> wouldn't want to create viruses for the systems they use I can guarantee you that most malware authors run Windows. It's terribly difficult to cross compile

> wouldn't want to create viruses for the systems they use I can guarantee you that most malware authors run Windows. It's terribly difficult to cross compile software on a *NIX for a Windows environment, and even more difficult to test and debug said software if you don't have a runtime for the given executable. Linux hasn't ever been a major malware target (in the Windows sense of malware) because the consumer install base for a desktop system has always been extremely low. That said, look at how many times a Linux web server gets compromised through the application it's running (RCE, SQLi, etc), and the possible value of the data lost through those methods and you'll see that there isn't a need for researching exploits and developing malware for those targets, as we the web application developers, design those exploits for them.