Ask yourself this question.  Where does an organization get resources to build a product?  From sales.  If you have no revenue, then how can you invest R&D money back into the product?  If free works for you then great, but I have 15+ years of Quicken files that I would like to protect, not to mention other valuable data.

I'll happily pay for the protection, every day.

 

Cheers.

lol not absolutely nothing... but thanks anyways

jm,

 

i was simply trying to reply within the original poster's specified parameter, of what free anti-v alternatives he had.   this was not meant, in any way, to denigrate the commercial/paid alternatives.

 

you raise an interesting question, about how a company can afford to maintain a free product.  I think part of the answer is that most of these companies offer both a free/"basic" version, as well as (one or more) paid/"advanced" versions... perhaps hoping that, if you like what you see in the free one, you'll be happy to pay for the enhanced one.

 

on the matter of free, I strongly believe that "free" does not necessarily imply "bad" or "inferior".   I use the following products, all of which are free, some of which are in fact "essential" ---  and all of which (in my opinion) are excellent:

 

AVG anti-virus

ad-aware SE

spybot search & destroy

WinPatrol

adobe acrobat reader

SUN Microsystems Java

Macromedia Flash

Macromedia Shockwave Player

QuickTime Player

RealPlayer

 

(Presumably you use some of the above??)

 

On the matter of "ultra" security:   yes, each person (company) must determine the value of it's data... what can and cannot readily be replaced... and the headache involved in the replacement process.   For the average home user, it's my belief that AVG is an excellent choice for an anti-V program.   Updates (free) are available almost every day!   But if you feel there's something problematic/inferior about this product, I'm not advocating you change.

 

Norton & McAfee are indeed the "standard-bearers", and many users won't settle for anything less.  Norton came installed on my PC, and I used it for about a year and a half, until, when I tried to renew my subscription, I was unable to get them to accept my billing information... at which point, I had no choice but to consider an alternative.   I still believe that Norton is an excellent product.  From personal experience, as well as what's said in the virus/spyware forum, there are only two negative things that I can say about it: 

1) it is very resource-intensive (which was especially problematic in win ME systems) --- and to my knowledge, this is the main reason why many people have switched away from it. 

2) it can be very difficult to UNinstall (completely)

 

 

 

avg and avast are popular av's, and there are free versions of both of those..

 

i use etrust ez av.. you can get a free license for it..

 

http://home.ca.com/dr/v2/ec_main.entry25?page=PYPCTrialPage&client=ComputerAssociates&sid=35715&CID=185351

 

many isp's today provide free antivirus software.. see if your isp provides antivirus protection as part of their package..