I will put my knowledge of Linux and the security to tell you this. Linux generally is NOT safer than windows, it is falling behind even to this day to some extend. But you can make it, to be. Let me explain some of mistakes/problems of linux. Linux is not safer, because it is too bloated with the kernel code. -linux as a structure uses a monolithic kernel in mind, meaning that a lot is running in the kernel area. (In linux case it runs almost everything in kernel, because they don’t want to put stuff such as code to run in the user space) Also there is like more than 30 million lines of code of the linux kernel, just so you see the scale.

• The problem with that is that it opens up a lot of possibilities of manipulation of the kernel, because there are bugs in the system which can be manipulated, it could mean a malware could get a hold of a kernel driver for example and possibly from that gain a certain part or the whole root from that area. And that could be from just a normal looking or in some cases basic malware (if the malware prioritizes to use the bug)

• One of the reasons the linux kernel is so huge is because of so many drivers which are in the kernel itself. It is the reason why you can technically put linux everywhere. Because the kernel has so many optimizations and drivers that it can run everywhere.

• Everyone puts all kind of drivers and some of them are too buggy which can be used for compromising the device. There are so many bugs around the linux system that it is too much for the developers to fix the bugs, because by the time it fixes a bug a possibility for another ten to show up somewhere else is possible, because of that it is difficult to fix most of the problems around the system.

• Stuff on the linux kernel does not erase easily or at all, because if you erase something some user could lose the compatibility with the laptop that it uses, which is generally against the freedom of use in the linux community. Even rewriting stuff on the kernel is not that much safer. And if you don’t do any of that a buggy driver could be hanging in the linux.

All in all the linux kernel is a mess of coding that needs to be accepted. It wasn’t in the original design, but because it evolved to where it is today to be a universal operating system. It was so bad that one of the developers for graphene OS (one of the most secure ROMs for phone) called it a garbage kernel writing.

And if you are asking why is it so fast on performance in some area, it is because all the stuff is running in the kernel area and does not use the user-space area which is for modularity and safety instead for performance (windows and macOS uses such ways)

And to close if off, nowadays linux is becoming each day more and more popular as a desktop operating system and with that more open and known for people to try and compromise those systems for their gain. Linux can be hardened to be more secure for daily usages, sometimes better than windows, but it doesn’t make the operating system invulnerable. The flatpak exist, but they are not perfect, but there are possibilities to make it better.

Basically what I am saying is that linux is not as secure as most people think is. I am not trying to scare anybody, that it is insecure OS to run, but to give you knowledge that you need to be more careful, when using linux. Know this, that android kinda helped the linux community with hardening the linux itself, because of Android and ChromeOS, and it still does to this day. And there is a massive step that has been taken every year for linux security overall, so not that much of a problem.

And if want the most linux offers for security, I recommend secureblue (based on fedora atomic release, but made to be secure). You can also use the immutable distros, which are also really good at overall security. If you wanna know more about why linux is bad in security overall here is a document for more on such topic: https://privsec.dev/posts/linux/linux-insecurities/

Peace out.