Uneducated users should live with the slowness. It's protecting the rest of the world from their blissful ignorance.
if it protected them or anybody else i'd say you were right, but since it's a pattern matcher it always takes 2 to 24 hours for a new pattern file to be developed and distributed after a new worm is released. why even bother?
The average Windows user CANNOT BE TRUSTED TO DO THE RIGHT THING because they are blindly trusting the (1) operating system's security, and (2) non-malicious intent of the things they view or download.
This is established fact, with oodles of hard-earned stats to back it up.
once you add a particular operating system to the equation i can't disagree (mostly due to lack of facts i've actually gathered or checked personally.) however, in the situation you describe, the fault is still with the OS, not with the end user. as i said before, if we (the creators and distributors of the products and services these users depend on) can't make them safe, then the fault is with us, not with the people using them. it's as if not knowing how the fuel injectors work on my car could make it blow up on the freeway. we'd blame the manufacturer, not the driver, right?