There have been some efforts to mitigate this by adding warnings where appropriate. But that doesn’t stop certain people from ignoring those warnings and typing “Yes, do as I say!” and bricking their install anyway.

Great response, which also helps to answer one of the first questions from non-tech users: which anti-virus do I download for Linux?

I use Quassel, it’s been a few years since any major updates but it still works great. I like that it has a server+client model that functions like a bouncer so you can move between machines without reconnecting to networks. It also allows all the configuration from the client’s GUI so you don’t have to remember commands to change anything.