Ars Technica Was Hacked

Running Windows XP without any service packs!

You don't. I'm pretty sure they're talking to everyone on HN who's going to come to the comments and then click on the site to check it out.

To be honest, I don't actually think Windows is more vulnerable these days - it's just that the average user of Windows is more vulnerable because they're less informed. They'll see the elevated permissions prompt (whatever it's called) and just click yes anyway. Similarly, Windows installers will often come bundled with crapware, but if you read what you're doing you can avoid it.

I'd always recommend turning on Click-To-Play for all plugins no matter what your platform. Mac isn't immune from this type of thing, even if Linux is due to obscurity.

Most drive-bys are targeting either old versions of IE, Java, Flash, or rarely Windows Explorer issues in XP.

Chrome is great because it auto-updates regularly, and auto-updates Flash. But even in Chrome I turn on Click-To-Play (since I need to have Java installed, and don't trust Java).

Ha, wordpress seems so anti ars u_u;