Originally posted here by dArtagnan
"the OS is only as secure as the user makes it", well, what is with all these emergency patches and all the numerous security updates from microsoft then? if there was no problem, and an OS is as secure as a user makes it...no need for patches and security updates, right? Well, that is simply an opinion...
Even if the OS completely unpatched, you can still secure it.

Icluding:
1. Switch browsers
2. Get a firewall
3. Disable scripting wherever HTML is allowed (mail clients etc)

Just by doing those 3 things (plus others, I just woke up) you have eliminated your vulnerability to a large amount of vulns that need to be patched. Don't get me wrong though, that's just an example and I would never reccommend going unpatched.