What is the main difference between linux and windows in terms of security ?

basm allah alrahman alrahim

why linux is more secure than windows ?

because of

 - Privilage

 - not monoculture

 - Audiance for virus atack

 - large group of developer and tester

Privilage for windows come with administrator as default but linux dosnt so to execute a program you must give a password and that make a problem for any virus ( virus is a program ) , another thing called social engineering i.e attract mail users to open unknown senders mails and that make a lot of trubles ( virus ) at windows but with less privlage at linux will be moe diffecult to hurt PC  

monoculture of windows but for a linux there is alot of distribution , this mean different executable codes from linux developer and software programmers with different program extensions , at linux that mean the virus maker or a hacker have to deal with alot of problem to get what he want

large number of developer and tester for linux will give you up to date protection against viruses and bugs

Audiance size of windows and using same software make it a target for virus and spy

Linux was built as a multi user OS in mind since beginning so account security and account separation was thought of since beginning from ground up. While Windows is built in the beginning as a single user OS and since then the later version inherit some of these trait.

While its more difficult to write viruses for Linux, given enough motivation by increased user it is still possible, case in point is the rise of malware written for Android. However the number of viruses for Linux is still very small, an update, or cleaning up repository, app store, google play etc will give protection against those malware. There is practically no need to install Antivirus for Linux and the only reason I install antivirus on my Linux machine is to protect Windows user in case I copied files over USB drive for example.

Ability to really customise OS is another security trait of Linuxes machine in Server point of view. Windows Server is installed by default with a whole list of software, which take some effort to remove. More software means more hole for vulnerability. We keep our Linux server very basic, without even GUI services, running only services which is needed for that server.

Linux is an open source to be more secure than Windows