Microsoft to sell AntiVirus Software

Capt'n Midnight

http://www.theregister.com/2006/02/08/windows_antivirus_protection/

Microsoft's Windows OneCare Live program will be launched in June and made available online and via retailers for an annual fee of $49.95 on up to three machines.
...
the long-awaited Windows Vista client would not feature anti-virus protection, and customers would need to subscribe to Windows OneCare Live.

That decision was based on business considerations rather than technical merits.

Allchin last month said: "Safety and security is the overriding feature that most people will want to have Windows Vista for :rolleyes:

IMHO it better be the best anti-virus software, because it is certainly going to be a target.

Elliot Carver : "Mr Jones are we ready to release our new software?"

Mr Jones : "Yes sir, as requested it's full of bugs, which will mean people will be forced to upgrade for years"

Elliot Carver : "Outstanding"

http://www.jamesbondmm.co.uk/sounds/tnd/bugs.mp3

bpmurray

Doesn't surprise me in the least. Despite their protestations to the contrary during the antitrust trials in the US, M$ really and truly have almost a total monopoly on PC operating systems:
* They have undermined the anti-virus and firewall producers with the stuff in XP
* They almost succeeded in killing off the Mozilla family of browsers
* They have stifled and squished plenty of competitors, to the extent that those that have the wherewithall to fight them in the courts still go bust because during the time to get through the legal wranglings, MS have undermined their market

This stuff continues ad nauseum. They are about to release a new version of windows in almost a dozen flavours, and we now hear that these won't have anti-virus protection.

The way the net is set up these days, the box damn well better have a big warning: "Don't install this software while connected to the Internet/Intranet, until such time as you have installed the anti-virus and firewall software packages that will cost you an extra €49.99 each".

Actually, at the suggested price, M$'s AV software is going to be one of, if not the, most expensive on the market.

What makes me most worried is the fact that nobody is going to be the least surprised, and the general reaction will be how to manage this, instead of telling Balmer to shove his OS where the sun doesn't shine until such time as it has basic protection for the user.

Cryos

bpmurray wrote:

Doesn't surprise me in the least. Despite their protestations to the contrary during the antitrust trials in the US, M$ really and truly have almost a total monopoly on PC operating systems:
* They have undermined the anti-virus and firewall producers with the stuff in XP
* They almost succeeded in killing off the Mozilla family of browsers
* They have stifled and squished plenty of competitors, to the extent that those that have the wherewithall to fight them in the courts still go bust because during the time to get through the legal wranglings, MS have undermined their market

This stuff continues ad nauseum. They are about to release a new version of windows in almost a dozen flavours, and we now hear that these won't have anti-virus protection.

The way the net is set up these days, the box damn well better have a big warning: "Don't install this software while connected to the Internet/Intranet, until such time as you have installed the anti-virus and firewall software packages that will cost you an extra €49.99 each".

Actually, at the suggested price, M$'s AV software is going to be one of, if not the, most expensive on the market.

What makes me most worried is the fact that nobody is going to be the least surprised, and the general reaction will be how to manage this, instead of telling Balmer to shove his OS where the sun doesn't shine until such time as it has basic protection for the user.

You have done nothing but demonstrated how little you know about this, firstly its not just an av suit secondly you have no idea how this industry works. I sugest you come back to us when you have done your homework and find out that all you have said is 99% wrong.

Ta

Michael

michael.obrien2@hp.com

Laguna

Well if MS did start to sell antivirus software it'd go the route of all the other popular antivirus solutions such as Norton and McAfee, it'll become the target for the people writing the viruses to disable. I know it's well known, but in my opinion you're better off with something like AVG or AVAST as, well, it's free for one and if it does falter you won't be out of pocket, that and the fact that AVG isn't that popular would work in it's favour.

The amount of viruses I've come across that prescan and disable Norton/McAfee in some way before causing their havoc would put me off ever shelling out cash for them. Price of popularity I suppose.

