NYT: Microsoft Will Offer Virus Defense (competing with Symantec, McAfee)

[DeepModem Mom]

Microsoft Says It Will Offer Virus Defense
By JOHN MARKOFF

Published: May 13, 2005


SAN FRANCISCO, May 12 - Microsoft said Thursday that it would enter the consumer antivirus business as part of a subscription service that it will offer next year.

Microsoft said a companywide trial of the service, called Windows OneCare, would begin next week. The service will include virus and spyware protection as well as PC backup and performance-enhancing functions for Windows PC's.

The move would bring Microsoft into direct competition most notably with Symantec and McAfee, the major publishers of antivirus software and other utilities for Windows PC's.

Microsoft plans to expand the service beyond its 60,000 employees this summer and offer an open trial for consumers this fall. No date has been set for a commercial introduction, but the executive in charge of the new business said it would ultimately be offered as an annual service by subscription.

Microsoft has been developing the service for three years, said Ryan Hamlin, general manager of the Microsoft Technology Care and Safety Group. He said the company was responding to consumer demand for performance-enhancing features - like defragmenting disks when the software found it necessary - as a service priced separately from the operating system....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/13/technology/13soft.html

[reprobate]

1. Today Symantec, tomorrow the world!

[AngryAmish]

2. So they sell you shitty software that is easily infected...

then you pay to fix it. Just like a mafia protection racket.

[depakid]

5. LOL! That's exactly what it is-

I'm just surprised it took them so long to figure out what a good business model that is in Republican run America!

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

7. Microsoft anti-virus software will have a bulls-eye painted on its back.

Right now, some script kiddie is sitting in his parents' basement, writing the code that will bring this one to its knees.

"THANK GOD GEORGE BUSH IS OUR PRESIDENT," Rudy Giuliani once said.

In a similar spirit, "THANK GOD FOR WINDOWS XP SERVICE PACK 2," which ENDED exploits and malicious attacks and security breaches...

...WHAT? What's that you say? New attacks occurred within DAYS of SP2, and Microsoft CONTINUES to release MULTIPLE critical updates, and LONGHORN...the "promised fix"...MAY be available by CHRISTMAS 2006?

...never mind.

[demnan]

3. Let me guess . . .

it will come "conveniently" packaged with Windows.

[Chico Man]

4. Can anyone say monopoly?

I'm sure this will be as embedded into the OS as say.... Internet Explorer? If the new "malicious software removal tool" is any indication, I'm sure this will be the case.

[Ready4Change]

6. They own the virus DELIVERY market, so why not virus protection too?

:D

[dArKeR]

8. My girlfriend works in the computer industry in TW. Plus 50% of my other

friends there too. EVERYONE of them hates Microsoft. And they weren't born that way. 99% of Taiwanese (used to) love America and everything about it. But they've learned to hate Microsoft for its corporate business practices. This is when they deal with MS on a business to business level. I'm not talking about consumer to business. Sort like a Bolton bully, arrogant...

No link just life's experience.

[kcwayne]

9. They'll really have an incentive to put out OS software that is virus

hardened now, won't they?

Instead of virus protection, why don't they provide an OS that doesn't ALLOW viruses and expose my unprotected machine to the network in the first place?

But what we get instead is an OS wrapped in a used, leaky condom, that let's anyone crash it, and the solution is to buy more software from Microsoft to do a half assed job detecting things 2 months too late? Genius. Pure Genius.

It's too bad that innovation cannot come to the rescue, and that a smart and agreesive company that knows how to design software that is functional and safe can't offer a solution to the problem. Unfortunately, if they try to get launched, Microsoft will crush them, so smart investors will never put their money into a venture universally viewed as foolish.

[quispquake]

10. I'm really surprised they're doing this...

I always figured they didn't have virus protection so that if a virus brings down all of the systems, they could blame it on someone else, and not take responsibility (i.e. "You didn't have the right virus protection"). (Of course, they are deeply at fault for having a flaky OS in the first place.)

As you've all said, I see a BIG bullseye on this one from hackers...

[Lauri16]

11. That's just scary

I wouldn't trust an anti-virus program from Microsoft. I don't even trust their OS.

[Renew Deal]

12. I hate to say it, but this is a good thing.

The other software is not really doing a good job and Apple does this already. If Apple can do this, why not Micro$oft?

[Tempest]

14. Other software not doing a good job?

I run McAfee on 4 home computers and have yet to get infected. McAfee catches every single attack on my systems.

I run Norton on my laptop and have yet to get infected. Norton is constantly catching attacks.

DHS runs McAfee and there hasn't been one single network infection in the last two years. My neighbor's son is on the ADP contract for DHS support and he receives the CIRP reports weekly.


Anti-virus software is only as good as the person using it. If you don't update it or configure it correctly, it isn't worth a shit.

[Tempest]

15. Apple doesn't do this

Apple bundles anti-virus software, they don't write their own.

And Apple doesn't have a monopoly the way MS does.

[alcibiades_mystery]

13. Their slipshod software produces a virus proliferating ecology

So they then get into the business of defending against threats that their software should have defended against in the first place.

At added cost.

Gotta hand it to these douchebags.

[ixion]

16. yeah. right. whatever.

they are the last company in the world I would buy anti-virus software from, and even then I think I'd go ahead and find a different solution.

[GregW]

17. Gee ... now who am I going to trust here ...

A company like Trend, Symantec or McAfee whose only focus is Internet security, with a collective, proven track record of decades

Or a generalist like Microsoft who provides the #1 DELIVERY SERVICE for viral payloads.

:shrug: