Microsoft recently released beta versions of anti-virus and anti-spyware software. We debated a story on it, but decided not to run it because we didn’t know enough about it. There is great concern that MS intends to get people reliant on it and then start charging for it. Why the concern? Just choose another vendor if you wish like Clamwin or AVG (see our sidebar). One of the biggest dings on the beta versions reported elsewhere was that they were checking the validity of operating system licenses before allowing the download. That very thing was reported on Security Focus … and guess what, for once it was an exaggeration of the real story as it was not required. Having said that, it was being recommended. The only people who should have problems with that issue are people running illegal software. As much as we like GPL, shareware and freeware around here, we also respect that people are entitled to charge for their product and work (even we offer a blend of free and modestly priced scripts here on our site). If you aren’t running an illegal operating system you have nothing to fear — for now apparently. You decide, but with such great alternatives out there, we will stick to the ones we love.
Update:
All is not well in the MS anti-spyware world, as there are many complaints going around at the moment that the Microsoft application is mis-identifying legitimate applications as spyware. Applications like BitDefender Anti-virus and Real VNC (A remote desktop application) have been labelled as spyware by the MS application. Even Worse, BitDefender apparently told Microsoft about the false positive 10 days ago and has yet to see it fixed. Having your security application labelled as spyware by Microsoft is bound to be very bad for business so we might see lawsuits about this sort of thing before long. Read SecurityFocus for more on this situation.
