Did I have a stroke or is the second paragraph basically a rehash of the first?
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For anyone who has been missing Microsoft’s tender, loving embrace since switching to Linux. Copilot for Linux is in development, I presume.
Probably already done... Copilot for Linux developed the defender for Linux as a test. They say it even sometimes work!
It is, but it's been branded Linux Subsystem For Copilot 365 Enterprise Service Pack 2.
So I actually had claude code make me a python backend that allows copilot to talk and send commands to Windows or Linux computers. Python executes the commands sent by copilot and then returns the output back to copilot via an API, and it goes back and forth like this until it finishes the task. It's like a janky Claude Code But it works on any device that has Python. It actually operates so much better when you only allow it to respond in commands it's passing too and from your computer.
This is like poking holes in the condom before visiting the nearest $20 brothel...
It's to meet compliance regulations for orgs leveraging linux with E5/E7 licenses already. I doubt they even publish a version your average user can license, and it's probably just an attempt to further entrench orgs into E5/E7, perpetual money drip into the Microslop money tank.
As useful as nipples on a truck.
It's perfect for them. They don't have to do the work of maintaining an OS (Which they suck at) and get to continue monitoring the entire computer using their malwa- I mean security suite. :)
Well this is bullshit. I guess I will end up with this on my work laptop because almost everything is Microsoft in that environment. I can only hope it stays the hell out of the way.
Your work lets you use Linux?
I'm surprised the requirements isn't "To use Microsoft defender you need TPM version 2.0 or newer"
I wouldn't be surprised if this is just the beginning. Microsoft is making its tools Linux-compatible and is quietly, turning Windows into a desktop environment for the Linux kernel. They probably don't even need to tell their users about it. Surprise, WSL is everywhere now!
I had never thought about this, but my (hopefully not) naive brain loves this if it helps to move the masses to Linux.
And with the masses comes enshitificafion.
The money goes to Linux, then all the proprietary trash makes its way to Linux, along with the money.
That will choke out the FOSS tools that we've long enjoyed.
And we're right back to square one.
Let the masses have their trash, lest they ruin yet another good thing for us.
Why is the first paragraph repeated? Written by AI?
Crucial distinction: this is specifically for enterprise developer workstations under corporate management (requiring Defender for Endpoint / M365 enterprise licenses), not a general release for all Linux users.
I wrote a bit about what this means for the compliance versus privacy tug-of-war over on my site: Microsoft Defender Arrives on Linux Workstations.
Definitely an interesting shift for mixed-stack environments.
Original content by The Unknown Universe, written by a human and not AI generated!
Microsoft is like a plague.
They spot something with potential and immediately pounce on it. That's exactly how it went with GitHub too. And now they're trying to insert themselves into Linux. Probably just to harvest data. Complete bullshit. I would never use that.
The more Linux gets support the more likely is that it gets used more and is allowed on more companies. I dont want windoes defender on my linux device but I still think this is a good step for linux in general
Next up: Microsoft Linux with crap like Game Center.
We technically do have Azure Linux, which is based on Fedora Linux but is tailored to work with Microsoft's cloud services.
Isn’t this mostly for enterprises that have linux on notebooks or VDIs, just so that all of their OS types are in the same ecosystem when it comes to attack surface management (ie in Sentinel)?
This is really showing that Linux is on its way to be plagued by lots of corporate crap. What surprises me though is that the OS comunity has not come up with a FOSS solution that does what MS Defender does? I'm no programmer so i may be talking out of context. Why do i need to think that my out of the box Debian machine is more vulnerable than MicroSoft Windows.? Time to move to BSD?
I just want a real security solution for Linux that's privacy respecting and not the NSA in a trenchcoat (aka M$) but that's too much to ask. The offerings for advanced security on Windows are better than those on Linux for desktop use (we're not talking server) and it's not even close. Secure enough for most people is nice. But it's not enough for the paranoid like me and I desperately want it to be.
Defender has a very good thing in its configurable hard mode that simply blocks new executables that have never been seen before by M$'s cloud data. That stops pretty hard and fast a lot of new in the wild malware including campaigns by sophisticated actors. Combine with good management of LOLbins and a lockdown on those and you have a pretty hardened machine. The issue is it isn't private because it's sending M$ a complete list of hashes of every file on your machine which they pass to the NSA I'm sure. That and Windows itself being NSA-malware you know.
Rant warning
I'm not talking definition detections or clamAV (which is shit and has long had the lowest scores in comparative testing, it's for use on email servers to prevent known old malware from being passed around or stored on a file share, that's it, it's not end-point security, it won't even try to stop the most amateur hacker out there to say nothing of nation-state actors).
I'm talking real endpoint security that consumers can access without slapping down $400 a year for a corporate security license from Palantir (NSA in a trenchcoat warning) for 8 machines when only half that is needed.
I'm talking access controls, comprehensive exploit prevention, attack chain interruption and mitigation, scripting control, prompt to allow execution warnings, IPS/IDS in a software package for the desktop.
