Allison, I wouldn't get too carried away worrying about this kind of thing. I have Javascript switched on, always have, and never had a problem, on any OS. Long as you don't surf dodgy sites very often (ie porn, warez, that kinda thing), chances of trouble are low enough.

For instance, from a user point of view, the issue posted above has a lot less to do with the dangers of Javascript than it does with the dangers of leaving a default password unchanged on a router. That's a bad idea for a lot more reasons than JS vulnerabilites, and has been for a long time.