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Microsoft Acquires RAV Antivirus
Webmoth writes "Microsoft has announced the assimilation of RAV Antivirus from GeCAD Software of Romania. This is significant, because RAV Antivirus was one of the few antivirus products that provided cross-platform email virus scanning and spam filtering, integrating with sendmail and postfix on Linux (among others). No word yet on the impact to non-Microsoft users. In the process, they've left RAE Internet, the (former) exclusive U.S. distributor of RAV Antivirus, along with a host of authorized resellers, in the dust."
This sounds like something they will bundle with their new version of Exchange server due out later this year.
Wasn't Palladium supposed to make Windows boxes virus-free? Why bother buying up an antivirus company when their future plans are to make virus scanners obsolete?
And rather anti-competitive, don't you think? I mean if they include it as part of the OS distribution and integrate it into the overall OS, wouldn't that hinder the efforts of other companies that make competing software? Think of the ramifications. What if they made a Internet chat application, Internet web browser, Internet connection software and services, word processors, or even spreadsheet programs and integrated them into their operating system. Oh wait...
I wonder if you can use an anti-virus program to scan for copyrighted files? If used in conjuction with a subscription system, would it be possible for a modified AV program to detect what software you have running and if you have a valid subscription or not.
not to get all paranoid or anything...
What I am really concerned about is those of use who use RAV as a mail server virus scanner. RAV has been keeping the users at my current employer from even having attachments they could 'accidentally' click on. And I like it. Any guesses on whether RAV will be around for us mail server admins in the future? Can anyone recommend a good replacement for RAV?
--Pope
cross-platform email virus scanning and spam filtering, integrating with sendmail and postfix on Linux
Is this one way to penetrate Linux server markets and make some money of out it? So even if you switch from Windows to Linux, you might still be paying to MS one way or another.
Dvorak predicted this would happen in a PCMag editorial back in 2001:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,6271,00.asp
His reasoning is fairly sanguine as well - Virus updating over the web gives MS a perfect excuse to connect to your Windows PC and - along with updating your virus software (perhaps daily!) - sniff around to see what apps you have installed, check out any illegal software/music/etc, look for that Linux partition (and corrupt it?)... pretty scary.
MS connecting to your PC daily... Dvorak was right about something... its all just too much at once. Perhaps this article should be under 'Further signs of the apocalypse'?
Here are a couple of harmless words by me, please be constructive with your critisism. I am a padawan nerd after all...
Once again Microsoft do one of their trademark things; shady deals and corporate buyouts. There's no other reason why Microsoft bought this company other than it provided good services on another platform. This doesn't come as a suprise really. Seems to me that lately they're not really satisfied with owning 95%+ of the market.
Never believe in the official word Microsoft give. That's rule number one. Look at the reason why they bought Connectix. The official word was because of the technology they had with running several operating systems on the same computer, or something like that. Well, it becomes even more obvious when you look at the fact that Connectix was the only Windows emulation software on the Mac, backed up by the fact that Microsoft have been lacking on updates for their Mac software recently. In other words, they want to kill Apple.
Why? Seems to me that Microsoft is now doing whatever it can with in legal boundries to finish all the competitive forces. They're now piece by piece peeling the bana of Apple. Before you know it, Microsoft will kill Office for Mac and Apple will die of nothing is done about it.
Infact, didn't Microsoft make an agreement or licencing deal with SCO a couple of months ago right before they started suing companies for stealing their code? Have none of you ever thought of that connection?
In other words... Looks like Microsoft has pulled in to high gear in fear, by doing what they do best: kill the opponents by buying them away.
What's so bad about being lazy? What if there was a war and nobody showed up?
This once more illustrates that Microsoft is not a real 'technology company'. They buy other, smaller companies and integrate it as a component into their code base. They also do not provide cutting edge technology, they simply wait until a small company has proven to have a good product and then buy out that company. The leading software company for consumer software in the world is nothing more than a rather shallow business model: take the ideas of others, integrate them and sell the stuff. In itself, that's okay, but it feels a bit cheap. Why not being original? Is it all about money and nothing else?
I was just having a conversation with a friend about this. The only areas in software Microsoft didn't have a product are Autocad, High End Photo processing (Photoshop) and Anti-virus, (plus some veritical industry apps).
One more category now gone.
Anthony
Is it really easier to deploy a 3rd-party app than to secure an app/OS?
A virus scanner will block only certain signatures - how many virii use the same core but are recognized as different by scanners?
A simple vulnerability could result in tens if not hundreds different viruses, all exploiting the same hole.
Let's say scanners are updated and catch all the virus variations - the same vulnerability is _still_ present, just waiting for another iteration of the same core.
Just like letting your child at home with a list of people he's not allowed to let in, instead of just locking the door...
I think the move is only political Look, we're really trying to make it look like^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hsecure.