Microsoft releases free security software

[Miaow]

Noticed this in the breaking news on news.com.au before and thought people could be interested

Microsoft releases free security software

[ricktas]

Sarcastic comment follows: Wonder how many security updates they will need to release to fix the bugs in their security software.

[Miaow]

LOL Rick true, they do do a heap of security updates on their software for bugs - would this be different?

[Kym]

Sarcastic comment follows: Wonder how many security updates they will need to release to fix the bugs in their security software.

Translation: Don't bother with it for a couple of years. Its too immature.

I don't really trust M$ to
a) make it work as well as existing proven solutions (Avast! AVG Nod32 etc)
b) keep it free
c) not be perverted into spyware for M$

Don't forget we use M$ because we are stuck with it - corporately I think they are pond scum.

[ving]

tell us what you really think kym ;p

[Kym]

tell us what you really think kym

I don't want Rick to ban me

[arthurking83]

it only needs 2Gig of RAM to run the purdy looking GUI, thrashes your hdd to high heaven, clogs your PC with spybots, requires that you activate it three times a week, asks you if you're really sure that want to save 'leethaxor_worm(a).dll' to your PC every five minutes, and finally causes a unrecoverable BSOD.

If you cause all PC's to stop working at the hardware level, security isn't an issue!

[mercho]

Sarcastic comment follows: Wonder how many security updates they will need to release to fix the bugs in their security software.

hahaha.. too true

Avg with adaware and spybot is still the best combo in my opinion... Then if things are really messy "hijack this" is great too

[Allann]

Don't forget we use M$ because we are stuck with it - corporately I think they are pond scum.

Not entirely true! If companies don't like the product they would change, there are so many other choices out there nowadays, even staying on the intel platform, but none stack up and provide the same broard hardware support.

If it costs a company many millions to maintain a M$ platform, or a few less millions to change to a different OS or even platform, then I'm sure they would. There is just nothing else that competes, is as robust against so much different and disparet pieces of hardware, if there was, it would be the market leader. Supply and demand rules the commercial sector, computers are no different.

It wasn't long ago that everyone had to have a Nokia phone, but now everyone has to have an iPhone. A total shift in OS and hardware, you spend $1000 on a phone, you can buy a PC for much less, add Linux plug in a printer, NO M$, but most people don't, why?

Don't get me wrong, I am no fan of M$, but as I work in a company that supplies software to many multi-million dollar companies, there is just nothing out there as good and we wouldn't be the company we are today if it wasn't for such a versatile platform.

[Kym]

Not entirely true! If companies don't like the product they would change, there are so many other choices out there nowadays, even staying on the intel platform, but none stack up and provide the same broad hardware support.

If it costs a company many millions to maintain a M$ platform, or a few less millions to change to a different OS or even platform, then I'm sure they would. <snip>

Hence my point we are stuck with it.
Just the cost of upgrade is high (eg. XP/2003 > Win7/2010) but we need that platform due to everyone else (business partners etc.) using it - interoperability.

Back in the day... (DOS etc) Was M$ the best? No (DR DOS and later OS/2). Did they manage to make the right marketing and business connections get into dominate the market - yes.
They then kept pushing crappy products (insecure) and we ended up with a mono culture.

Linux - actually P&P printers do work - just not as many as M$ - but some printers have windows only drivers.
Again lack of standards and interoperability is the issue. Eg. Canon CAPT drivers.
And lets get this right - you either have to load a specific driver or be compatible with the thousands loaded with windows.
BUT Vista/Win7 ... windows drivers ... I cant use a basic scanner a purchased a few years ago due to driver changes.
If it were Linux I could rebuild the driver - so the P&P argument fails.

No to M$ - we are being conned by marketing! Why do you have to buy new hardware when they upgrade the OS? That sux.

Not to mention their corporate behaviour!
- Embrace, extend and extinguish
- Fear, uncertainty and doubt - marketing masters
- Office Open XML - perverting true standards
- Convicted of anti-trust laws in the US then Bush let them off

This is the polite version!

