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Do you need to have a firewall on a linux desktop?
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this post was submitted on 06 Oct 2023
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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Programs that want to receive or send data across the network do so using a port. A firewall (in the sense of a firewall on your computer) is basically a program that sits between the rest of your programs and your network connection and determines what programs should be allowed out to the network and what incoming connections should be allowed to talk to your programs.
This is "increasing security" by making sure you don't let incoming connections talk to whatever happens to be running on your computer that might be listening for network traffic.
I can provide a more ELI5 explanation if you would like it.