What's it in for the makers of free antivirus software?

[Spin]

Gurus,

Free antivirus software such as Avast http://www.avast.com and NOD32
http://www.eset.com are well spoken of. My question is, given that they are
free, what's it in for the makers of this software? Because of this
question, I am hesitant to switch off of Symantec or McAfee.

--
Spin

 

[Shenan Stanley]

Spin wrote:
> Free antivirus software such as Avast http://www.avast.com and
> NOD32 http://www.eset.com are well spoken of. My question is, given
> that they are free, what's it in for the makers of this software? Because
> of this question, I am hesitant to switch off of Symantec
> or McAfee.

NOD32 is not free...

The makers of the free software (antivirus applications in this discussion)
hope that by giving away a version (just *a version*) of their software for
free - some people will purchase the full version of said software. Some
people do.

McAfee and Symantec - they protect just fine most of the time - it is the
bloat that makes them not as popular.

Good Comparison Page for AV software: http://www.av-comparatives.org/

AntiVir (Free and up)
http://www.free-av.com/

avast! (Free and up)
http://www.avast.com/

AVG Anti-Virus System (Free and up)
http://free.grisoft.com/

eset NOD32 (~$39.00 and up)
http://www.eset.com/products/

Kaspersky Anti-Virus (~$39.95 and up)
http://www.kaspersky.com/kaspersky_anti-virus

McAfee VirusScan (~$39.99 and up)
http://www.mcafee.com/

Panda Antivirus (~$39.95 and up)
http://www.pandasecurity.com/homeusers/solutions/antivirus/
(Free Online Scanner:
http://www.pandasecurity.com/homeusers/solutions/activescan/)

Symantec (Norton) AntiVirus (~$39.99 and up)
http://snipurl.com/13e12

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

 

[VanguardLH]

"Spin" <Spin@invalid.com> wrote in message
news:6549jjF2cffpiU1@mid.individual.net...
> Gurus,
>
> Free antivirus software such as Avast http://www.avast.com and NOD32
> http://www.eset.com are well spoken of. My question is, given that
> they are free, what's it in for the makers of this software? Because
> of this question, I am hesitant to switch off of Symantec or McAfee.


Free versions are:
- Crippleware. They don't have all the protection and features of the
full verison.
- Lureware. They want you to eventually buy their paid version.

 

[Anteaus]

AVG in particular make their money from commercial sales. If they didn't
release a free version then probably no-one would try it, so in that case no
IT manager would buy it. I guess the others rely on much the same strategy.

Norton and McAfee rely on OEMs preinstalling their products, a tactic which
is highly antisocial, since it effectively removes the computer-buyer's
freedom of choice. It also arguably creates a 'captive market' in which
product quality is less important than if you are trying to convince the
punter to buy your software.

 

[Chad Boyd]

I disagree with this. I have used AVG Free
(http://free.grisoft.com/doc/download-free-anti-virus/us/frt/0) on many
systems over the years and have found it to, usually, take up less system
resources than Symantec Corporate Edition but provides the same level of
protection.

That's not to say that I have never had a system infected, but I have had to
"lobotomize" systems that had both free software and paid software on them.

Your best bet, if money is an issue, is to go with the best free AV solution
you can find and in addition to that install a popular free spyware scanner.
Windows Defender seems to do a fairly decent job. I use this in addition to
the Malicious Software Removal Tool (updated monthly) and Ad-Aware.

You can never be completely protected. As unfortunate as this sounds, your
only real solution seems to be to protect yourself in a variety of ways and
limit how your systems are used.

As to the question of "What's it in for the makers of this software?" I
partly agree that some of them do allow you to use portions of their product
in hopes that you will purchase a full version in the future. Although there
are those, and to some this might be hard to comprehend, that program
because they like it. I have personally written apps in the past that solve
real-world problems (nothing on the level of an anti-virus app) and have
released these to the community through SourceForge and the like. I have
never asked for monetary compensation for my "side" work. I enjoy doing it
because I get a rush from working on a project to solve a problem. Think
about how your grandfather might have done woodworking as a hobby because he
liked to see the finished product. I feel this is comparable.

I hope this helps...


On 3/28/08 10:37 AM, in article uNMRPmOkIHA.4356@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl,
"VanguardLH" <V@nguard.LH> wrote:

> "Spin" <Spin@invalid.com> wrote in message
> news:6549jjF2cffpiU1@mid.individual.net...
>> Gurus,
>>
>> Free antivirus software such as Avast http://www.avast.com and NOD32
>> http://www.eset.com are well spoken of. My question is, given that
>> they are free, what's it in for the makers of this software? Because
>> of this question, I am hesitant to switch off of Symantec or McAfee.
>
>
> Free versions are:
> - Crippleware. They don't have all the protection and features of the
> full verison.
> - Lureware. They want you to eventually buy their paid version.
>