avast! to go the way of Netscape?

[b]European security software makers are closely, but quietly, watching as Microsoft enters their turf.[/b]
Europe has many small companies that sell antivirus and other security products. Some are concerned that they face the same fate as Netscape, the venerable browser company that saw its business evaporate after Microsoft added Internet Explorer to Windows.

“All of them are concerned, and should be,” said Thomas Raschke, a Hellerup, Denmark-based analyst at Forrester Research. “The security market, and particularly the most mature areas like antivirus and firewalls, is maturing and consolidating rapidly. Many of the companies will either have to join forces or disappear.”

http://news.com.com/European+rivals+turn+wary+eye+on+Microsoft/2100-7350_3-6120476.html?tag=nefd.top

Well, IMO I hope that this doesn’t happen. I stay away as much as possible from Microsoft products anyway. Hopefully with the excellent programs that aren’t Microsoft to choose from people will choose them instead. :slight_smile:

I too hope this doesn’t happen but, Microsoft have been making noises in that direction when talking about Vista and not licking the idea of security software messing in kernel level protection. Their comment was something along the lines of ‘leave the security to us’ No way would I trust MS on security they have too much history of failure in this department.

If they do try to go down this track I said it before I feel another anti-trust suit coming on.

The latest version of avast! works well in Vista.

Hi forum members,

I think bob3150 is right here. MS cannot alieniate other parties, they are not alone in this world. And they are obliged to open up these security API’s for security vendors. Do not forget there is also a move from signature scanning to track malicious code in other ways. As long as the Internet will be an open place, and hopefully for a very long time to come, MS cannot be the “sheriff” of it all but is in need of some “deputies”. The avast commumity is some factor to reckon with.

polonus

I was thinking of this blog when I read the story, and have just found it again.

I wonder how the smaller anti-malware companies will cope with this sort of predatory pricing:

http://sunbeltblog.blogspot.com/2006/06/microsoft-practices-predatory-pricing.html

I’m right now in the process of installing Microsoft OneCare on one of my computers.
It’s time to put it thru it’s paces and see how long (if at all) it will take to infect this PC.

Frank,
The link you posted is right on the money.
I spent way less than $30.00 to protect up to 3 computers for one year.
It includes:
Antivirus
Antispyware
Firewall
Performance Tune-ups
Data Backup and Restore

Yep, that’s the way it works! At those prices, who would buy anything else?

Of course, a cynic might suggest that a few years down the line, when the littles guys like avast! have gone out of business, the prices might go up a bit. :stuck_out_tongue:

At least with OneCare you can be sure you’ll have the best protection against o-day exploits like VML and the latest PowerPoint exploit, which OneCare added before any other AV (and in the case of the PP exploit, didn’t tell other AV’s about). ::slight_smile:

Actually, in the limited cases where I’ve submitted malware to VirusTotal, Microsoft hasn’t perforemed that well, and MS AntiSpyware hasn’t performed that well in reviews. I just don’t think that MS is as hungry to be the best as the independent anti-malware companies.

Just call me an old cynic.

Well FwF,

I hope it does not materialize as with the browser war, MS was only interesting in positioning its “monopoly”-ware, and with competition out of the way, left the product basically without innovation (IE 4- IE 6). So I think the only way MS performs it with competitors around. But security is only that effective as the weakest chain, it is no postcard-ware.

polonus