Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 19th Dec 2005 22:07 UTC
The December CTP of Windows Vista has been released. ActiveWin has published screenshots, and a list of features, of the latest CTP of Windows Vista. Key areas of improvement in this CTP are security (Windows Defender, parental control, enhanced firewall, control over installation of device drivers, and more), performance, power state transitions, and the user interface ("evidence of Aero's progress in the December CTP includes the translucent 'glass' appearance of open windows, smoother transitions between windows and a re-designed start menu").
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Member since:
2005-07-09
MS-DOS also came with MSAV bundled with it. It didn't destroy the AV market by any stretch of the imagination.
"I can see a similar development for the anti-virus and anti-spyware software market segment. Therefore it is my opinion, that a shortsighted thing would be to let the users have better security when Vista is released and only one supplier of such software 3 years after that release."
As for being short sighted, in a perfect world, Microsoft would obsolete/mitigate the need for anti-*. Seeing as that would require a serious rearchitecting of Windows as we know it and the removal of a lot of legacy cruft (then Symantec, McAfee, F-Prot, CA, et al would really be ass out or forced to reinvent themselves), the next best thing for them would be to include anti-*. It should also remain free, fully updated (unlike MSAV), and replaceable.
Microsoft is trying to establish themselves as a reformed, security conscious vendor. IOT to do this, they really have no choice but to integrate. Here is why; Too many of their customers aren't taking it upon themselves install necessary security software on their own. Hell, too many of their customers end up zombified due to not using Automatic Updates, let alone implementing and maintaining security software. We aren't talking about getting clobbered by Windows worms from Day 0 stuff, patches that would have stopped Code Red had been availible for months (one of many examples). Microsoft has been saying "Trustworthy Computing", so they really have a lot of stops to pull out. You can't do that if your name is in the headlines because of yet another worm your software is propagating and computers are zombies before the install is finished or they can reach http://update.microsoft.com upon being connected to the Internet.
For the other ISV's of security software, if they build something better, people will buy it. Windows XP and Server 2003 both come with a firewall, but Zonealarm, Kerio and Linksys are all still in business.
In short, rearchitect, or integrate and correctly implement the bandaids. Anything less makes "Trustworthy Computing" appear to be lip service.