[Slashdot](http://slashdot.org/:) “RatBastard writes ‘SF Gate’s Mark Morford asks: Why Does Windows Still Suck? After wtaching his significant other’s Windows PC drown in a sea of viruses and worms after only 4 minutes on her new DSL connection, Mark Morford wonders why the masses have not stormed Redmond waving torches and scythes in anger over the never-ending security flaws in Windows. Why haven’t they jetisoned the foul beast from Redmond and migrated en mass to the Macintosh or even Linux?'”

That’s a very good question. The answer is usually something along the lines of “I have to be compatible with everyone else so that I can get my work done.” Or they beg off with

The only reason it doesn’t happen like this on a Mac is that there are so many more PCs. If there were more Macs, it’d happen to them too.

[Bullshit](http://www.securityfocus.com/columnists/188:)

So when you use Linux, you’re not using a perfectly safe OS. There is no such thing. But Linux and Mac OS X establish a more secure footing than Microsoft Windows, one that makes it far harder for viruses to take hold in the first place, but if one does take hold, harder to damage the system, but if one succeeds in damaging the system, harder to spread to other machines and repeat the process.

In other words, the reason there aren’t more viruses on those systems is that it’s so much **harder** to make them as virulent, so the hackers don’t bother and just go for the easier target.

The world would be a much happier place if people just read the above article, understood it, and took the appropriate action.