“A new security service from Microsoft Corp. will charge users $49.95 per year to better protect its Windows operating system from spyware, viruses and other Internet attacks,” Allison Linn reports for The Associated Press. “Microsoft plans to release the product in early June.”
“Called Windows OneCare Live, the subscription service will compete with security products made by traditional Microsoft partners, including Symantec Corp. and McAfee Inc. — although the software giant insists that its aim is not to run those companies out of business,” Linn reports. “Ryan Hamlin, general manager of Microsoft’s Technology Care and Safety Group, said Microsoft is less concerned with converting people already using other products. Instead, Hamlin says Microsoft’s goal is to provide protection for users who don’t have any added or up-to-date security — a group that Microsoft estimates comprises 70 percent of consumer users.”
“Microsoft, whose Windows operating system and Internet Explorer browser are constant targets of worms, viruses and other disruptive attacks, announced more than a year ago that it would offer the paid service,” Linn reports.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Wasn’t Windows 95/98/Me/2000/XP supposed to be secure? Now, they’re promising Windows Vista will be secure. Yeah, riiight. And, because they’re incapable of making Window secure, they’re going to charge their pigeons $50 per year? For “Microsoft Security,” a misnomer if ever there was one? Why not make Windows itself secure? You know, like Apple’s Mac OS X.
Anyone who buys Windows and then pays Mafiasoft $50 per year in protection money is a damn fool. If you’re that stupid, you deserve to use Windows, and only Windows, for the rest of your life. Wonder what will happen if and when Microsoft’s security subscription earnings dip and need to be, ahem, “reinvigorated?”
Here’s the best personal computer advice you’ll get all year, perhaps ever: If you only use Windows, dump it and get a Mac. Take the $50 you would have wasted for trying to secure the Windows mess, add in all of your annual wasted time and the costs of your other Windows anti-virus, anti-spyware and anti-malware software plus the processor cycles you waste running them, and apply it toward your .Mac subscription instead. Don’t forget to ask your software vendors to “cross-grade” your software (pay the upgrade price – or in some cases just the shipping cost – to switch from the Windows version to the Mac version, instead of the full retail price – many vendors will accommodate you). You’ll come out so far ahead, you’ll think you’ve jumped forward a decade – which, of course, would be true.
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Related MacDailyNews articles:
Mafiasoft? Microsoft to ‘offer’ new subscription security protection racket – October 07, 2005
Sleazy Microsoft sells out anti-spyware Windows users, downgrades Claria Gator to ‘ignore’ – July 07, 2005
Mafiasoft? Microsoft to roll out anti-virus subscription protection racket – May 13, 2005
As a Mac user, I just gotta laugh out loud.
hehawhehawhehawhehaw
This is unethical. Microsuck should be providing a product that is secure. Users should not need to “buy” security from them. If a vulnerability comes about, it means the software was not designed well in the first place and Microsuck should fix it for free.
Go Apple!
Hey MDN!
I like the way you’ve been attributing the “heads up” to readers who point you toward these types of stories/links. I’m a little disappointed that I pointed this out to you yesterday (perhaps one of many people who did so), but the attribution appears to be missing here….
Would you dine at a restaurant if they said– for an extra few bucks, we’ll guarantee this food won’t poison you (and if it does, we’ll take care of you)?
hey, just think of it this way:
microsoft is a new car.
you have to buy extra options (security) like you do a sunroof on your new car.
except after paying the extra cash…you find the stupid sunroof leaks..
hehe.
Hey! Uncle Vinnie got 15 years for protection money, and Bill Gates gets nuttin? What gives?
Tony says Billy Two-face will be charging $300 a year by 2007! Fuggetaboutit.
What difference does it make, according to Dvorak Apple is going to dump OS X and move to Windows.
As the John Morrell of the Good Morning Silicon Valley e-newsletter put it: “You can’t help but admire the vertical effectiveness of selling both the problem and the solution.”
I must agree that this does make Microsoft look somewhat ridiculous…..Asking THEIR OWN USERS to pay $50.00 per year for security?
Very bad – at least from a PR perspective.
You know in a few months after the release of OneCare Live, they will have to sell an antivirus for the OneCare Service…the avalanche continues…
People who use Windows get what they deserve. It’s like smokers who complain that they get lung cancer. Windows users are IDIOTS!
From my earlier Slashdot post on this subject:
Introducing SpoonCare!
MS RowBoat (TM) Will NOT come with a bailing bucket as previously speculated, however their new SpoonCare service will send users a new BailingSpoon (TM) update every month. Those who decide not to subscribe to SpoonCare will still be provided with a free monthly CorkPlug Update.
—–
Seriously… would you buy a boat that comes with a bailing bucket?
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” /> How about one that strongly recommends having one at all times? Don’t buy cardboard rowboats people, the only Vista they have is a view of the ocean below as you look through the holes in the bottom.
Actually I know Adobe will crossgrade your software for the shipping cost only ($20) so you don’t even have to pay for the upgrade path. I’m guessing more companies do this also – you just have to ask because they don’t exactly make it widely known to users.
You know, there’s a word for this program: “Racketeering”
ROTFL
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” />
un-bloody-believeable!!! And people look at ME funny when I say I use a Mac.
MW-inside: as in “Billy and his thugs should be ‘inside'”
“That’s a nice computer you’ve got there. Shame if something bad were to happen to it.”
if only my MDN word were “Conflict of Interest” instead of WALL.
If you only use Windows, dump it and get a Mac… You’ll come out so far ahead, you’ll think you’ve jumped forward a decade – which, of course, would be true.
MDN, bloody brilliant!
MDN MW: “sent,” as in: I’ve “sent” this article to all my Windows suffering friends and acquaintances.
The part I laugh at is “Windows OneCare Live.”
Remember back about five years ago, everything from Microsoft was “Dot Net.” Office .NET, Visual Studio .NET, etc.
Now everything is “Live.” Office Live, OneCare Live, Windows Live, etc.
.NET or Live, it’s all DOA
This reminds me of the scene in “Tomorrow Never Dies” where Carver asks one of his men “How’s our software coming?”
“Full of bugs and problems like you requested. People will be paying for upgrades for years.”
WOW !!!!!! How pathetic, what a joke.
Glad I’m not now or have ever been a Windows user.
Is it called Windows because you want to throw your computer and or self out a Window when using ?
Does this $50/month even guarantee you anything? I’ll be they have absolutely NO responsibility if they fail to protect you.
I tried talking to some friends this weekend about the Mac being more secure, easier, no viruses, etc. They fought me on every point despite all the evidence on my side. Freakin’ idiots. I need new friends!