Quote:I guess market share would be a better description rather than user base. Fact of the matter is Linux and all other forms of open source OS make up less than 2% of the market share on desktop computers. Mac OSX has about 7% with the remaining 91% being various versions of Windows. Anyone targeting ordinary consumers isn't going to bother with anything other than Windows.

 

That is true to a point, that being desktop users.  What percentage of servers, devices, etc. dominates the real market?  I would wager that most consumers and/or businesses have Linux in their homes and on their networks and don't even know it.  Have a smart tv?  Chances are pretty good that it's running Linux.  Have a modem or a router, especially wireless?  Linux.  Go to Google, Amazon or many other websites?  Linux.  Use Dropbox, Google Drive or "the cloud" (however Apple describes it)?  Linux.

 

There is the belief that hackers target home users to "get their stuff".  That's not the case at all.  Personal computers are attacked to be used within what is called a "bot-net".  The way that identity theft, credit card fraud, etc. happens as it relates to computers is not always related to individuals (there is a small number that still use such attacks).  They usually want to use your computer to either attack somewhere else, mine bitcoins or hide their identity.

 

The biggest problem with home computers, especially Windows computers is that people use them with full Administrative privileges.  All it takes is people opening up an email attachment, clicking on a link or visiting a website for them to be compromised.

 

Anti-virus software for the most part will only protect against known vulnerabilities.

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