Re: @Mr Torx
I run Linux mainly because I'm lazy. Things work out of the box without hunting for drivers, few security risks, and generally a much easier life. I work with repairing broken computers, and we can have all sorts of fun with security flaws and driver issues with MS products. I spend more time each week fixing friends machines then I have fixing all my linux installs in the last 3 years.
As a real test of how hard or easy Windows and Linux can be by comparison, might I suggest you install each in one machine, then move your hdd to a very different machine? Chances are very good that the Linux system will just run, happily, without needing any driver changes (although if you use AMD in one and NVidia in another, you might have to download or activate something due to licensing issues). All your files, settings, and programs working without any changes, and without activation issues. Try doing that with Windows, even going to a machine with identical hardware.
(Yes, I have seen machines which don't like one version or another of Linux, and have in the past experienced major driver issues - but they are actually very rare these days, and I do play with a hell of a lot of different hardware)
As to people looking for these things - er, how many millions of eyes look at Linux code? How many dozens look at Windows code? More likely someone is going to spot something shifty with Linux code than with Windows code. Where malware and exploits are concerned, there's more Linux people paying a lot of attention to their systems then there are Windows users paying attention to theirs.
Autorun.. I love it! It really does pay a significant portion of my wages. All that malware that so quickly jumps onto Windows machines when they take a USB stick from one machine to another.. Some of it jumps even when AR is turned off because of something in the way Windows processes the autorun.inf files. One of the greatest features in any Microsoft product!
(I use it on Linux as well - but then I don't need to worry about malware there :) )
Yeah yeah, I know.. Don't feed the trolls... Now, where'd I leave that rat poison...