Cake Fiend

bpmurray has already been rubbished, so I'll lay off him

Laguna wrote:

the fact that AVG isn't that popular would work in it's favour

Actually, it is popular (have a look for AV software polls on the Security board to see) and it would be the work of 10 seconds to add code to disable AVG (or any other app for that matter) to virus code. One advantage MS-produced AV software could have would be the ability of MS to integrate it into the OS thoroughly enough that it couldn't be disabled as easily.

Capt'n Midnight

sico wrote:

One advantage MS-produced AV software could have would be the ability of MS to integrate it into the OS thoroughly enough that it couldn't be disabled as easily.

That why I HATE the necessity to have IE on servers. Too many damn holes in it. Hopefully they won't use undocumented features to accomplish this with their own AV.

In fairness they have introduced more hooks for AV products to monitor the OS in the newer versions of window.

When you consider that an AV can take up to 30% of cpu time or feel like that ayway the case for speed above security seems counter productive. My pet hate Buffer Overflows, could be reduced by slightly slower checking of input. It could be argued that more attention to security would make for a faster OS if you didn't have to have about 10 processes running to fight the crud.

Capt'n Midnight

How about this for bad timing..
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/02/14/ms_anti-spyware_false_positive/

An update to Microsoft anti-spyware incorrectly labeled two versions of Symantec's anti-virus software as Trojan horse malware last week. Users of Windows AntiSpyware beta 1 were mistakenly warned that Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition and Symantec Client Security packages were a password stealing Trojan called Bancos-A.
PC users were prompted to remove registry keys, advice that if followed would have disabled Symantec's software,

Microsoft has issued new signature files that avoid the same mistake. Besides it's Beta software and only affected certain combinations of software.

Cake Fiend

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

Besides it's Beta software and only affected certain combinations of software.

Either that or it's a very sneaky marketing set-up for the new MS AV... DUN DUN DUNNNNN!!


/me goes off to spread conspiracy rumours

Cryos

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

How about this for bad timing..
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/02/14/ms_anti-spyware_false_positive/

Microsoft has issued new signature files that avoid the same mistake. Besides it's Beta software and only affected certain combinations of software.

What you might see is home pcs comming shipped with the new protection suite, the likes of dell and hp are in talks to ship units with a years free subscription

grudgebringer

Personally I am quite interested in this MS AV Software, they had better make it damn good to avoid being blown out of the water by a million viruses specifically targeted at it immediatly...:-)

I have no problems with MS in general, I have suffered the same amount of BSOD sessions and unexpected and most certainly undesired system failures as everyone else but I feel that as time goes by, and OS's move on, they are getting better. From 3.1 -> Win95 -> Win98 -> Win2k to finally XP I feel that the stability is 'pretty good' and I do like the look and feel of the new OS's as they are released...

This is a somewhat narrow view though as I have only ever used Windows machines, I have never possesed a MAC or used UNIX or any other OS though friends of mine would swear by UNIX and swear at Windows I still hold true to their products....if it were not for all the holes poked in them by so many hackers etc (I am not saying that they do not deserve SOME of this) then I would have to say the system is really good!

So, who's to say, if left alone (which we know it certainly will not be) their AV software will not be best in class or at least as good as what is already out there?

Thats my tuppence worth of rambling for now....murder my reply now why don't ya ;-)

Capt'n Midnight

http://www.sophos.com/pressoffice/news/articles/2006/02/macosxleap.html

16 February 2006
First ever virus for Mac OS X discovered
OSX/Leap-A worm spreads via iChat instant messaging software
...
it requires user interaction (the user has to receive a file via iChat, and manually choose to open and run the file contained inside).

Airblazer

am i the only person not to be troubled by BSOD in windows???
I find that the only occasion my computer has crashed is because of a hardware issue with a 7800gtx..and i've gone through about 10 pc's in about 7 years
From a software point of view I've never had a bsod because i keep my av and windows updated constantly plus i don't install limeware/bearshare or any of the other ****e spyware..so here's a hint..if you don't want bsod..keep your pc updated weekly and don't surf porn sites:D

ntlbell

didn't they buy out computer asociates(E-Trust AV) about 3 years ago?

GuanYin

Have a chance to sign up to the MS OneCare Live Beta test (for free) anyone else on it - any opinions?