June 12th, 2009

Morro FUD ...

Posted by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes @ 11:21 am

Categories: Microsoft

Tags: Microsoft Corp., *which, Cyberthreats, Security, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Microsoft is getting ready to launch a public beta of Morro, a free anti-malware package that we first heard about last November, but the FUD campaign against it has already started.

Here are some find FUDdy examples:

Last year, John Pescatore, an analyst at Gartner Inc., questioned whether users would step up to Microsoft’s Morro even if it was free. “Consumers are hesitant to pay for a Microsoft security product that will remove problems in other Microsoft products,” he said. “Think of it this way. What if you smelled a rotten egg odor in your water and the water company said, ‘Sure, we can remove that, but it will cost you $50.’ Would you buy it?”

Yeah, but the whole point is that Morro is free. It’s like your water smelling of rotten eggs and the water company saying ‘Sure, we can remove that, for free.’

“Consumers have already rejected OneCare,” added Rowan Trollope, senior vice president of consumer software at Symantec. “Making that same substandard security technology free won’t change that equation.”

I dunno, Microsoft does a good job of pushing free stuff. Look at IE, Messenger, Windows Defender …

To be honest, I was never a big fan of OneCare simply because it did feel like Microsoft was squeezing people for money to protect them from OS weaknesses. Sure, good anti-malware also protects the user from themselves, but with OneCare it did feel like Microsoft was asking users for protection money. But a free OneCare-esque service is something I can get behind. Sure, commercial products out there will outperform Morrow*, but easy access to a free solution will make all our computers safer and mean less spam in out inboxes.

*which is saying something given how hard it is to find an anti-malware product that doesn’t suck down system resources in a way that makes the cure almost as bad as the disease …