Comment Re:In after somebody says don't run Windows. (Score 4, Insightful) 467
In the time I've not run a/v, I've never had an infection. (I never had an infection before that, either, but that's beside the point.)
That you know of. There have been many documented cases of drive-by installs, worms that infect from external media, infected installers from legitimate installers. Hell, even legitimate open source projects having their servers unknowingly hijacked and malware injected into source or binaries during download.
While some malware is geared at spamming your desktop with ads, the good stuff tries to be as unnoticeable as possible, especially for botnets or if the goal is keylogging. Today's sophisticated viruses aren't trying to wipe your machine - they're all about creating networks of vulnerability to sell later to the highest bidder.