zlacker

>>mouse_+(OP)
Windows used to have critical vulnerabilities, especially in IE8, making you highly susceptible to hacking. These vulnerabilities have been patched, and the risk is likely lower now.

>>lastdo+If
not just IE - insert Java applets, Adobe Flash; and all the other browser "addons" and plugins - it was a mess. but it also depended on the websites you'd visit. a great deal of malware were spread by ads and even facebook was not spared - its deff not the same as it used to be; adblockers were used back then too - the biggest difference is now we're plagued with javascript and it literally being allowed to do what all malware ever wanted: to spy on users any way the site-op sees fit.

remember malware used to simply crash hard drives, erase everything, sloww your system down, cause bsods... it was mid 2000s when a wise man once said something along the lines of "its amazing that malware can install, auto update, and run flawlessly without the user even knowing - something the OS fails to do"

the browser is not simply safe because the os is safe - certainly the OS helps, but the browser is safe due the latest code techniques and sec folks investing so much time into it. if they solely relied on the os being safe, then we'd all be fools to use a browser - i mean, more than we are in allowing javascript so much power