Linux distributions are walled gardens. They're just community maintained instead of corporate. Linux of course lets you install anything but so do MacOS and Windows, and downloading random apps off the web for either of the latter can be dangerous. It would become dangerous for Linux if Linux acquired a large non-technical user base, but as it stands malware pushers don't target it much since there are not enough victims.

MacOS is targeted a bit less than Windows because its user base is smaller, tends to be a bit more technical, and running arbitrary apps while allowed requires magic incantations like right click open (twice) the first time or opening a terminal.

Every non technical person I know loves iOS because it just works and doesn't rot from malware or badly written apps that trash the system.

On Linux, the norm is that you rarely install a sketchy opaque binary. It either comes from the packages, or from a reputable vendor's official site (like NVidia drivers), or has source code trivially available. This lowers the chance malware could sneak in.

That's because there isn't a vast network of shitware sites geared toward Linux users. If it got popular among non-technical users there would be.

Never ever underestimate what people will do for even mediocre amounts of money. Look into the enormous ecosystem (bordering on a subculture) that exists around click fraud and other forms of ad network abuse, or try to search for some Windows software and look at how many fake sites you get. It's unreal. There's money to be grabbed, so it gets grabbed.

>Never ever underestimate what people will do for even mediocre amounts of money.

or even just for thrills or for nefarious purposes!

Reminds of me of that backdoor in Notepad++[1], an app many developers I've worked with used.

[1]https://www.hackread.com/wikileaks-vault7-cia-docs-notepad-p...