i think its the anti-spyware industry. WIndows defender aint bad for free software, has real time protection. If you want good anti then use lavasoft
defenders such a damn stupid typical microsoft play. Buy the industry leader, take its propreitary software, get your programmers onto it, and then promptly fuck everything up.
I don't know. But I can put the current situation in perspective. Do you remember what Symantec's business was at one time? Remember Norton Utilities? It is more or less what made Symantec. Then at that time, MSFT decides it is going to put much of the functionality of NU into the operating system free of extra charge. Things looked really bad for Symantec, since the logic was that noone would pay for something that came for free already installed on their OS. What SYMC did is to reinvent themselves into a new company by "foreseeing" the need for anti-virus software. Even with the success of NAV, SYMC continued to reeinvent themselves as needs became different as a result of the internet and the challenges is posed (firewalling etc). Today they are in a similar position as they were back in the NU days. The difference is they have much more money and more experience. SYMC more than anyone else realize that the way forward is to continue to innovate through what is termed disruptive technologies. Outside of the computer itself, the internet is [one of] the most disruptive technology in the history of the technical world. While I believe SYMCs challenge is great, imo they will come out of it ok. If you want to predict where they are heading, think about their recent purchase of VRTS and that probably holds the greatest clue. nitro
Recently... 18 months ago. MSFT is not the competition... GOOG giving it all away for FREE is the competition. A personal example about GMail... Switched by business email to GMail over one year ago... It's fabulous and FREE... And after 15 months... I am getting about ONE spam/day. So spam is pretty much a phony "artificial problem"... Propagated by ISPs and the software industry... In order to sell you "security software". Nobody will ever make money providing backup and storage services... Or pretty much anything... If the Google Supercomputer... by far the lowest cost storage medium in the world... Is competing with you. In any given area of it's choosing... GOOG can break even and force competitors to run at a loss. GOOG's medium term plan is to give every adult in the Western world... Free hard disk storage... and any App an ** average person ** would need... Accessible from anywhere using a Google appliance. Note this is not enterprise stuff... Not a direct threat to MSFT and it's business sales... Much more of a threat to the Symantec's of this world.
I disagree, you might be right when it comes to search and the future of office. As for anti spyware, antivirus program, I don't see google getting in there anytime soon. Even if they did get in, your argument still supports my position of how low will the anti virus sector go. As for gmail, I have used gmail, and it is one of the best free email programs, but I think there are better paid services that are way more secure.
You guys need to do some CNET searching, Windows Defender is pure crap. So are the Norton & Mcafee products, they are near worthless. I think before starting any debates on this and talking up Google superiority, try out the many products out there. I use ZoneAlarm and AVG, which are by far the best products I have seen. Especially ZoneAlarm. Speaking of which, I been using them for free but I am so impressed with the products, I am going to buy the Pro versions. Of course, if the IT execs at the companies actually cared or knew about the issue, they would be running Linux/Unix. Funny how open ended source codes have easy ways to immunize the computers and networks from security breaches and spyware.