Free avast! Linux Home Edition

avast! Linux Home Edition represents an antivirus solution for the increasingly popular Linux platform. This software is designed exclusively for home users and non-commercial use. Both of these conditions should be met! Our company offers the Home Edition free of charge, since, in our opinion, it is possible to avoid global virus spreading by efficient prevention; however, many user are not able to or do not want to pay for antivirus software. This page will show you the most important features of this program. Institutions (even non-commercial ones) are not allowed to use avast! Linux Home Edition. A Linux version of avast! designed for commercial deployment (including an ADNM connector) will be released in Q3 2006.

Antivirus kernel

The antivirus kernel of avast! For Linux is identical to the one for Windows systems, which means that all high-end features, typical for AV kernels on Windows, are included in the Linux version too.

The latest version of avast! antivirus kernel features outstanding detection abilities, together with high performance. You can expect 100% detection of In-the-Wild viruses (viruses already spreading between users) and excellent detection of Trojan horses with minimum of false positives.

The kernel is certified by ICSA Labs; it frequently takes part in the tests of Virus Bulletin magazine, often yielding the VB100 award.

Like avast! for Windows, avast! engine for Linux also features outstanding unpacking support. It can scan inside almost the same number of archives as under Windows, with the exception of MAPI, CAB, ACE, CHM, 7ZIP and NTFS streams. The following archives can be scanned: ARJ, ZIP, MIME (+ all associated formats), DBX (Outlook Express archives), RAR, TAR, GZIP, BZIP2, ZOO, ARC, LHA/LHX, TNEF (winmail.dat), CPIO, RPM, ISO, and SIS. It also supports a number of executable packers (such as PKLite, Diet, UPX, ASPack, FSG, MEW, etc.).

User interface

The Simple User Interface is used to start on-demand scanning, work with the results and change various options of the scan.

The user interface requires GTK+ 2.x libraries. If you do not have these libraries installed on your system, the libraries from the installation package will be used.

Command line scanner

Experienced users will appreciate a classic on-demand scanner, controlled from the command line. It allows to scan files in specified directories and both on local and remote volumes. Of course, the command line scanner also works on volumes mounted over network.

The program is very flexible; it accepts a lot of additional arguments and switches. It is able to generate extensive report files that can be used for analysis.

The scanner is able to run in STDIN/STDOUT mode as a pipe filter. This mode is intended to be used in shell scripts.

Automatic updates

The updates of the virus database are another key need in virus protection. Avast! is usually updated at least 3 times a week (and during virus outbreaks, even multiple times a day), providing you with the most up-to-date definitions to efficiently fight against latest threats.

Virus chest

The Linux version also has a chest directory where suspicious files are stored. These files can be deleted, or it is possible to work with them later. It is also possible to submit the files to our virus lab for further analysis.

Internationalization

Currently, avast! for Linux is available in the following languages: English, Czech.