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this post was submitted on 19 Nov 2023
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True story, Linux sees MIME types, so if Hot.Chick.Blows.Brother.mp4 is a virus, it shows up with a Windows (MZ) binary icon, not a media icon ๐... unlike Windows which only recognizes extensions ๐.
Microsoft, in their infinite wisdom, also decided that file extensions should be hidden by default. So you won't even see that you downloaded TaylorSwift_1989_TaylorsVersion.exe instead of TaylorSwift_1989_TaylorsVersion.mp3 unless you changed that setting ahead of time.
Or worse, Numb_LinkinPark.mp3.exe just shows up as Numb_LinkinPark.mp3, making it look like it's DEFINITELY a legit MP3!
Wait.. Real?? I guess its always been a part of the first round of changes I've always made to Windows. Crazy how much I've normalized fighting the software I use.
Anyway, that's wild. What a just bad and unsafe decision.
See, this is mostly because of 2 things. One, when changing filenames, users make the stupid mistake of changing the extension as well (having no extension that is), which of course, in Windows, it means the file won't be recognized as a media file. Two, blind you from the truth - you don't want users that can think, that's not what our bysiness is about ๐. Also the reason behind why Windows has less and less options and people that want to change something have to revert to registery hacks to do so.
It's even worse, since exe files can have custom icons, the malware will have a mp3 player icon in their exe file, making it totes confusing.
And this only gets worse, since audio file tags (and I believe video files as well ๐ค) include album art nowadays, so it has an icon that is the album art... exe's also have custom icons, so ๐คท...
That's not a Linux thing. It's just whatever desktop shell you chose to use and various shells behave in various ways. The reason this might be safer in most Linux distros is that you're discouraged from executing things under a privileged user which means that malware can't make significant changest to your system easily. If you do the same in windows, you'd be just as safe.
Not exactly... I mean, yes, you're right about the privileges thing, but Windows has a lot more security holes than Linux (or any POSIX based OS for that matter). The root of the problem, as always is the distant Windows relative, DOS... no user space notion whatsoever... and Windows NT has dragged these issues for decades now, all because MS made (bought) DOS and distributed it.
My memory is fuzzy and I don't know the correct words to research it, but I am pretty sure that depends on the DE.
Either KDE Plasma (dolphin) or GNOME (nautilus) uses the extension iirc. Maybe that changed though.
Have no idea, haven't changed a DE in over 6 or 7 years, I use xfce.