In 1960 anyone would have been laughed at at even suggesting IBM would lose it's marketshare.
They did.
People used IBM on their business systems in 1960 because that is all they knew.
People "use" Microsoft Windows because that is all that they know exist...well except for Mac, but Mac is so much higher priced.
And therein lies your "problem" Blie...you defend M$ every.single.time.
M$ is a lousy company. It took them over a decade to secure their browser. It took them even longer to face the fact that M$ Outlook was a giant security hole and the very reason why so many people got viruses. People don't get viruses like they use to, not because they are not out there - but because M$ finally gave a flying f*** about it and decided to act like they cared to do something about their unbelievably swiss cheese software.
What Ringel is trying to say is the M$ has bad business practices. Namely their arrogance and refusal to accept the chance they may not be right about everything.
It is because of the old and untrue claims. Linux is safe because no one uses and thus no one attacks it. In fact, Linux is the main platform for attacks, instead. A day with as many uses as Windows would reveal Linux´ actual safety.
Just sayin - you realize this doesn't address a single thing I said.
Just try it...if you know the industry, then you know Outlook was a virus trap by it's design, and M$ ignored the obvious and fixable holes for years. That is the crux of what people complain about them. Same with I.E. it didn't become more secure until competition began eating a hole in their marketshare. They should have fixed it! And when they did - it sure looked easy. One version change and bingo the main holes went away.
Your security largely depends on your Internet behavior. 80 % of the Internet constitutes the "darknet". That doesn´t mean you are save on the other 20 %. if you visit a malicious website, you can´t blame the browser. If you receive malicious e-mails, where did the addressor get your e-mail address from? It can happen to you without your own fault, of course but I guess most people simply lack awareness.
Really Blie?
The OS maker bears zero responsibility?
When I was in IT...it was about 1998 or so, a virus ripped through our network. The root cause was an office worker opened an infected email...but the virus easily ripped through the system because of the myriad of security holes and ease of access to the core system. Outlook was a "trusted" software on Windows - so the OS allowed Outlook access to absolutely everything...providing a fantastic avenue for viruses to spread.
It took M$ a good 10 years before they FINALLY zipped up the holes, including the insanity of providing an email client complete and unquestioning access to the root of the OS.
You are correct that viruses are primarily introduced by user behavior. However that does not mean the OS bears no responsibility. M$ did not care about user security for well over a decade...period.