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Microsoft To Offer Free Anti-Virus Software

Posted by kdawson on from the another-industry-done-gone dept.

Dynamoo writes "The good news is that Microsoft have announced free anti-virus software for consumers, dubbed Morro, available late next year. The bad news is ... well, exactly the same. Although Microsoft's anti-malware products are pretty good, this move could drive many competitors out of business and create a dangerous security monoculture; major rivals will be lawyering up already. On the other hand, many malware infections could be prevented even by basic software. So is this going to be a good or bad thing overall?"

11 of 448 comments (clear)

  1. re Hard to decide ... by jelizondo · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If it comes free with the OS it will drive away competitors because Joe-sixpack is
    not going to spend any money to replace something he got for free, even if it sucks.

    On the other hand, if any feature needs to be part of the OS is precisely a form of
    protection against malware.

    Come to think of it, if MS does a bad job of protecting PCs and drives away
    competition on virus protection, maybe the company will finally implode and let other OSes
    get a greater market-share.

    --
    Be very, very careful what you put into that head, because you will never, ever get it out. - Cardinal Wolsey
    1. Re:re Hard to decide ... by dnoyeb · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Its illogical. How can you produce a product that attacks things attempting to exploit your holes when you have the ability to patch the holes?

      If they sold it, it would be a conflict of interest.

    2. Re:re Hard to decide ... by Darkness404 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      In the pre-Vista age perhaps, but with UAC and the paranoid level of dialogues in browsers needed to get anything done, Joe Sixpack is going to just click allow, even if that means he has to pay $300 to get his box repaired by the Geek Squad. The problem is, by increasing the amount of warnings, the less likely anyone is going to care about them.

      --
      Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
    3. Re:re Hard to decide ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      > Why does everyone seem to think Windows somehow allows malware due to 'holes' in the OS? Malware isn't any different to normal software from the OS' perspective. If you can write legitimate software than can send an email, or download an image and display it to the user, then you can write 'malware' that can send spam or display advertisements.

      Windows think. Installing software can indeed be made totally different to normal software from the OS perspective.

      Windows will just blindly and happily execute anything it thinks it has been requested to execute.

      On Linux or BSD, files aren't executable by default. The OS just won't run them. Any attempt to make a file executable requires a local user to manually enter a password. Hence, if a user is asked for a password ... especially the administrator password ... they are immediately alerted ... "hang on a minute, I wasn't trying to install anything just then, or make a change to the system". Having to enter a password is like waving a great big red warning flag. "Whoop, whoop, install happening!! Attention, attention ... did you mean this?"

      Amongst Windows users (being used to the complete lack of concepts such as these), Windows' complete lack of adequate security is often confused for security being impossible to achieve.

      Windows think. Its everywhere.

    4. Re:re Hard to decide ... by blueZ3 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      On many fronts, the malware situation on Windows is the OS's fault.

      First, OS files should not be writable by random executables on the system. Period. The idea that bobs_your_uncle_32.exe, installed on a user account, runs as a superuser and can modify important system files is completely idiotic. The inability of Microsoft to implement a basic separation between privilege levels is the root of the problem (pun intended)--and they don't get to weasel out of it by saying "you COULD run/install software as a local user" because their FUBAR'd implementation meant that wasn't a realistic option.

      Secondly, a lot of malware installation has historically been the result of stupid things that Microsoft did to be "helpful"--like automatically executing scripts in Outlook's preview pane. Or the idea that installation of software should be "silent"--where a program can be downloaded and installed without any user interaction. Brilliant.

      Microsoft has made (some small) improvements in these areas. But they're not off the hook by any means.

      --
      Interested in a Flash-based MAME front end? Visit mame.danzbb.com
    5. Re:re Hard to decide ... by 99BottlesOfBeerInMyF · · Score: 5, Insightful

      What monopoly? Last time I checked Mac and Linux existed.

      You obviously don't understand what MS's market for desktop OS's is. They sell very few of them as boxed copies to individuals. They have a small market selling site licenses to corporations, but by far their largest market is computer OEMs like Dell. So if you were running Dell, would you license OS X to run on the computers you sell? Nope, because Apple isn't selling them. Hence, OS X and Macs are not a valid competitor. Would you pre-install Linux? Well maybe, but it is not a valid competitor in most cases because of software lock-ins. It has basically no market share and certainly not enough to affect whether or not MS has enough market share to unduly influence other markets (70% is the amount regulators start looking hard at). Generally, if the closest thing you can find to a competitor is a product developed by hobbyists disgusted with having no choices and given away for free... well that's a bloody good sign there is a monopoly at work.

