The only computers I’ll run without AV are computers totally under my control (in my office) that are behind a business NAT router with firewall and that are never used for Email or browsing the Web. They do have Internet access for updates (both Windows and applications). Generally these computers are used for automatic test using IEEE-488 buses controlling test equipment. The current OS is XP but originally I used Win95 the same way for many years. The current primary machine was Vista but wouldn’t run the IEEE bus and Visual Basic test programs properly so I replaced the drive and installed XP professional.
These computers have network sharing with permissions setup but only select folders and never the root folder or OS folders. All of my work computers are on a separate physical network with a different subnet from the rest of the house and I have routers with strict rules setup between subnets (I have multiple) not allowing cross access other than select devices such as cameras, a music server, sprinkler controller and weather station data.
PC based computers for Email and Web browsing all have AV. I didn’t use AV software until I got online in the mid 90’s and did fine.
To date, I’ve never had any of my work computers get a virus or Trojan. I did have a music server get infected once about 10 years ago by someone connecting an infected laptop (not mine) to that network. At that time I didn’t have the safeguards in place that I do now. That’s it.
The only computers I’ll run without AV are computers totally under my control (in my office) that are behind a business NAT router with firewall and that are never used for Email or browsing the Web.
Yeah, but you see, that's exactly what I was talking about. I had said several times before that I wanted to run my computer on the Internet, with no anti-virus program, direct on the internet, doing all the web browsing and e-mail and downloading and whatever else that a person does with their computer -- and -- some Window's user with their computer (the same way), for a year, and then see whose computer gets hosed in the process of doing it that way. That was the "whole thing" with what I was asking people with Windows to do.
I had said that I wanted to run a Macintosh with Mac OS X (that's the system that we have now (and besides upgrades, it's been Mac OS X for about a decade or more) -- and then -- have someone else run Windows, for a year, using it exactly the same way that people normally use it.
And what I'm saying is that I haven't found any Windows users that will use their Windows system that way -- while the vast majority Macintosh users do "exactly that" -- continuously, all the time, and never have any problems...
You see..., that's the point... :-)
[ ... I guess I still have no takers in the Windows world, for what Macintosh users do all the time with their computers ... :-) ... ]