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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."
Windows is more an application suite than an OS. Around Win 3.1 it was a multi-tasking program manager application with some extra goodies, and it just kept growing from there.
The only reason microsoft has ever allowed you to run non-microsoft programs is because they need a migration path to get you onto their modular do-everything product (i.e., windows). Eventually they plan to have one of every application and they won't have to allow you to run non-microsoft applications.
If you want an OS, us a *nix, if you want an application that can do everything for you and that, for now, will allow you to run your own apps, use Windows.
Two things:
1. MS told the users that wanted AV to go fuck their stuffed penguins (ok, so they didn't say fuck anything, and penguins weren't involved in computing yet - that would be the next year)
2. Symantec (the maker of the Norton line of products) bought Central Point, the maker of MSAV. Symantec told MSAV users to go suck their Billdos, and buy NAV, and stopped making updates.