Win 98, and all Win OSes, are not secure out of box. The thing is that MS want's to make them easy to set up and use, that is why it is started to be popular (How can you spend so much money to buy out or destroy competiton if you don't earn that money in the first place???)
Linux is more secure because of one reason:
People who install linux must know (and beleive me, they DO know) exactly what to do, what to enable, what to disable. Win 98 can be installed by the 8-year-old kid. you just have to click next next next yes next next damn s/n next next next... you get my point?
