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Re: AVG virus software-noLBC

To: "Geoff Branch" <gjbranch@comcast.net>, "Spridgets Mail list"
Subject: Re: AVG virus software-noLBC
From: "CHRIS KOTTING" <ckotting@wideopenwest.com>
Date: Tue, 2 Jan 2007 15:47:03 -0600
On Tue, 2 Jan 2007 15:07:07 -0500, Geoff Branch wrote
> Does anyone have any suggestions for good FREE virus software now 
> that AVG is going to start charging for theirs?

Short answer.  Nope.  

The range of attacks that AV software on Windows has to deal with is so huge 
anymore that nobody is likely to spend the resources merely to gain goodwill.

If you're looking for recommendatinos for a good Windows AV solution 
(removing the "free" constraint), I've always been very impressed with Trend 
Micro's products.  Stay away from Norton and Symantec.  They've been getting 
a lot of coverage indicating that their latest versions break things, and 
the tech support isn't there.

Note: Unabashed but informed anti-Microsoft opinion below...
Billy Zoom's tongue-in-cheek comment may be pretty close to the mark.  
Changing over to OSX isn't cheap (since it means replacing your existing 
hardware with an Apple, unless you're ready to do some serious work under 
the hood), but it might be worthwhile.  

Or, you can keep your PC and go to the OS that OSX is based on: Linux.  
Unless you have some "must have" application that has no Linux equivalent 
(and no, Microsoft Office doesn't meet that criteria), some flavor of Linux 
could be worth considering.

Out of the 6 PCs in our home, two run Windows.  One laptop for a specialized 
Hebrew/English word processor, and a desktop for my daughter's educational 
software.  On the Linux machines, no crashes in the past 10 years, except 
for hardware failures.  (One machine has been on 24/7/365, except for 
upgrades, for the past 4 years.)

We have a hang or reboot on the Windows machines at least once a month.

Chris K.




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