It prevents *acquisition* because when you are first infected you are highly infectious to others. The sooner the know, the lower the chance you expose others. Also, once you are being treated your risk to others drops significantly. Significantly less.

Seriously Slashdot, like I even need to say this. Most everyone I know uses either Ubuntu or Debian and a few others use Redhat and the like. The rest of the people I know use a Mac. So guess what? We're already there, Debian "just worked" on my netbook. All devices. I don't even have to say "Blah blah Andrioid" because Linux is everywhere. Sometimes I hear about people, usually through the Internet, who use Hotmail and complain about computer viruses all the time. These people shovel money at anything and have no idea what is going on. To these people the concept of TCO does not exist.

The People's Republic of China spends a considerable amount of attention on limiting what ordinary citizens are able to see on the Internet and this concerns many people in a variety of marginalized groups in the country. People in the West often complain at how unjust this is but the companies making the products to do it are in our own back yard. Beijing has it's fare share of academics being the capital of a country and all, so I think stomping out some unruly computer virus must not a priority. Maybe this is a good thing, at the very least it means that vast portions of the Internet remain unregulated so the network is not a total lockdown. Personally I hope China spends more time addressing public health issues and dealing with human viruses more effectively than trying to ensure my inbox does not have a lot of spam.