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McAfee, Macromedia Flirting With F/OSS Community

Posted by timothy on from the batting-eyes-shuffling-feet dept.

xbsd writes "Those computer industry specialists claiming that the end of Linux is fast approaching may be interested in two recent movements inside the industry. Two weeks ago, McAfee, one of the world leaders in computer security products, launched its first commercial antivirus solution for Linux, and just yesterday, Macromedia announced that it is joining the Eclipse Foundation and plans to deliver a next-generation rich Internet application (RIA) development tool code-named Zorn based on the popular open-source IDE."

17 of 286 comments (clear)

  1. Oh crap. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Does this mean McAfee is going to start releasing virii for linux too?

    1. Re:Oh crap. by FLAGGR · · Score: 5, Funny

      It's spelt dumbassii, duh.

  2. Anti-Virus by ThisIsFred · · Score: 5, Informative

    By the way, the most effective and affordable AV program of the Windows world, namely Grisoft's AVG, already runs on Linux. Prepare for competition, McAfee!

    --
    Fred

    "A fool and his freedom are soon parted"
    -RMS
    1. Re:Anti-Virus by bersl2 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      There's also ClamAV, which is a GPLed virus scanner (mainly for mailservers, but it does have a daemonized scanner and a CLI-based frontend).

    2. Re:Anti-Virus by mattyrobinson69 · · Score: 4, Informative

      its also better than any scanner ive seen for windows in memory footprint and not hogging the screen during updates (usde freshclamd to update for you).

      Plus there's klamav (kde frontend) which is quite good.

    3. Re:Anti-Virus by ThisIsFred · · Score: 4, Informative
      I use ClamAV on the server-side, but only as a proactive tool; It halts the spread of viruses when used in conjunction with dazuko, because it blocks access to the infected files. ClamAV's drawbacks are that it can't repair files, and its quarantine feature isn't sophisticated enough to properly file away infected files. It can only dump them in one location, which is obviously bad when two files with otherwise important data happen to have the same name.

      I note that ClamAV might have had a memory leak up until 0.80, but it appears to be fixed now. Also, it's totally sweet how easily it can be configured to target certain areas, certain files, or even certain sizes of files. As you can see, I have not forgotten about ClamAV. :o)
      Plus there's klamav (kde frontend) which is quite good.
      Don't forget the Windows port!
      --
      Fred

      "A fool and his freedom are soon parted"
      -RMS
    4. Re:Anti-Virus by niiler · · Score: 4, Informative

      This is honestly one of the most annoying features of Windows AV programs. If you aren't click-happy, you don't need such features, especially on a linux box. When you turn it off on Windows, your machine speeds up by a factor of two.

  3. Macromedia? by Conception · · Score: 5, Informative

    By Macromedia, you mean Adobe right? Super F/OSS friendly Adobe.

    1. Re:Macromedia? by Stanistani · · Score: 5, Funny

      Macromedia releasing...
      a next-generation rich Internet application (RIA) development tool code-named Zorn

      Hmm... "Zorn." Where have I heard that before?

      Didn't "Zorn" mean "utter destruction" in the rabbit-language from Watership Down by Richard Adams?

      'Zorn! Zorn!' cried the dreadful squealing voice. 'All dead! O Zorn!'

      --
      You can't talk about Wikipedia's flaws on Wikipedia
    2. Re:Macromedia? by Lisandro · · Score: 5, Funny

      No need for your soul... with the weird shit going arround lately (Debian releasing new stable, Apple going x86, etc.), it wouldn't surprise me if that happens. We're living in interesting times, indeed.

      Anyway, it's all good until Duke Nukem Forever goes gold. Then the world as we know it dissapears.

  4. Re:Virus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    To scan for Windows viruses. You can use it on
    samba file servers in a windows network, for example.

  5. Turnabout by overshoot · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Well, fair's fair.

    Microsoft bought a Rumanian company that produced border protection (protect MS clients by filtering on Linux hosts) and turned around to "cut off [McAfee's] air supply" with an MS client antivirus offering. Of course they shut down the Linux border filters.

    In return, McAfee fills the vacuum by offering a Linux-hosted border filter.

    Works for me.

    --
    Lacking <sarcasm> tags, /. substitutes moderation as "Troll."
  6. we cancelled the Mcafee contract at our company by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting


    we had a virus that corrupted MSIE (mshtml.dll) Mcafee was instantly disabled, that 100mb install became useless all because Mcafee based their application dialogs on the MSIE component

    we cancelled our contract with them soon after as we realised that if Mcafee dont understand security (they understand marketing though) so we will have to find someone who does understand security, and knows not to base the last line of defence on the biggest exploitable product on a windows system

    ClamAV is looking good because of the costing though reliabilty and accurate is still a concern

    -SJ

  7. Re:Eclipse Faster by Black+Art · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Fedora Core 4 has binaries for Eclipse in the "core" repository, as well as SRPMS.

    http://mirrors.kernel.org/fedora/core/development/ SRPMS/

    --
    "Trademarks are the heraldry of the new feudalism."
  8. McAfee by lheal · · Score: 4, Interesting

    McAfee started out as a shareware company, selling an antivirus program for MS-DOS and Macintosh.

    They acquired a bunch of smaller companies, then started calling themselves "Network Associates" soon after they acquired that company.

    While they haven't ever been open source, they've usually (always?) had a product you could download and use without first paying them for it. And I think they have always given out free updates.

    I wonder how much of their corporate culture has survived from the old days? To what degree is "McAfee" just a brand name?

    --
    Raise your children as if you were teaching them to raise your grandchildren, because you are.
  9. Fear the virus by Colonel+Panic · · Score: 4, Funny

    Yes you really need virus protection on Linux. The situation is dire. There are thousands of viruses being brewed up around the world to infect Linux boxen. Be afraid, be very afraid!!

    But now McAfee has come to your rescue. Only $49.95 for complete peace of mind.

    I feel so much better already.

  10. Flirting? by ErikTheRed · · Score: 5, Funny


    Gee... I hope we get dinner, a good bottle of wine, and a movie before we get screwed.

    --

    Help save the critically endangered Blue Iguana