There are two sayings that conflict: “The best things in life are free” and “You get what you pay for.” It remains to be seen which best describes newly released free security offerings from Microsoft and AVG, including the AVG 9.0 release that was announced Monday and Microsoft Security Essentials, which launched Sept. 29.
While it has long been possible to use virus protection without spending a cent, the new releases suggest that the sophistication of the free software is growing. The issue is whether the quality is there as well.
Early Impressions
Industry contacts haven’t formed too much of a reaction to the AVG release yet, but there are some early indications. Ben Howard, an IT consultant for NSK, has used Microsoft Essentials since its release last week and has significant experience with AVG 8.5. He offers a mixed review of the Microsoft product.
“I haven’t detected anything wrong,” he says. “It seems to be running seamlessly and hasn’t shut down or crashed. I did notice that the auto-update feature got five or six days out of date before I clicked on it to manually update.”
It’s clear that Howard wants to see a significant improvement between AVG 8.5 and 9.0 before advocating the upgrade. “I have used AVG 8.5 extensively,” he said. “It is relatively painless for users. But from the administrator’s point of view, it misses quite a few viruses. Just last week I uninstalled 8.5 for one of my clients and installed another product. I instantly found dozes of viruses that AVG missed.”
G.F. Bryant, president and CEO of The Bryant Group, a consultancy in Wilmington, N.C., said his clients that are using AVG are doing well with it, and he doesn’t advocate changing packages unless there is a specific problem or issue. Bryant says it’s a bad idea to use…