> This is, in fact, the main reason that antivirus software for
> Linux exists. It is used mainly (but not excluseively) to
> scan for Windows viruses.

Actually, this issue goes back to "real" Unix. Pete Radatti (I think) coined
the phrase "heterogeneous virus transmission" and I extended it to the Mac
environment in a 1997 paper. As Macs are generally safer now from native
threats than they were in 1997, it's more important than ever. The macro
virus issue is slightly different, since macro viruses can (often, not
always) infect on a Mac, but hardly ever have a payload that can work on a
Mac.

> Not that you should care if some
> Windows user send you infected document, but you should take
> steps to ensure that it isn't you who is spreading it further.

Not always a matter of automatic replication, either. I remember a case of a
Mac user who received a Windows binary and asked her secretary to open it on
her PC. Of course, it was a massmailer (this was in an environment where
executable attachments weren't filtered). I used to refer to this as
"Wormhausen by proxy syndrome." :)

But I'll spare you any further reminiscences of my history in
support/security in the 1990s. ;-)

--
David Harley
http://www.smallblue-greenworld.co.uk

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