“...if you stay with Windows...”
In terms of computer security knowledge, I’m somewhere is the middle, between neophyte and security guru, so I welcome other people’s perspectives. :-) Most exploits seem designed for the Windows environment (executable binaries, permissions), so would you agree that the Mac and Linux are inherently safer? How much safer? Are there actual threats in the wild that could exploit Firefox running on the Mac or Linux? I run both Windows and Linux, so this is not a trick question - I simply want the opinions of as many people as I can find. Thanks.
Yes, both of those environments are definitely more inherently safer.
Yes, exploits that use scripts or bugs within programs like Flash and Java can do limited things on Linux and the Mac, but typically these are not much of an issue (likely just crashing those environments, sometimes doing fairly more than that).
To be fair, there are security issues with those environments too, but definitely to date there have been very few exploits (especially for the Mac OS). That said, popularity breeds contempt, and because comparatively few have Macs, Mac viruses really can’t effectively propagate, so attacking Macs gets virus writers nowhere. Security through obscurity, in a way (which is funny, because people say this is what Microsoft and Apple do by not publishing their OS code for review, too).
If you run Windows on a Mac using any of several options, you can run into some of the Windows viruses in that, too. I’d dual-boot a Windows 64-bit OS if you want to be safe and have both environments, however, it may be possible to completely “sandbox” a Windows 32-bit OS on an Apple, meaning that any damage any virus could do is limited to that specific area and nothing you didn’t want it to touch.
Finally, you need to assure the applications you most want to use are on the environment you use. This is what attracts most people to the Windows environment, but there are a lot of equivalent programs that work on the Mac.
Thanks for your advice. It largely confirms what I have read elsewhere. Having played with Linux, it seemed to me that it would be a very alien and inhospitable environment for software written specifically to run in Windows. I forgot to mention another big plus - no Windows Registry for virus settings to hide in. My greatest concern really has been to understand how much damage Java, JavaScript or something like that could in a Linux environment. I feel more secure running Linux than Windows, but do want to be aware of potential vulnerabilities.