Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

I avoid JavaScript, and I send nastygrams to webmasters whose sites are unuseable without it. This is partly a performance issue (hey, hand-me-down machines, low on RAM, fastest CPU in the house is 200MHz and most of my surfing is on 100 MHz Pentium), and partly a security issue (JavaScript isn't the safest thing out there, and I've got data on my LAN covered by non-disclosure agreements).

Unfortunately, one of my current assignments requires gritting my teeth and turning on JavaScript to get some of the info I need. So I'm looking for ways to minimize my exposure. And my question is: is it any safer to turn on JavaScript in Opera under Linux than it is to do so in Opera under Windows 95 or Windows NT? (Opera and Lynx are the only two browsers I use frequently -- I've got really old versions of Nutscrape and Internet Exploder around that I almost never use.)

I'm also trying to work out a long-term option -- a way to set up a dedicated JavaScript-surfing box with just enough LAN access that I won't have to move all copy/paste data via sneakernet, but I don't have a spare machine to throw at that problem right now, and I'm not sure it's even possible to set it up in such a way that it can talk to anything else but not be a security risk to the rest of my network.