> I DO use spybot, adaware, and an antivirus religiously. I'm just tired of HAVING to do so.
That's a good point, but a side-effect of human nature. I'm sure banks are tired of HAVING TO buy expensive locks, security cameras, and other things to protect things in their building from being stolen. I'm sure Walmart and other stores would rather not have to buy all the sensor equipment and sensor tags in each item to catch theives. But it is what it is.
Problem is, banks and stores have more than one real option to shoose from for their security buying needs. If one product is unsatisfactory, they can buy a different one, perhaps from a different vendor. In the computer world, many people are stuck with whatever it is that MS feels like providing, as choosing a different vendor can very well prevent the use of a suitable application. For examplt, I have need for a good CAD program with certain specific features. This class of CAD software isn't available on a variety of OS platforms to choose from, it's only available for Windows. So either I choose to take the OS platform I'm personally unhappy with in order to use the app I need, or I choose to not be able to work on this particular project at all which would make me unable to do my job and thus become irrelevant to my employer. I don't actually have a choice in what OS platform I use, and I'm stuck with one I'd personally rather not use as the ones I'd prefer are unable to get done what I need to do, even if they are more secure.
Thus we're stuck trying to add on 3rd party hole-pluggers, something that would annoy the heck out of security systems buyers such as for bank vaults, camera systems, etc. I bet banks would hate to buy a security camera system only to be told the lenses on the cameras are all blurry and they have to buy new lenses from someone else for the things to work acceptibly, let alone work well.
Alas, we're all right where Bill Gates wants us, under his thumb.
And there's little we can do about it.