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Anti-malware Vendors Stare Down Microsoft Threat
Captain Rose writes "Matt Hines at eWEEK has stepped up to report the other side of the story CNET inked recently on the perceived death knell that Vista will deliver to independent anti-spyware vendors. There's definitely a fight in store (David v. Goliath), though who knows how long we'll have to wait to see it play out now that Vista's delayed yet again. Is this a bit of foreshadowing on how the new Microsoft OS will address the self-replicating, zero-day spyware threats?" From the article: "Most industry watchers concede that it will be hard for Microsoft to easily displace the enterprise security businesses of leading vendors such as Symantec, McAfee and Trend Micro, which market integrated packages of applications to companies wishing to solve long lists of problems. However, for firms that are focused on only one of those problem areas, analysts said, Vista and the other Microsoft security products could pose a significant threat."
Here you are: Hardened Windows
I wouldn't consider it to be anti-competitive for Microsoft to shore up their own OS products for a better user experience and/or better security... unless they were charging money for it, and then I consider it more along the lines of extortion.
These tools provide protection from attacks against multiple fronts. In part the protection is against malware designed to seek out and exploit holes in the underlying software. But it is also designed to protect users from their own inexperience. The strongest OS will still need protection since it still has people using it. So while I think Microsoft should provide free releases to any updates that directly deal with holes in their products, they still are in their rights to charge for a product that takes the extra step of protecting users from themselves. This is not extortion.
I love my sig.
Since they have an effective monopoly on the desktop OS segment, they can't move into the other segments using the same.
They, because of their relative size in the market, can't just be putting anything and everything into their products as a bundled deal. It's the same story with the media player and browser software they're already in trouble (though with the browser, they got a slap on the wrist over it- it remains to be seen on the media player software, but it's not looking as good for Microsoft on that front...).
Once you become an effective or complete monopoly, the rules for business change for you.
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
I've always wondered though, if Microsoft didnt include IE with Windows, then how would I be able to download Firefox?
c:\>ftp ftp.mozilla.org