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?
I think it’s reasonable to be concerend about Linux security. I do acknowledge that Windows just had more time to be tried and tested with malware and user error to have more safeguards, but I’m hopeful that Linux will get more secure while enduring less struggles than Windows as it gets popular.
My general recommendation if you do decide to go with Linux is to keep your OS up to date, verify the apps you use (do you trust the devs, the distribution method, etc.) and use common sense (not every command you copy from the internet needs sudo, etc.).
If you’re really curious on how you can make Linux more secure, check out the security-oriented distributions section at privacyguides.org.
I’ve recently started using secureblue myself and it’s been a bit of an eye-opener on how secure you can make Linux and how much is still needed to be done.