Is OS really important

[MrBungle]

So I'm thinking about getting into bitcoin trading and stuff, and I plan to begin storing my first bitcoins soon. I've read for this sense it is much safer to have Linux than for example Windows (as it is for a lot of other aspects aswell). Do you think is this really a thing to consider? Do I need to have tons of bitcoins before I get concerned about their safety? Should I consider switching to Linux if I'm storing just a few of them, or is it stupid?

Thanks erry'one in advance.

[ChuckBuck]

Windows or MAC OS is fine, as long as you have security in place;IE solid antivirus software and firewall.

Just make sure you backup your wallet, either to offline hard drive or USB stick, and/or Paper wallet as well.

If you're really security conscious, you may want to consider one of these hardware wallets for another level of security:

https://www.bitcointrezor.com/

https://www.ledgerwallet.com/

[MrBungle]

What would be a good way to store an online backup for my wallet then? Maybe uploading it to Google Drive, or MEGA?

[Madness]

What would be a good way to store an online backup for my wallet then? Maybe uploading it to Google Drive, or MEGA?

This will only make things worst . Keeping your wallet Online is the worst idea you can get mate .
Hacker don't need to hack your PC , he should simply hack your Gmail or MEGA Account (not even hacking probably simple Brute force cracking) and he is in .
I suggest keeping them in Offline device .
~ Madness

[MrBungle]

Makes lots of sense. What if my offline device gets broken, or burnt, or w/e? Is there a super safe way to store bitcoins? I'm getting to the idea there is no 100% safe way to do it. My online wallet could get hacked and my offline USB/HD could crack...

[Blazr]

Use the OS you are most familiar with. Use any modern version of Windows, Mac or Linux and keep it fully updated.

About backing up your wallet, when storing a backup remotely make sure it is encrypted with a strong enough password to prevent against bruteforce. Assume your adversary can do 1 trillion guesses/sec. The best password is one that is randomly generated and is at least 120bits strong, which is roughly 14-16 characters of letters, numbers and special characters. If you are using a password you made up yourself and didn't randomly generate it will need to be significantly longer than this.

I would not recommend using MEGA, as if you lose your MEGA password there is no way to regain access to your encrypted wallet, so you have to remember two passwords and the chances of you forgetting passwords and losing your Bitcoins is greatly increased. Also as you probably know megaupload was shut down and all data was deleted, so I would stay away from MEGA just in case. Google Drive seems ok.

What would be a good way to store an online backup for my wallet then? Maybe uploading it to Google Drive, or MEGA?

This will only make things worst . Keeping your wallet Online is the worst idea you can get mate .
Hacker don't need to hack your PC , he should simply hack your Gmail or MEGA Account (not even hacking probably simple Brute force cracking) and he is in .
I suggest keeping them in Offline device .
~ Madness

Remote backups are OK as long as they are done properly. They are useful in the event your house burns down or something terrible like that, or if you are travelling a lot.

[Madness]

Makes lots of sense. What if my offline device gets broken, or burnt, or w/e? Is there a super safe way to store bitcoins? I'm getting to the idea there is no 100% safe way to do it. My online wallet could get hacked and my offline USB/HD could crack...

OS does matter to be honest . Using Linux would be better then using Windows because most of viruses out there are written for Windows.
So you could increase your safety by using Linux .

I would suggest you to use Electrum as a wallet , because It gives you a 12 words seed when you setup the wallet for the first time , and you can recover your Bitcoins & wallet with those words in a case of a computer failure or device get burnt as you said etc ... So just keep those words in a vault in a piece of paper or whatever . and you should be fine

~ Madness

[biscotaste]

While were on this topic, is a MAC any safer than a PC?

[Blazr]

Makes lots of sense. What if my offline device gets broken, or burnt, or w/e? Is there a super safe way to store bitcoins? I'm getting to the idea there is no 100% safe way to do it. My online wallet could get hacked and my offline USB/HD could crack...

OS does matter to be honest . Using Linux would be better then using Windows because most of viruses out there are written for Windows.
So you could increase your safety by using Linux .

