Do you absolutely need Anti-Virus (even on Windows)?

Forget about OS X and Linux. I'm talking Windows here. Obviously the Internet is saturated (as in dripping) with Windows malware and virii. I couldn't possibly be suggesting that any sane person would run without A/V software installed, could I?

Well, no.. except..

Suppose it's me. I don't use Windows, but say that I did. I'd be running Firefox, obviously. I'd have the NoScript plugin at the very least. I don't browse porn sites. When people send me email with "You gotta see this!" attachments, I don't gotta and I don't open them or even download them. Even on OS X, I just delete that stuff. I don't "gotta" see it.

When they send me website links, I might follow through, but it depends. If it's some supposedly hilarious thing that everybody is talking about, well, probably not. Even on my Mac, I'm less likely to visit anything like that. I'll never open or visit any electronic "greeting card" either. Thanks for thinking of me, I'm sure it was really cute, I didn't open it.

So would I really need A/V software? I don't know - I'd probably install it, but sheesh: anti-virus slows everything down to a crawl.. I'd hate running it. I'm really not sure what I'd do if I were stuck running Windows (you know, after Microsoft gets Congress to pass a law making everything else illegal). I guess I'd be a good little boy and run A/V, but..