One group of respondents saw computer viruses as an exceptionally bug-ridden form of regular computer software.
In many ways, these respondents believe that viruses behave much like most of the other software that home users experience. But to be a virus, it has to be `bad' in some additional way. Primarily, viruses are `bad' in that they are poorly written software. They lead to a multitude of bugs and other errors in the computer. They bring out bugs in other pieces of software. They tend to have more bugs, and worse bugs, than most other pieces of software. But all of the effects they cause are the same types of effects you get from bug software: viruses can cause computers to crash, or to "boot me out" (Erica) of applications that are running; viruses can accidentally delete or "wipe out" information