Microsoft Antispyware (beta) - F.O.C. for the moment...?

[G0AOZ]

Pleased to report that this software zapped an irritating infection of the LOP.COM toolbar, where all others failed.

Since this is a beta version, is it the view of forum members that Microsoft is likely to charge for either the next or future versions?


ROGER - G0AOZ.

 

[strongm]

I'm with bcastner

 

[aquias]

There are several truth's that have already been spoken. We'll start with the least controversial, MasterRacker is correct, I've read several articles that echo Stu's words.

With that said, I disagree with the bulk of those articles. Bill is correct. How can you state software to protect your software should be free?

Symantec, Mcafee, Spysweeper, etc... are all in the wrong? They provide support and protection across several platforms, should they provide it free to every platform or just those that are "well written"?

Microsoft did make the choice to go with ease of use vs security. Macintosh took a different direction (I don't dispute that they are more secure). MS, along with the community at large, does pay for that choice. But we've all made purchases and a month later there was an "Update" or an "Advanced" option that became available. Should that have been free? After all, they didn't include all the content/functionality in their first version?

The fact that they're being responsible (Antispyware and Antivirus) is the most we can ask. We all can also hope that the trend we have seen from MS continues. A move towards more secure software while retaining its flexibility.

My final words on this, and it is something I've taken flack for but I believe, put your OS to the gun against MS' market share of users (and haters). A different OS may be harder to crack, but it would be broken down and spyware/virus' would still exist in todays world. Perhaps not as prevalent but we would still have forums like "Tek-Tips" for spyware and virus removal.

 

[bcastner]

A minor rebuttal to the post by MasterRacker:

Windows is suffering from a number of poor design decisions that have allowed too much power to scripting languages and other types of active content.

My quibble: back in the early days the notion of offering a web page designer, and the end user, something better than a pure text page was a great, not a poor decision; and web page designers have taken this to the point of a great idea.

I cannot express in words how sad it was for me to find hackers discovering buffer overflow possibilities in .jpg, .gif or .wmv files. Or to take ActiveX or .ASP or .js and pervert the user experience They most certainly did. Or that people would spend their clever time finding ways to crash, destroy, disrupt, annoy or damage through these web page enhancements one's use of the internet.

As someone who in public forums has spent a great deal of time trying to make things work, I get unspeakably angry about those from the dark side of computing fighting against my efforts.

I honestly believe the anti-malware web sites, newsgroups, and formal and informal connections in the antispyware, antivirus community will prevail in the end.

But at the expense of the web page designer and the end user.

There is a notion, based on the work of Wilfredo Pareto, that most events can be explained by the top tier of 15%. I do not think he had planned on the Internet. A very small % of internet users can decide that you can no longer use what MasterRacker has called "open" aspects of a web page design, an OS scripting issue.

Unfortunately, he is correct. And it angers me to no end.
We all lose because some small community of jerks decided that it would be fun to popup, crash or stop your machine.

Best regards,
Bill Castner

 

[Sympology]

I agree (yes belive it or not, going with previous threads!) with Bcastner. When MS and all the others planned the the internet, OS's etc, they designed it for the good of all, much of it based on trust and inexperience. Who only 10 years ago thought you may be buying things at an auction, via a internet only bank and then checking to see if you baby was still asleep via a webcam.
No longer is the internet a just a place to share interests and knowledge, but a huge money making machine, and as such has generated a huge amount of criminal activity and therefore a huge amount of money and dare I say it, talent, in getting money out of people.
Unfortunatly, it doesn't matter how much technology we throw at it, there is always a weak link in the armour, namely the human factor. Due to humans being humans, we are always curious and many are greedy. Nearly all malware, viri, phising scams are clever social engineering tricks. How many of us have seen "I'm a rich african, send me $1000 dollars and I'll send you $10,000 back" type mails. Most of us are cleaver enough to see this con, but many are not.
While criminal gangs make huge sums of money out of us, they will do everything in their power to get into the O/S, browsers and our emails they can.
We need everything we can to prevent these attacks, but at the end of the day, if we blindly follow links, surf dodgy sites and open attachments, then it will continue to happen.
Even now, the gangs are trying new ways to get around all the security measures we're putting up.

Stu..



Only the truly stupid believe they know everything.
Stu.. 2004