In an attempt to gain insight into the design of linear detectors for additive white noise channels (discrete-time case), we describe several procedures, both optimal and suboptimal. Using the Wiener representation for nonlinear systems, we derive an ad hoc suboptimal design procedure. Exact designs are found when the noise amplitude's probability distribution is stable and when the noise is Laplacian. Considering all the linear detectors thus derived, no general form for the optimal linear detector's unit-sample response becomes apparent. Performance analyses and simulations indicate substantial performance losses occur when linear detectors are used instead of optimal (likelihood ratio) ones.