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Old 27th July 2008
DrJ DrJ is offline
ISO Quartermaster
 
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Gold Country, CA
Posts: 507
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Quote:
Originally Posted by uptonm View Post
how secure are virtual machines? is there anything that will entirely insulate me from any viruses?
Not to seem rude or snotty, but the best way to avoid viruses is to be behind a reasonable router/firewall and practice "safe internet." That means no porn, warez, gambling and the like (including good email practices). I don't bother with running Windows anti-malware software anymore, but I do check every six months or so and never find anything.

More to your question, the application running in the VM itself is secure. However, the host OS still runs the VM software and handles the real and virtual hardware. So you are still susceptible to malware on the host.

It seems backwards, but that's how it is if you want to game and wish to avoid Wine. Otherwise, both Linux and Solaris are better on the VM front than the BSDs.
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