h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

There is a very useful web-site (sorry about this, folks!) that provides useful information about "computer virus myths, hoaxes, urban legends, and the implications if you believe in them": www.Vmyths.com.
Probably one of the best means to avoid computer viruses is: avoiding the so-called "industrial standard" (or can you think of a hacker who spends his nights programming a virus that can only exist in little niches?).

I agree absolutely. I was trying to communicate that rather subtly in the article, by drawing direct attention to industry standard software like Outlook, Word, etc. Not only are the inferior products, but they draw hackers like s**t draws flies. Virus authors want maximum damage, and their target is the corporate world, where everyone uses basically the same software, for the simple reason that it came pre-configured on all their pc's. You can't necessarily avoid viruses with Netscape Communicator, Corel Wordperfect, and others, but you can certainly avoid infecting others.

Colonel Sellers, whose only Microsoft product is his operating system... and would change that, too, if he wouldn't lose performance from his favorite games.

I couldn't agree more. My word processor is non-Microsoft, so macro viruses don't bother me because it can't handle Microsoft macros, or at least not as far as I'm aware. I'm another person whose only Microsoft product is the operating system, and I, too, would dump it if only I could keep playing all the games I've got. Although a couple of days ago I saw 'Civilization: Call to Power' written for Linux. Mind you, at £40 I don't think I'll bother!