[Graham]

Originally Posted by Prestidigitweeze

Perhaps the Chrome user takes fewer chances of acquiring malware and adware, but only at first -- in proportion to the ubiquity and popularity of the OS.

Originally Posted by Sregener

So I would find any claims that ChromeOS is secure simply because it contains no code from Microsoft (see paragraph above for two other companies whose code would need to be excluded in any security-conscious effort) to be extremely doubtful.

These aren't the reasons why ChromeOS is considered to be very secure. Separate apps and processes are sandboxed, and a boot verification process checks for changes, overwriting with clean code if necessary. See:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-10403664-245.html

Google regularly runs events with cash prizes to get hackers to try to find loopholes:

http://www.tgdaily.com/security-feat...own-and-secure

Google's rapidly evolving web-centric Chrome OS managed to stave off hordes of hackers this past weekend at Mountain View's Pwnium (3) hack event.

Indeed, attendees failed to locate a security flaw in the locked-down OS, which would have netted them some of the $3,141,590 prize offered by Google.

It's doing its best to be a very hard target for attackers; it's not just relying on safety by obscurity.

Graham