On my Linux box I run Firestarter and ClamAV. If for no other reason but to make sure I don’t pass something nasty to other systems. Also, if there is a one in a million chance that a virus catered to Linux will attack somebody – that somebody will more than likely be me…?

On one recent Windows box I cleaned between 100-200 virus’s and other threats from one 2 year old system. 4 teenagers took turns using the computer almost 24-hours a day / 7 days a week. I helped their mother and told her the problems as well as the “type” of sites her teenagers were visiting and she cancelled internet access for home.

It is different if you are just sending typical content from trusted sources (e.g., family photo jpegs). In this case, the chances of you actually sending something that can damage someone’s computer is so small, that it is unreasonable for you to be expected to install and configure special software.

So, in my opinion, it is ethically sufficient for us to simply make intelligent, careful decisions about what we send and forward to other people.

This is the best way i’ve found for stupid users to not need to worry about security so much except ocasionally the firewall asking if a program needs access to the net, of which you can just click “allow” and tick the “remember setting” box.

I don’t have to worry about malware, users of other operating systems shouldn’t need to either, the best thing for windows losers is to get a good acl in place for a firewall and automate antivirus (which clamwin is great at).

For XP-using family members, I’d recommend SuRun, as it sets up a sudo-like permissions system that allows a user to be a limited user almost all the time and then temporarily escalate privileges (after password authentication) for Windows Updates and software installation.