"Just do this deranged thing where you totally lock your Linux machine down and break tons of things you need and then spend dozens of hours every 3 months fixing it because an update badly broke your whole OS again" yeah no thanks I have a life and troubleshooting my own machine due to trouble I made isn't part of it. On Windows machines I can click and deploy after a short audit period software that does all I outlined, it's easy, it works, it comes with default allowlists of essential OS executables and libraries so it doesn't break the OS itself and the most trouble I have is needing to occasionally click a prompt to allow or block something which takes all of a few seconds, maybe a few minutes if I need to look up what's going on. And I can find free, pay once, and cheap annual subscriptions for under $200 annual from multiple providers for at least parts if not the whole thing. It's frustrating!
Due to advances in AI driven exploit finding the cost for zero-days is due to plummet and the access to such abilities with some money has come within the reach of even small criminal/hacker groups. So saying zero days are expensive and unlikely is a variant of the obscurity argument and not valid to rebut the points nor increasing relevant with AI driven exploit fears which may allow mass campaigns with brand new zero days for cheap.
And you can hmm and haw about security through obscurity but that doesn't really help your argument or my situation and we both know it.
-Signed someone who likes Linux and desperately wants the same security options and capabilities as a properly configured Windows machine running properly configured security software (you can't do it on Linux if it doesn't exist and that's a market size problem to some degree). I fucking hate Windows and I hate Micro$lop even more but I'm not going to bury my head in the sand and pretend this isn't a real problem.
P.S. Please prove me wrong. Point me to software that does most of what I asked, isn't $60 per machine annual (or a minimum purchase of $300 of licenses due to requiring at least 10 machines), meets the usability requirements of being relatively easy to run and maintain (security that's relatively easy is security that holds up over time, security that's hard gets turned off, turned down, ignored, or deferred for ease of use). I desperately want this and I will retract my statements and sing your praises. (No Bitdefender for Linux doesn't count, they're an NSA/eyes vacuum and really not a hard-configurator, access control/IPS centered solution anyways. Anything that sends files or file hashes to remote servers whose developers are based in eyes countries is an NSA/eyes vacuum that feeds them data on you.)
P.P.S. I already have network edge defenses and firewalls/IPS/IDS set-up but that's not really enough by a long-shot as I'm not talking about the low-hanging fruit of known cryptolocker campaigns or known cobaltstrike beaconing but the real big fish bad threat actors who pull out something never before seen and pair it with at least one 0-day exploit.
If this allows more companies to offer Linux as an option for employees workstations, or even instead of Windows, I’m fine with this. Obviously this is not something for consumers.
I am at a loss of words for how non-sensical this is.
Not really, Defender is quite popular as an EDR solution and a lot of companies love the pricing and logging of a modern EDR.
Defender with its timeline is also better than some of the alternatives I've seen in the field.
The pricing is garbage. The only benefit is the classic "unreasonable enterprise demands" (UED, that's my term for it): Rather than use multiple tools that are each best in class (and possibly cheaper or even free!) enterprises will always choose one product that does all the things. Even if it does those things poorly or even worst-in-class.
Example: VMWare. For ages, enterprises used VMWare for all their VMs because it could run/manage both Windows and Linux VMs from a single tool. Even though HyperV for Windows is vastly superior for Windows VMs and KVM is vastly superior for Linux VMs.
Aside: Yes, you can run Linux on HyperV and Windows on KVM but neither are ideal.
Windows Defender as an EDR is OK-ish for Windows but it'll never top CrowdStrike Falcon or SentinelOne Singularity for Linux. It probably won't be better than FOSS alternatives like Cilium Tetragon or even Falco (because of their flexibility/customizable nature).
Edit: I also have a pretty firm belief that putting Windows people in charge of managing Linux systems (of any kind) is always a bad idea. Yet the very nature of the product (Microsoft Defender) insists upon this.
I mean, if you're insane you could pair this with Microsoft Edge for Linux
This sounds like the type of stuff a company would require on their business laptops, so this might actually be a good thing for Linux adoption. Of course it sucks for people who were already using Linux for work and now gotta put up with this shit lol.
Defender on Linux desktops requires the standalone Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Plan 2 or Microsoft 365 E5 and E7.
IDK. Defender had a good reputation when I still was on Windows, 8 years ago. It was non-intrusive and didn't slow down the OS like other AV solutions. One good experience I had was when I dragged a zipped e-mail attachment to the desktop out of interest and Defender immediately quarantined it. Don't understand the MS lingo in the text you quoted but yeah everything mentioning 365 sounds like a PITA. So maybe it's BS now.
At least it's accurately named. "Microsoft Defender" is designed to defend Microsoft from competitors. All those EU orgs switching to Linux are now just one short sales call to the right idiot away from falling back into Microsoft's ecosystem.
If it's easier to set up and work with than ClamAV I'm down to clown. I won't put it on my personal machine, but I've got machines I use corpware on for work and school I wouldn't mind having it on.
Should your organization beIn the extremely unlikely and inexplicable event your organization is interested in Microsoft Defender for the Linux desktop, you can learn more at


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