I would suggest you to use Electrum as a wallet , because It gives you a 12 words seed when you setup the wallet for the first time , and you can recover your Bitcoins & wallet with those words in a case of a computer failure or device get burnt as you said etc ... So just keep those words in a vault in a piece of paper or whatever . and you should be fine

~ Madness

If you don't know anything about Linux, then you shouldn't use it as you're more likely to configure something wrong, install something malicious or not update it properly. A lot of Bitcoin stealing malware have variants for Linux, the "less viruses" thing doesn't really matter when you are specifically being targeted by hackers. It's best to use the OS you are most comfortable with.

While were on this topic, is a MAC any safer than a PC?

Not really. Most modern OS's have similar security features.

[ChuckBuck]

Makes lots of sense. What if my offline device gets broken, or burnt, or w/e? Is there a super safe way to store bitcoins? I'm getting to the idea there is no 100% safe way to do it. My online wallet could get hacked and my offline USB/HD could crack...

Believe that's where the beauty of Trezor and Ledger come into play.  If you somehow break or lose these devices or it gets stolen, I think you just need to provide the seed password or pin code to retrieve your full balance onto the replacement device.

[MrBungle]

While were on this topic, is a MAC any safer than a PC?

I guess it is statistically a bit safer but I consider to be the same, personally, since Mac and Win are the democratized Operating Systems worldwide.

I would suggest you to use Electrum as a wallet , because It gives you a 12 words seed when you setup the wallet for the first time , and you can recover your Bitcoins & wallet with those words in a case of a computer failure or device get burnt as you said etc ... So just keep those words in a vault in a piece of paper or whatever . and you should be fine

I like this one a lot, in case I lose my offline device I can get to my wallet again via these words seed. What are they (Electrum) doing with the wallet, then? Isn't this some sort of remote backup that can't get compromised aswell? Someone could get into Electrum's DB and... voila?

[Madness]

While were on this topic, is a MAC any safer than a PC?

I guess it is statistically a bit safer but I consider to be the same, personally, since Mac and Win are the democratized Operating Systems worldwide.

I would suggest you to use Electrum as a wallet , because It gives you a 12 words seed when you setup the wallet for the first time , and you can recover your Bitcoins & wallet with those words in a case of a computer failure or device get burnt as you said etc ... So just keep those words in a vault in a piece of paper or whatever . and you should be fine

I like this one a lot, in case I lose my offline device I can get to my wallet again via these words seed. What are they (Electrum) doing with the wallet, then? Isn't this some sort of remote backup that can't get compromised aswell? Someone could get into Electrum's DB and... voila?

They don't store anything in their Database as far as I know, you can see here more informations about the seed : https://electrum.org/seed.html

~ Madness

[RodeoX]

I would ask the NSA.

Just kidding, you should only be using open source software.

[mlferro]

I think that security is made for each of us! Independent on which operating system is using

[MrBungle]

I think that security is made for each of us! Independent on which operating system is using

The thing is that I'm not a fan of having an antivirus in Windows nor having a firewall, they need lots of resources, makes PC slowlier and clumsier... 

[Blazr]

The thing is that I'm not a fan of having an antivirus in Windows nor having a firewall, they need lots of resources, makes PC slowlier and clumsier...  

You can always turn off real-time protection on your anti-virus scanner and just do a scan on every downloaded file and a full scan every 1-2 weeks. While this is significantly less safe, it's a lot better than no anti-virus and won't use up much resources. Anti-virus should really be a failsafe anyways, you shouldn't solely rely of them to keep your PC safe.

Windows 7+ has a built-in firewall which doesn't use much system resources.

[pedrog]

I use linux since 2001 or so, I'm a big proponent of free open-source software.

You should start using GNU/linux not only because it's safer and better but because it's the right thing to do.

[cellard]

I use linux since 2001 or so, I'm a big proponent of free open-source software.

You should start using GNU/linux not only because it's safer and better but because it's the right thing to do.

I use linux too lately. If im using Bitcoin qt and have people connecting on my node, might as well have an OS like linux and not windows for extra security.

[Velkro]

Easy thing to do to test if your computer is not infected, get any desktop wallet without password and with 1$ bitcoin.
If noone will take it, computer is secure

Anyway, any OS is secure as much as big is its user security knowledge

[MrBungle]

So if you guys were to take any antivirus as your own, concerning your bitcoins security, which one would you chose? A free one like avast! is cool?

Also,

You should start using GNU/linux not only because it's safer and better but because it's the right thing to do.

Damn, straight to my heart...