You assume all Linux users will be hit within that narrow time frame. "Statistics: A branch of mathematics dealing with the collection, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of masses of numerical data." Learn something about it. I tell my students to think of it as "Self Defense 101". If you knew anything about the subject, you'd realize why.

Example: I say that I never receive any spam. Technically that's not quite true. There is a narrow window of a few milliseconds between my software examining the headers and then downloading emails not identified as spam. Because of that, I've received two (count 'em--two) spams this year. Two. In a year. Whoopie. Windows users I know get up to a hundred per day.

Secondly, any damage done by a virus in Linux will be small compared to what Windows viruses do. Unless the user is a clueless newbie who runs as root.



Think before you speak. It disproves nothing about what I said. Neither I nor anyone else ever claimed that Linux, or any OS, is perfect. Just that it's orders of magnitude superior to swiss-cheese, defective by design Windows.

And once again, Erik: I'm not trying to convert anyone. If you like using a broken OS, then by all means do so. Just do the rest of the world a favor and don't connect it to the internet. Do your work with Windows, but surf the net and do email with a system that won't become a spambot, or worse. Doesn't have to be Linux. Mac OSX works fine, as do several other OSs.

And please don't give me the tired old argument that you have a firewall and anti-virus software. If you use Windows on the internet, you will be owned eventually. It's just a matter of time. If I had a dollar for every Windows user who is sure that his/her system is not infected...