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Raw Bytes Computer News KPBX FM 91.1 Radio National Public Radio Network Frank Delaney Producer Broadcast on Thursday Morning 7:35 AM During Morning Edition Support Public Radio ! The Theater Of the Mind |
In computer news this week 10/18/2006 |
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The pilot fish are fed from the
deal made in the smoke filled room – Just 2
weeks ago I did a segment on Microsoft’s attempt to freeze out the 3rd
party anti-virus vendors and keep the market all to themselves. For
decades antivirus software companies like McAfee and Symantec and many others
have been making money by covering Microsoft’s mistakes up, mainly all
the holes in their operating systems and application products like Internet
Explorer, which hackers can easily exploit to create security threats. These
companies have been the pilot fish of the industry, following the huge shark
as it swims around, and living off the scraps it casts off. But those scraps
are a multi-million dollar industry in itself, spawning dozens of anti-virus
companies all over the world. As it was, Microsoft gave them permission to
some of the inners secrets of Microsoft product code, which enabled these
companies to figure out how to combat the hackers. But the
biggest change is that now Microsoft has 2 anti-malware products of their
own; Windows Onecare antivirus, and Windows Defender anti-spyware and
adware. Microsoft did their usual thing of buying existing companies
that already had a product, and they have been free beta-testing both of
these programs for over a year now, and are now actively selling them. You can
buy their Windows Onecare anti-virus product for 3 computers for only $ 50 a
year, much cheaper than most of the other anti-virus companies. It is still
in development and doesn’t have some features required for network use
at this time. And their windows Defender product – which is
anti-spyware – is still in free beta test, which you can download and
use for free. So having
taken over most of the world already in terms of operating systems and office
application products – meaning Microsoft Office – Big Green
seemed to have turned to picking up those scraps it had left for the pilot
fish. But a few things stood in their way. 2
of these were governmental entities, namely the Fair Trade Commission and the
European Commission, both agencies which view Microsoft’s predatory
practices with a suspicious eye. Several
years ago when Microsoft tried to buy Intuit – the company who makes
Quicken – the FTC nixed the deal, saying it would make Microsoft too
dominant in the accounting software marketplace. This was good, but
hypocritical at the same time, as Microsoft was already hugely dominant
already in operating systems and application software. Microsoft recently introduced
their own accounting program software, Small business accounting 2006, which
has gone hugely ignored despite all their promotion and hullabalooing of it. But probably the loudest
noises of all were made by the current anti-virus software companies who
stood to lose their livelihood. Earlier this month, security firm McAfee took
out a full-page advert in the Financial Times to alert readers to its worries
about the way Microsoft was handling the release of its new operating system.
"Microsoft seems to
envision a world in which one giant company not only controls the systems
that drive most computers around the world but also the security that
protects those computers from viruses and other online threats," the
advert said. And so a lot of noise was
made, and as always behind the scene deals were made in corporate
smoke-filled rooms, and now both the pilot fish and the shark are swimmingly
happily together again. For Raw Bytes This is Frank Delaney (C) 2006 MTA Micro
Technology Associates http://www.mtamicro.com/kpbx.html PO Box 31522 Spokane, Wa 99223-1522 (509)624-7230 |
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