      MS has a virtual monopoly by merit of being the most used but that's not the same as an actual monopoly. As long as other choices exist any monopoly argument falls apart.

      Legally and economically, you don't have to be the only option to wield undue influence in markets and undermine the benefits of capitalism. You're not going to find any reputable economists not being paid by MS who claim MS does not wield monopoly influence in the desktop OS market and MS has, in fact, been found to have such influence by the US courts, the EU courts, and several other nations. Sorry, but at this point the argument that MS doesn't have a monopoly can only be the result of burying your head in the sand. What, do you think it's all some sort of global conspiracy of lawyers, judges, and economists?

      More akin to there being 3 power companies and one following the practices you describe while the others don't, and people just being too lazy, stupid, or in the dark to switch to another company.

      Not at all. The analogy holds up very well. MS is the power distribution monopoly in your geographic location. Apple is the guy who sells solar cells and windmills and fuel cell generators which cost a bundle but are economic for some uses in some locations over the very long term and prevent you from having to deal with the power distribution company (but do not distribute power themselves). Linux is the guy who drives a big truck full of car batteries to the nearest power plant, pays to charge them all up, then drives back home and hooks them up to run his house for another couple of days. They are alternatives that allow one to avoid MS, but not much in the way of actual competitors in the same market.

    6. Re:re Hard to decide ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      It is much worse... I got a trojan on my system, a Net Devil, roll-your-own type. Before I went to uninstall it, I debugged it and got the ICQ account details. I used the credentials to log into the account and changed the password. I watched as the victim IP addresses poured in! To investigate, I downloaded the client half of Net Devil and connected to a few victims. Total access!

      Screen capture, key logger, executable, download, upload, you name it! It had a feature to send popup messages that I used to tell the victim they had a virus and they should take steps immediately to remove it. Some would unplug their computers immediately, while others would just click OK and keep going. I would send another message like "No really! You have a virus!" and they still just pressed OK and just kept typing their IM. Of course, it usually got their attention when I opened 30 message dialogs in a row. The most effective way I got their attention was to turn their graphics upside-down and open their CD/DVD tray :) Nothing like a ghost in the machine to wake them up.

      • Other variations:
      • launch winamp and crank up the volume
      • same, but use a pr0n clip from their stash
      • (most sinister) activating their webcam
      • (silent, yet dreadful) the keylogger

      It had an option to remove the trojan from the host, so I cleaned up a few, but the IP addresses kept flowing in worldwide (esp. France?) and it was rather depressing trying to help users that pretty much ignored anything but the blatant scare tactics.

  2. Yeah, but by NoStrings · · Score: 5, Funny

    Does it run on Linux?

  3. My thanks by cyrus0 · · Score: 5, Funny

    That reminds me, I need to put duct tape over all the rust on my car. Thing should hold up like a champ!

  4. Odds are... by Voyager529 · · Score: 5, Insightful
    1. It will probably go the way of Movie Maker, Windows Mail, and a few other apps that are now optional downloads.

    2. It will be a basic virus scanner and will probably not replace NOD32 or another fully featured scanner.

    3. Webroot seems to be doing just fine even though Windows Defender has been around for a few years now. Same for Spybot, Ad-Aware, and any number of other apps.

    4. Compounded with #3, Microsoft Antivirus will be entering a well established field with plenty of household name competitors. Norton and McAffee are well known names that most consumers know and will probably opt for (quality of software notwithstanding).

    5. Many smaller firms (Kaspersky comes to mind) have consumers as their small-fry and make their big bucks off volume licenses. It appears that Morro isn't competing here.

    6. Whether accurate or not, perception or reality, many people consider Microsoft Security Solutions to be an oxymoron. So long as it can be uninstalled, people will be free to add their own antivirus software (see point #4).

    Joey

  5. Re:The real question is... by British · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Well a virus is an irritating program that eats up resources, making your computer unstable, interfering with hardware, replicates and repairs itself when you attempt to delete it, and drives you insane.

    The sad thing is, a lot of system-tray startup software that insists on self-installing does the same things too. No acrobat, i don't need to be running all the time. You listening, Apple? Heck, a lot of AVG software bogs down the system so much I'm wondering if the cure is worse than the disease.