemetry on their Linux phones.
Why is there google telemetry on Nura, Ubuntu Touch and SailfishOS?
Android is Linux with orders of magnitude more users than all of those combined.
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They want to scan all of my files. They can go fuck themselves.
Oh it's so much worse than a FIM.
They want a rootkit with RCE
I use a Linux desktop for work. My employer is constantly threatening to replace it with a mac "so they can control it". Their main control point is microsoft defender. I would rather have defender on my work machine than be forced to use a mac.
see for work it makes sense because you hopefully don't do personal stuff on that computer, there's no hope of privacy on a work computer.
People will scoff at this but speaking from experience Defender is a very good AV if you are using MS Windows. MS has a vested interest in keeping their flagship OS safe.
Putting it on Linux though? No . Fucking. Way .
It's one of the few things they ever got right.
E: I should also say that the release of Defender was devastating to my "house doctor" PC services side-hustle. E2 XP SP1 out also rocked my profits - that RPC vuln was a gold mine
It'll most likely be used immutables more than anything. Which is shit for me because I fucking love Ubuntu.
See I am the key to bad things happening!!!!
I switch to Ubuntu because windows slows down my ram speed and then windows goes and adds its security into it and makes it so that they're part of the OS no matter what.
ah the tech onion
clamav works fine on my mums laptop.
Why do we need defender if red hat exists?
What does Red Hat have to do with an anti virus?
I haven't been into linux since 2008 so forgive me on this one if I seem ignorant but isn't there redhat security and isn't that basically the same exact thing as defender except you just pay for it? Like isn't there redhat network security or some shit like that? So if linux already has a somewhat legacy security, why do we need to add microslop defender on top of it?
No, Red Hat for the most part is not in the security game. There is OpenSCAP. Red Hat OpenShift does have Advanced Cluster Security available. But generally no Red Hat doesn't make security products like that. I guess maybe the closest would be using Satellite to manage clients and see their compliance. I don't know if Satellite can measure OpenSCAP compliance... Yes, there is a lot of security built in, but no they don't really do many explicitly security products.
Thank you for teaching me something new. 😁
I wonder if there will be a libre version of this. Somehow use just the database with an open source version with no telemetry
They can now ditch the dumpster fire of an OS that is Windows and lobby for the adoption of a corporate choke-point on Linux while continuing to bludgeon the remaining bits of your dignity and soverignity. At least this could be so for enterprise Linux.
I was going to say something but clammed up
And it'll probably feel 150% faster compared to Windows. Just like Edge. lol
Mildly related: I might try to convince my job to let me use Linux come device refresh time. But we use all Microsoft stuff. Is support for Teams, OneDrive, etc reliable on Linux? I have, of course, avoided it like the plague for personal use so I don't know. Is anyone else in a similar situation?
I have to use the web version for work anyways, so yes. One Drive is broken regardless of platform, unfortunately.
I've used Teams on Linux and it worked fine. Granted it was basically just a wrapper for the web version, similarly with Outlook for Linux. I've not used One Drive on Linux, but that is what I'd be more concerned about.
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EEE
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