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Microsoft Anti-Spyware Removes Norton Anti-Virus
An anonymous reader writes "According to a story over at Washingtonpost.com, the latest definitions file for Microsoft's Anti-Spyware beta flags Symantec's Norton Antivirus products as a password-stealing trojan and prompts users to delete portions of the program. Users who follow the instructions hose their installation of Norton, requiring delicate Windows registry edits and a complete removal/reinstall of Norton. Microsoft's support forum is quickly filling up with complaints about this problem, many from businesses that have been pretty hard hit. This should be a cautionary tale about deploying beta products in production environments."
Yes, that's exactly why open source products aren't deployed.
OH SNAP!! I just fucking smoked the submitter back to the Stone Age.
Time to take my victory lap. Slashbots are cute when they try to be clever, but it's easy to make them go home and cry with one comeback.
and windows is nothing but mind-controlling fascistic fucking evil putrid cunting shit.
Better yet, replace Firefox and Internet Explorer with Opera.
The recent 1.5.x releases of Firefox have been a disaster for many. They weren't very well managed, thus leading to all the problems we have experienced. Opera, on the other hand, have proven time and time again that they're committed to puttin out a solid, well-engineered product. The recent preview releases of Opera 9 are looking quite swell. Give it a try, if you haven't already.
I know a lot of Windows users who decided to, unfortunately, avoid the use of anti-virus software after switching to Firefox. One of the main points that those urging a switch to Firefox used was that Firefox won't allow one's system to become compromised. Of course, that is a very false statement to make, and potentially quite dangerous.
Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
Don't forget that if Windows worked properly, you wouldn't even need anti-virus / anti-spyware! So their intention is to profit off their own inadequacies?!?!! Unfuckingbelievable. And the beta testers just playing right along... la la la... This is akin to hiring someone who is incompetant, incapable of completing a job due to being a complete screw up... and they then demand a raise because they to have to work the double duty of correcting their own screw ups... wtf? How is Microsoft even getting away with this??!!! Windows should have a mandatory product recall, just like cars... if it doesn't do what it's supposed to do... its broken. Send the stinking thing back.
The Admin and the Engineer
It's always beta. I'd imagine that each definition file gets some testing, but not the same amount as a new software product.
My thought is that this is the beginning of the usual Microsoft offensive into new territory on their platform. You only have to look back at the way they eliminated DRDOS, back up software, Lotus, Word Perfect, Netscape and other media players to see the pattern. The hapless user sees their favorite program performance degrade and they are soon left fighting Microsoft preference changes or giving in to use the inferior Microsoft program. Other anti-competitive tricks abound as well. Try finding a free beer CD writer with ISO capability. Try the default defrag tool sometime, it takes all night to run and blows up half the time, but resizing a NTFS partition without first doing a defrag is risky. The death of Norton, Symantic and others was announced years ago when Microsoft decided that AV/Security, aka fixing their own bugs, was a profit center. So, I agree, this is not really a beta issue.
Still, this is a good time to compare the Microsoft and free distribution method lifecycles. Debian is a good example of a GNU/Linux distribution and I'll compare that to Microsoft from a user's perspective.
Debian is consistent, easy and the user is well taken care of. Code is selected in the experimental branch, tested in the testing branch and maintained in stable. The experimental branch is as good or better than most commercial software ever is. Testing is usually better and stable is like a rock. In binary form, you can still download older stable distributions, which include thousands of programs to do just about anything you want. While there are many distributions specialized to older and more limited hardware, you can pick up an older release and it will work as well as it ever did. Because of a lack of co-operation by hardware and software vendors, free software has been more difficult to install but once it's there it's stable and never goes away.
In the Windows world, the user is on their own and compatibility issues abound. Windows itself is a minimal distribution of software which does not include even the basics, such as virtual desktops or a spell checker. To get a functional system, you have to go to dozens of vendors. Individual companies write software for various versions of Windows, but it's impossible to tune it to all of them, so performance is hit and miss. Even when things do work, they might not work together, thanks to DLL hell and constant M$ "updates" which never seem to improve the system's 12 minute half life. Much like free software, Microsoft and other companies reuse and improve their code base. Unlike free software, they are unable and unwilling to co-operate. The life cycle there goes something like this:
While you might be able to get a system that works with itself from Dell, keeping it up is a nightmare. If any one of the twelve or so vendors changes things so that they don't wor
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
It's too bad that you're willing to accept software that fails so horribly.
Why do you deem it acceptable that Firefox crashes on certain plugins? Why do you deem it acceptable that it consumes massive amounts of RAM?
On one hand you call Firefox "good", but point out that its horribly flawed. Not only that, but Opera doesn't suffer from those problems. It doesn't matter that Firefox is open source, and Opera is not. All that matters is that Opera is a better product.
Now, I suspect that you may have been trying to be funny. But the joke sort of fails because Firefox does actually exhibit the problems you describe.
Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
You actually said Apple doesn't lock their customers in? You really said that? Were you born less than 5 years ago dude? You sound older.
It isn't "some random program", it is a Microsoft program, with free access to all the undocumented APIs in Windows - I'm sure that Microsoft left themselves loopholes all over the place. In fact I suspect that the majority of Windows security problems were deliberately put there to act as backdoor for Microsoft to do something like this.
Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.
Eh, I'm off my game, one can only troll with the same material for so long. I actually like Linux, I just like pissing on both sides.
Slashdot sucks