[ThunderSleeps]

You bring up an interesting point not many people realize. A fairly high percentage of the vulnerabilities associated with a system come not from the OS, but from the applications that run on it.

That is why I don't understand MS integrating IE so tightly with the OS. Sheesh, take your most vulnerable, network-facing program, and let it reach into the OS? {shudder}

This is why OS/X and Linux have a fundamental advantage - they do a much better job of walling off applications and restricting what they can/cannot do. Also, on Linux (and OS/X?) your typical user runs with just user authority on the machine. So even if an application is compromised, it'll only have the privileges of a user, not an administrator or super-user. Far too many people set up their windows boxes with their main account being an administrator account.

[allmost]

IE should be killed.

[TChad]

Far too many people set up their windows boxes with their main account being an administrator account.

And those who set up Windows with limited user accounts often find that their non-Microsoft apps break.