I think virtual operating systems (running bytecodes or similar in a virtual machine) is going to be the future. When everything is confined to a virtual space and you're controlling exactly what gets to execute you can prevent pretty much all major problems.
However, anyone can take anything to be malicious. Any program performing any action could be interpreted as malicious if it offends a particular person based on that person's preferences. When windows applications interrupt what I'm working on `against my will` I could consider that malicious. Effectively, ALL code is potentially malicious when you look at it as such. So is the code malicious? No, it's how you perceive it and what its behavior means to you. Someone researching viruses or finding great enjoyment learning how to hack computers might be thrilled at seeing malicious software behave, whereas others might find it offensive. It's all in the eye of the beholder. You can't censor ALL software, which is what you'd have to do to stop all malicious activity. The only other choice is that you change your way of looking at it. Trying to get the computer to change is really an excuse for people not to change. It's basically like saying `I want to keep on seeing xyz as malicious so you must remove xyz from my experience so that I can pretend I am happy - until xyz comes along and upsets me`.
However, anyone can take anything to be malicious. Any program performing any action could be interpreted as malicious if it offends a particular person based on that person's preferences. When windows applications interrupt what I'm working on `against my will` I could consider that malicious. Effectively, ALL code is potentially malicious when you look at it as such. So is the code malicious? No, it's how you perceive it and what its behavior means to you. Someone researching viruses or finding great enjoyment learning how to hack computers might be thrilled at seeing malicious software behave, whereas others might find it offensive. It's all in the eye of the beholder. You can't censor ALL software, which is what you'd have to do to stop all malicious activity. The only other choice is that you change your way of looking at it. Trying to get the computer to change is really an excuse for people not to change. It's basically like saying `I want to keep on seeing xyz as malicious so you must remove xyz from my experience so that I can pretend I am happy - until xyz comes along and upsets me`.