I think making a claim like users don't have to deal with viruses, malware, and security updates is potentially more dangerous than having an OS with a less robust security model.
Even linux and BSD systems are vulnerable if malicious programs are given the necessary permissions to run. If a casual user hears something like, "This OS is immune to viruses", they're likely to be a lot less cautious about running programs that might auto load from websites. By now most Windows users know better than to click OK when a website wants to install something on your PC.
You're right in spirit, but let's kill the "permissions" meme. There's no normally-used Unix permissions that make viruses difficult to implant on Unix systems, and there's nothing on most people's machines that a virus would want access to that intrinsically requires "root".
The leading causes of malware are single-user machines and point-and-click software installation from the web. To the extent that any OS allows these, it's susceptable.
Perhaps "most" is an overstatement, but certainly a greater proportion know better today than did 10-12 years ago. As time goes on that segment of the Windows user population is only going to increase.
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I think making a claim like users don't have to deal with viruses, malware, and security updates is potentially more dangerous than having an OS with a less robust security model.
Even linux and BSD systems are vulnerable if malicious programs are given the necessary permissions to run. If a casual user hears something like, "This OS is immune to viruses", they're likely to be a lot less cautious about running programs that might auto load from websites. By now most Windows users know better than to click OK when a website wants to install something on your PC.
You're right in spirit, but let's kill the "permissions" meme. There's no normally-used Unix permissions that make viruses difficult to implant on Unix systems, and there's nothing on most people's machines that a virus would want access to that intrinsically requires "root".
The leading causes of malware are single-user machines and point-and-click software installation from the web. To the extent that any OS allows these, it's susceptable.
By now most Windows users know better than to click OK when a website wants to install something on your PC.
Have any data to back that up? Because my impression is the opposite.
Perhaps "most" is an overstatement, but certainly a greater proportion know better today than did 10-12 years ago. As time goes on that segment of the Windows user population is only going to increase.