Sam,
Viruses are designed to be sneaky, so the user who spreads them unwittingly may
truly believe he/she never sent a virus-infested message. If guns were designed
to fire at unexpected times, the manufacturer would face ruinous lawsuit plus
criminal penalties. MS should share the blame for designing email and news
clients with house-of-cards security, where the default behavior is to
automatically execute executable attachments, no doubt an irresistable
temptation for virus writers and script kiddies. MS should share the blame for
their monopolistic dealings that make it difficult to buy a PC without Windows
and the virus-friendly email/news setup. Windows GUI pulls the wool over the
user's eyes so he/she doesn't really know what's happening, what the file being
sent really looks like, so part of the blame belongs with the design of such an
OS.
One computer instructor told me, back in the days of Windows 3.0, that Windows
is for somebody who doesn't know how to use a computer. Apparently that still
holds true today. I've met Windows users who didn't know their modem speed or
hard drive size, and didn't even know an internal modem from an external modem.
