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Richard: Linux email clients do not execute attachments. If I run as root you don't have some greater advantage sending email viruses to me. It doesn't matter. Email is not a Linux virus vector.

The reason why there is no email borne mail viruses for Linux is because none of the mail clients aren't widely used. Outlook Express has more users than KMail or Evolution could hope for. Now, if these email clients get famous, I'm very darn sure there would be security risk.

And the problem with the average Joe is that he doesn't understand the need to install updates all the time, and just say a UN resolution requiring all Windows workstations to be converted to LindowsOS workstations, and cause a rise of users - trust me, it would be almost as insecure as Windows + Outlook Express.

I remembered once people on Slashdot saying that Gnutella is a hundred times more secure than Fastrack (name? the one used in kaZaa?), and now there is a Linux virus travelling through it infecting unpatched Apache servers.

Besides, you overestimated the power of dumb users. If it that easy to get a user to open a email attachment with a *.exe or a *.vb, imagine how it would be like when *.bin's

But as you said, most mishaps would happen from the user straying. Most of Windows 9x dying is caused by stray apps or the user's mishap.

DCMonkey: On the recommendation to include the GIMP: Go ahead, if you want to scar your users for life (well, maybe not _life_

Yeah, maybe they should bundle along The Gimp dumbed down to be like Photoshop Elements. And with a UI that is much self-explanary, e.g. Paint Shop Pro-like.

Cloudy: You want "S-E-C-U-R-I-T-Y" ??? Disconnect from the network and you'll have maximum security !

Yes. Disconnecting the greatest phenomenon since slice bread? Most people who buy computers now would every now and then use the Internet.

What lindowsOS is doing is making unnesscary risks by making new users to use root by default. They should/could have done the same thing as Mac OS X by making the user by default an "Adminstrator", which isn't "root", but able to do what most users would want to do - install apps, add new hardware, stuff like that.

a. Whether your like it or not, BeOS was a great single user OS and for multimedia you DON'T need multiusers and 'security'.

Being single user is probably the main reason why I didn't introduce this OS to many people I know. Many people I know *shares* computers. They use different settings, different colour schemes, different wallpapers etc.

Yeah, multimedia on BeOS was great, I still haven't seen anything stable that is as good as SoundPlay. But being single-user was really bad. If they couldn't make a multiuser system, they should copy Windows 9x, where settings is just in a file, completely insecure.

Adam Scheinberg: Netscape Mail is the default. As long as there are choices for handling this stuff, there's *another* level of safety.

Then just find for buffer overflows in Netscape Mail attachment handling code. Nothing is secure.

Charlie: Look at the deal with AOL and the deal with Walmart. They were both strokes of brilliance IMHO.

Any company can do the AOL deal. AOL don't mind you bundling their software as long they have nothing to loose. So if you spend time porting their software, they don't really care. Any company can do that.

As for Walmart, not many people buy PCs from Walmart, especially from Walmart's website.

Steve: That would be a violation of the GPL.

Wow, suddenly you are a lawyer and managed to outsmart the lawyers of FSF?