Vista security...What Vista security?...

[PixelCraft]

Having had to buy a Windows machine for work, I am appalled at how Microsoft
can make billions and billions of dollars of profit and NOT include automatic
protection from viruses and the like.

How expensive can it be to buy out Macfee and Norton and offer their
services for FREE? After all, it is the c**p OS that makes it possible to
exploit its weaknesses and yet there is NO responsibility taken for it.
Instead, there's a complex in your face Macfee service embedded in the OS
that costs extra. Just turning it off is a nightmare.

It's a hidden cost of running Windows, whichever way you look at it because
JUST to run the OS safely, you need antivirus protection.

I feel as if I've bought a car for x dollars and then found you actually
need seatbelts to drive it safely -- BTW, here is a seatbelt manufacturer and
their subscriptions. Just so you don't forget to buy their seatblets and
monthly subscription and blame us if you get thrown out of a car when you
*start* it, we will remind you daily and we will split the service so you'll
be sh** scared to disable it or to uninstall it.

Hmmm...and they wonder why M$ has a bad reputation!

 

[John John (MVP)]

So what you are asking for is that Microsoft use its dominance in the
market to put everybody else out of business. As a matter of fact the
AV market is a very large business ($billions annually) that Microsoft
would dearly love to get a piece of and they have acquired some smaller
players to try to get in on the action. If you think that Microsoft is
about to get in this market and give it away for free you are dreaming!
For starters the other players would (rightfully) challenge and launch
anti-competition complaints with the regulators. Secondly AV software
are not static products, publishing good AV software is a very dynamic
endeavour, keeping up with treats and security developments requires a
lot of work by good qualified employees, it requires a constant daily
effort to stay on top of things and provide good services and products
in this market, if you think Microsoft will do this for free you are
dreaming!

Finally, it would be interesting to conduct an informal pole here and
see how many readers agree with your position, a move that would kill
all the competition in the AV market and leave only one player to charge
whatever it wanted for it's services and serve only those whom they want
to serve! Certainly you wouldn't have the best of products if your wish
came true and secondly (being that you are posting in a Windows 2000
group) by this time next year when Windows 2000 will have reached its
end of support life cycle Microsoft could simply say "Sorry, no more AV
products for Windows 2000. Please upgrade your operating system to the
newest available version..." Whichever way you look at it your plan
would be a very bad one for consumers! Microsoft will have the earn its
place in this market, it will have to do so by offering good products at
competitive prices, not by giving substandard products away for free
just to put the competition out of business.

John

 

[Root Kit]

Having had to buy a Windows machine for work, I am appalled at how Microsoft
can make billions and billions of dollars of profit and NOT include automatic
protection from viruses and the like.

Erhmmm... Windows Vista happens to be relatively secure as is - as
long as it's kept patched.

With a few exceptions, viruses and other kinds of malware don't show
up until the user starts doing something that deliberately let's it
in. I'd say that 98% of malware problems are user induced.

How expensive can it be to buy out Macfee and Norton and offer their
services for FREE?

NO THANKS. There's no reason to add even more crap to it.

After all, it is the c**p OS that makes it possible to
exploit its weaknesses and yet there is NO responsibility taken for it.

Feel free to use a different OS. For free.

Instead, there's a complex in your face Macfee service embedded in the OS
that costs extra. Just turning it off is a nightmare.

A McAfee service in embedded in windows? I doubt that.

It's a hidden cost of running Windows, whichever way you look at it because
JUST to run the OS safely, you need antivirus protection.

Not really. I'm doing fine without, as a matter of fact.

I feel as if I've bought a car for x dollars and then found you actually
need seatbelts to drive it safely -- BTW, here is a seatbelt manufacturer and
their subscriptions. Just so you don't forget to buy their seatblets and
monthly subscription and blame us if you get thrown out of a car when you
*start* it, we will remind you daily and we will split the service so you'll
be sh** scared to disable it or to uninstall it.

Hmmm...and they wonder why M$ has a bad reputation!

M$ happens to be a company which goal it is to make money. You have
the choice of choosing something else.