A lot of people I know hate Windows but carry on using it because they are given no choice.

“Ubiquitous” would be a better word to use.

As for the argument about security, Microsoft itself has already admitted that Windows is insecure by design and there is plenty of compelling evidence (including court exhibits) I can put forth to support this, not just extensive studies.

“Our products just aren’t engineered for security.”

–Brian Valentine, Microsoft executive

It is disappointing to see the BBC reinforcing incorrect consensus which was marketed vigorously by Microsoft. I used to believe the BBC had guts to offer proper reporting, not just recite spin and PR.

I read the “BBC’s side of the story” to which you linked. They managed not to mention Windows there too.

They do, at least, link off to a “PC Protection” page, which says:

“Windows is the most popular OS and it is the most vulnerable to these kinds of attacks. ”

At last, some admission that Windows might just be part of the problem. But it’s written so as to imply that its Windows’ popularity that makes it vulnerable – although without actually *saying* that – rather than it just being a badly written operating system. (No way all those MS refugees that washed up at the Beeb are going to allow anything like *that* to be said!)

We’re also told:

“Windows XP, Vista and Mac OS-X all have built-in firewalls”

Quite so, but so do nearly all Linux distributions. That’s not worth a mention though. In fact, Linux itself isn’t worth a mention either.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2009/03/click_botnet_experiment.html