Microsoft offers security test drive 6607

This article makes no mention of the fact that Microsoft has already tried once, unsuccessfully, to provide it's own bundleware security package. Unfortunately it was so ineffective that most corporate customers didn't even bother with it. They installed Norton Antivirus instead. Eventually Symantic obtained Norton and rebranded the product as Symantic antivirus.

This is a clbuttic Microsoft maneuver. Rather than allow a market leader to continue to thrive in a market they have carefully cultivated for years, Microsoft has purchased a 3rd rate compebreastor, who has probably pirated the major brands product, with the intent of using their monopoly power to displace an established compebreastor and extend their monopoly, with the primary intent of increasing their revenue and ultimately taking more of the total IT budget as a means to increase Microsoft's revenue.

Microsoft is losing revenue. Customers are declining upgrades to the latest versions of Visual Studio, Office, and Access. Many customers are even declining to license new copies when replacing existing workstations. Finally, many corporate customers have been very dissatisfied with Microsoft's "Support Program" which has actually reduced productivity due to lack of regression testing with third party products.

Most larger corporations have already established programs which will enable them to migrate some or all of their desktop and laptop computers to Linux using existing OEM Windows licenses to cover images.

Most larger corporations are also harvesting their Windows licenses and wiping the hard drives clean prior to having them picked up by Recyclers who will donate them to charity or ship them to "third world" countries as Linux systems.

Over the last 10 years, many corporations have overlicensed by as much as 5 times their actual need, purchasing OEM licenses, corporate licenses, and upgrades for Windows, Office, and other Microsoft applications far in excess of their actual need.

There is nothing wrong with charging for a good high-quality security program. Symantic has established a reputation for very good antivirus protection, such that custotmer are willing to pay a modest annual fee for the service.

The problem with any antivirus program is that it must be kept as up to date as possible. A minor variation in the sober worm was able to flood corporate networks for over a week. With in two weeks after being released, Semantic could detect and remove or quarantine viruses from infected files.

The even bigger risk is that the antivirus software will damage existing programs. For example, if the antivirus software can't distinguish file structure of an e-mail file used by an application such as Thunderbird, there is a risk that ALL mail stored in that file will be either quarantined or removed.

Microsoft has been having trouble with damaging third party software with simple application program library updates - antivirus software could accidentally or deliberately destroy third party software. Some companies such as IBM have still restricted and-or rejected upgrades to Windows XP-SP2, because the consequences of implementing SP2 have been worse than not implementing it.

Even if Microsoft only accidentally damages 3rd party software, it will still cost Microsoft a great deal of credibility and it could even fuel plans to migrate to configurations which further reduce dependence on Windows.

Symantic has been working for almost a decade to build and maintain trust, which has pretty much wiped out demand for Microsoft's VirusShield program.

Symantic has even found a market in Linux. Many Linux file servers don't actually execute viruses, but the files they serve need to be scanned.