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Spy Sweeper, the Next Netscape?
GenieGenieGenie writes "AP is running a story about Webroot's Spy Sweeper, specifically about the competition it's facing from Vista's bundled anti-spyware. Webroot's CEO David Moll maintains that 'The taking of a second-best product in this space [i.e. Vista's Defender, f.k.a. AntiSpyware] is akin to locking half the doors in your house,' but others seem to think that if Moll doesn't want his company to become a second Netscape, it would 'ultimately [...] need to offer more than just an anti-spyware package.' The interesting issue here is whether this need for broadening the offer would be the case also for other leading companies subject to similar 'bundled-with' competition."
... because nobody's ever heard of them.
Yes, it's often forgotten that Netscape was founded to be an enterprise server software company, and got into selling shrinkwrap browser software by accident.
As for Netscape's server products, the webserver was undercut by Apache, and the other stuff (groupware, application server) didn't sell well compared to IBM or Microsoft. Had they been successful with servers, Netscape would probably still be around today.
As for this anti-spyware company, it reminds me about Quarterdeck's bitching when Microsoft took the outragous step of adding a memory manager to their OS.
Whenever I hear the word 'Innovation', I reach for my pistol.
And then there's the programmers who sell out and bundle [spy|ad]ware with their programs. Sure, you can opt out, but most people only care to click Next, next, finish.
Let's not forget programs like Kazaa, if it's even still around, which actually REQUIRE you to not only install, but keep the crapware on your system in order to run it.
Defects in the operating system indeed.
Of course, a lot of the nasty crap that gets on your computer without you DOING anything is generally on rathe questionable sites (e.g. Warez sites). This is thanks to lacking security in Internet Explorer, not the OS.
Basically - MS acquired Giant and started offering free Spyware within XP SP2. I'm sure these guys would have liked to have been acquired by MS - they might even have been in the running. No chance of a trade sale now - they've taken too much funding to provide backers with an attractive exit, and now they're stuck with having to fight against a product which will not only be free, but be part of the operating system which really needs it. Other than Firefox (which is also free), how many pieces of software have ever beaten that combination in the mass market? Given that it's impossible for most people to determine which is the better anti spyware product, the CEO's claim that people will choose a superior solution is pretty weak. Their options now are pretty rapidly to widen the offering (in which case the CEO's claim is pointless) or to provide a niche service to businesses (which is fine). The lesson? You can occasionally make money by offering a single software solution, but if you're betting your shirt - back a company that has more than omne product.
It's a good thing to quote that "bundled-with" because the term is misleading. No one cares if M$ or anyone else gives away a text editor. What matters is if they make it so no other text editor will work. The Netscape complaint was that M$ strong armed vendors to gain a desktop software monopoly and then abused that monopoly in all sorts of ways to make it a huge pain in the neck to run Netscape on the desktop so that they could steal Netscapes' server market. The tactics included constantly changing the user's defaults back to IE and a combined smear and code breakage like they did with DRDOS.
It's all very nasty and they keep doing it, over and over. They have done it with Office Software to Lotus and Word Perfect, they have done it with backup software, browsers and just about anything you can think of. The people who want to own the worlds computers want to own every piece of it. The developers ran off a long time ago except for a few large companies and even they are looking for a way out. The current fights are over media and, yes, antivirus.
The most obvious result of all of these fights is a decidedly second rate user experience. So many second rate programs have been kludged together, they hardly work. All the hooks and barbs M$ made for others, they have to deal with themselves. Add a bit of DRM and remove the last of the companies trying to patch up your system and you get Vista, the five year development flop. It's kind of like watching an oil filled megatanker fall into the moon.
Information about the DRDOS example can be found here:
http://web.archive.org/web/20050313031916/www.ki ckassgear.com/Articles/Microsoft.htm
Windoze performance information can be found anywhere Windoze is run. Just wait for them to curse.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
I work in CompUSA, Spy Sweeper is one of the top selling anti-spyware programs. And they offer "Internet Essentials" which is a combo of anti popup, anti-spyware, spam shredder, and windows reg cleaner.
"You've never heard of a program" does not directly relate to "Value"
You've probably never heard of ETAP but it's one of the best programs for circuit analysis in utilities.
Why are women so complicated? Find out how little I know here.
A lot of those "critical" flags are not, well, critical. Both progs seem to flag cookies as Spyware. Now, an open cookie might be bad, but it is not what I'm looking for when I run SpyBot.
Furthermore, AdAware has a really nasty habit. I run it, clean the system, and reboot. When I run it agian, it finds more problems. No matter how many times I run this, it'll still find a few "critical" spyware problems.
Just to test, I installed VMware and WinXP with SP2. I used the Autopatcher program to ensure the system was good to go. In installed AdAware and ran it with definitions I downloaded and manually coppied to the partition.
On a fresh install with zero connection to the internet, I found several hundred "critical" problems. I ren the tool 3 times to let it clean the partition. Then I rebooted. After the system came back up, it found 20 more "critical" problems.
My point? 90% of what anti-Spyware and anti-virus tools do is a complete scam.
Install and patch XP. Install and update Firefox. Install Adblock and the Filterset.G rules. You'll be 99% protected from any problems. If you surf pr0n a lot, use a Knoppix LiveCD for that. If you download warez, then use VMware or VirtualPC to test things out first.
I'd rather you do it wrong, than for me to have to do it at all.
That is an erroneous statement. I have a job which requires me to log on to a web site to fill out daily reports, and it only works with Internet Explorer. And no, IE Tab extension for firefox doesn't work either.
Well lets see what netscape introduced when you had to pay for both IE and Netscape (for microsoft browsers, you had to buy the plus addon until the first OEM service release and then some one who upgraded or bought the retail version still couldn't get it free).
Frames, java support, java script support, Plugins, WYSIWYG html editor (wich microsoft still doesn't offer a free one), support for underlining, multi collored tables, font faces, spaces(spacer) were just a few that Netscape was first with. Also Netscape was first to offer voice chat over web/internet with thier cool talk and arguably internet phone with the watchdog utility that listened for incoming voice comunications.
This is just a small list of all the stuff known to be a first in netscape. I guess a better question is what inovations did we miss out on because netscape was crushed? I mean, What would have apeared or developed maturity faster if they were competing all along the way? How much sooner would we have had a viable internet phone, tabbed browsing, browsers that can pass the acid test? A prime example of what has stoped being developed once microsoft was able to beat the pants off netscape by destroying thier business model and forcing them to give the browser away (to remain competitive) and refocus thier stratigy.
Or maybe another question might be, what are we going to lose out on when microsoft not only controls the spyware but the removers. Will/could there be a day when the OS sells advertising with preinstalled spyware and the only way to get rid of it is to pay them even more money? Maybe it would be subscription based like thier new music service were you rent freedom from popups for so much a year and they return if you don't continue to pay. Thier WMP phoneing home already gives them a big database on music and videos you are likley to watch so why not try selling them to you.
I do it all the time.Use it for making a more secure machine for those that aren't computer savvy.Just install a better browser(I install Kmeleon,Firefox,Opera,And Seamonkey and let them choose what's best for them) and leave mshtml.dll for those programs that use it in their help files.
If you want to strip it from an exsisting pc,Here you go--http://www.litepc.com/xplite.html.It's not free,But $39.95 isn't a lot to pay when you consider all the MS crapware that it lets you toss.Not to mention the Malware can't exploit what isn't there.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.