[ving]

umm.... I thought anything M$ was a security risk anyhow...

so if you install this does it delete windows?

boom boom!

[Allann]

Cat, like it's been said, it is a very cut down version, and I wouldn't use it, there are some improvements from the old OneCare they released a while back, but still not up to the professionals in the market place (and contrary to the article, Symantic is not one of them, would install that either, but thats a whole different story). AVG and the other mentioned are good, but I find Kaspersky the best.

Kym, I agree to most of what you said, we put up with the same issues day in and day out, and can be a huge drain on the company, and a strain on our relationship with M$, however, I would rather build on a "open" platform than say Mac OS/X. Have you ever tried getting a simple app built and distributed for an iPhone? And why do I have to install iTunes just to deploy it or anything else for that matter. Why can't I run IE on Macs? And for that matter, why is Safari distributed with the OS? If that isn't the same Anti-trust/competition issues EU had against M$, I don't know what is.

On one hand people want M$ to be transparent and open so everyone can program against it, yet on the other it has to be totally closed and secure so people can't hack it!! At the same time it has to support every piece of hardware released by every man and his dog since the dawn of time, but not open for abuse!! With the speed of growth of the technological world, would you really want to still be using your 300dpi 4 bit scanner, when a 4000+ dpi 32 bit scanner is available for under $100? People in Australia don't complainabout having to upgrade their TV, their mobile phone, sales have proved that. We use to pay less than $100 for a small tv the family could huddle around, now we all need a $5000 60" plasma tv (and get a free Wii for the outlay), why is the PC such an issue when it comes to an upgrade?

Mac OS is terrific but it is because it's really hard to write software for AND get a licence to distribute and run it. I have owned one, but when it came to upgrades, software or updates, Apple just made it too hard, moving to the PC hardware platform has improved it some since I can now add my own HD and not an Apple one, but it still has a long way to go.

Don't get me started on any of the 1000's of different versions/releases of Linux, whilst "don't like it, fix it and rebuild it" works fine for the average joe, it has caused more headaches than solutions for a company trying to remain "standard".

But I think i'll close this discussion with, "we use what we use, until something better comes along, and then we can complain about that, until something else takes it's place and..."

[Miaow]

Actually I don't think I'd download it myself anyway until as mentioned they get all the bugs out (if others said at the stage seemed good) have AVG and Commodo on here and quite happy with them

[Kym]

http://www.neowin.net/news/main/09/1...ntials-for-you

Microsoft has confirmed via its Genuine Windows Blog that only those Windows users running genuine, validated copies will be able to download and install the new Microsoft Security Essentials software.
<snip>
However, it's Microsoft's reluctance to allow all users to install its security software that has people talking. Many argue that Microsoft should aim to protect all users regardless of how they obtained their copy of Windows, since infected machines pose a potential risk to all Windows systems.

This is one thing I would want M$ to give away for free if only to protect their legitimate customers.

[Kym]

On one hand people want M$ to be transparent and open so everyone can program against it, yet on the other it has to be totally closed and secure so people can't hack it!!

Security by obscurity is no security at all. Open software is less hacked because it is fixed faster and holes can be found before it gets out into production use.

At the same time it has to support every piece of hardware released by every man and his dog since the dawn of time, but not open for abuse!! With the speed of growth of the technological world, would you really want to still be using your 300dpi 4 bit scanner, when a 4000+ dpi 32 bit scanner is available for under $100? People in Australia don't complain about having to upgrade their TV, their mobile phone, sales have proved that. We use to pay less than $100 for a small tv the family could huddle around, now we all need a $5000 60" plasma tv (and get a free Wii for the outlay), why is the PC such an issue when it comes to an upgrade?

I agree not all HW should be supported as it does get superseded.
BUT I'm talking about USB2 devices - and their is no reason they should not be supported other than greedy manufacturers conspiracy.
As for phones - the earliest GSM digital phone still works (sorry about CDMA).