Anecdotally, I have never had a virus on Mac (that I detected) and neither did any friends, but Windows got infected all the time. This was true going back to Windows 95.
OSX has a more solid track record, but Windows has also undergone a lot of change since the Vista rebuild to address many of it's more trivial exploits.
Anyone remember when you could click Cancel in the login screen and get access to the desktop? Good times. :)
> Anecdotally, I have never had a virus on Mac (that I detected) and neither did any friends, but Windows got infected all the time.
If you're getting infected all the time using Windows, you're doing something stupid. The operating system provides the vulnerabilities, but you might want to reassess how you're using your software.
Good luck for the average person with Windows, when their laptop might come with spyware, and sometimes even a complete rootkit, directly from the OEM.
Eventhough these are bad, they are not viruses and do not fit the anecdote. If you are constantly getting viruses (Note not preinstalled rootkits or other stuff) than you are doing something wrong, I don't think we have to argue about that right?
On a technical level sure there maybe more exploits found for Windows than OSX. I honestly don't know and you haven't provided any sources.
However (1) this isn't realistic since so many issues are found with bloatware installed by vendors which you don't get on a Mac and (2) the severity of the recent mass release of zero-days by Wikileaks has really skewed the landscape.
Microsoft needs to do more to reign in vendors because if a brand new Samsung laptop takes 7 restarts just to update then something is off with the ecosystem.