QOTD: Is Free Antivirus as Good as Paid Software?
Does free antivirus do just as good a job?
This week there's been an awful lot of talk about free antivirus. Between Microsoft officially launching its Security Essentials software and Symantec essentially saying free antivirus sucks, there's been no shortage of differing opinions on the matter.
Microsoft isn't the first to offer free antivirus. MSE aside, you've got Avast and AVG, software that many of you say you use and much prefer over the likes of Norton or McAfee. That said, most of you know your way around the web and wouldn't be clicking on the big, blinking signs that say you've just won a cruise to the Caribbean or seven billion dollars in stock options.
Today's question of the day is do you think free antivirus is enough for the average computer user?
I currently run Avast on all my personal computers. It supports Windows XP, Windows XP Pro x64, Vista 32 and 64-bit, and now has Win7 support. It even has a Linux clinet (no real-time scan though), so I can check files I've downloaded.
I'm never switching back to Norton or McAfee again. As I type this on my work's PC, McAfee is consuming 150MB of memory out of my 1GB, and I'm not sure what its doing with that memory either.
conception of bloatware is another issue
I currently run Avast on all my personal computers. It supports Windows XP, Windows XP Pro x64, Vista 32 and 64-bit, and now has Win7 support. It even has a Linux clinet (no real-time scan though), so I can check files I've downloaded.
I'm never switching back to Norton or McAfee again. As I type this on my work's PC, McAfee is consuming 150MB of memory out of my 1GB, and I'm not sure what its doing with that memory either.
Comparatives, and other independent tests, will show that free Anti Virus software can perform on par or ABOVE paid anti virus software.
AVIRA FTW!!! Works great. Caught more than AVAST or AVG (which is becoming bloatware apparently).
And yes, it supports Linux.
PSS: Does anyone have another link to the video? The posted one reports as 'removed by user'.
On the other hand we have the Norton solution at my company. That is seriously the worst piece of antivirus sofware ever invented. (I would elaborate, but I guess most of you already agree with me
So, my conclusion is somewhere in between...you can have good and bad free software just as you can have good and bad paid ones.
Here's one: http://malwareresearchgroup.com/?page_id=2
How many clients that i got that whines there computer run slow and thinks its spyware / virus on system.....
When i boot up i see 512 mgs ram + norton antivirus..... lol
Call up to say you have to invest money on memory cause norton is hoggin up.
Plus I still believe that Kaspersky pays Russian hackers to create virii and spread it on the internet. Just to keep that in mind, since it is also a Russian company that apparantly popped up out of nowhere 4 years ago.