I’m still in the research phase of switching to Linux and don’t know if this concern is reasonable. I’m not tech savvy. I’m comfortable in the windows ecosystem and could use the dos prompt fine when they used it. I played with QBasic and C++ when I was younger and have built a few computers but that was a couple decades+ ago.
My concern is dealing with malware. I know that Linux has less issues with malware than Windows but, as I understand it, that’s primarily because it has a comparatively small market share. I feel like I’m getting into Linux just as it’s getting more popular and that it will get worse if the EU moves away from Microsoft because they will most likely adopt some form of Linux as their new standard. More less tech savvy people like me moving to Linux makes it a juicier target for people who create and use malicious software. It’s not a reason to stay with Windows but is it a reasonable concern? Are there sufficient tools for people who don’t really know what they’re doing to be reasonably secure on Linux and will they keep up if the threat profile expands as Linux picks up more users?
Most Linux malware comes from community repos and fake GitHub style projects.
The default package repositories in all the major distributions are safe. Some examples to be worried about are pip packages and the AUR if you’re using Arch.
My first programming language was qbasic as well. Fond memories of that.
Vet third party sources, just like you would have on windows.
Usually they’re safe. Safe enough that the average user doesn’t need to worry about it at least. Occasionally someone will take over as the maintainer of the package and add in malware. It’s pretty rare though and not a concern to the average user.