“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
“People who use Windows get what they deserve. It’s like smokers who complain that they get lung cancer. Windows users are IDIOTS!”
Its funny how you all think your so superior yet you buy up whatever Jobs releases to the market and praise it as a god send. Yet you call a windows user an idiot. We are the ones who turn on our MP3 players and have to be shown a sad or happy face to know whether its working.
Yesterday I had some idiot call in on a support line asking for help connecting his Mac to the internet. I actually laughed at him… You know why? I said to him its a Mac aren’t you just supposed to be able to plug it in and it does everything for you? Apple sells its self as easier and better yet they require just as much setup they are only in a prettier box and on that note I tell you… Your all a bunch of conformists. Everyone of you owns the same machine with the same specs built by the same people at least windows users actually like a choice see thats what you get when you by a PC you get a choice not a bunch of Big Brother propaganda being shoved down your throat. ie.. You must buy and use this software only. …. Your itunes songs that you paid for can only be played on your iPod and not on any other music player.
Sounds to me like someone telling me how to use everything I buy the way they want me too.
Like Bill Gates telling me I can only print Word .doc’s on a microsoft printer. Sounds stupid doesn’t it
What a bunch of losers.
This is good news for Apple.
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So in 10 years you will pay $500.
Isn’t that what a Mac mini cost?
Hopefully I’m the first and last to mention this.
Windows User=troll
Don’t even reply people. He’s already got his tiny package in his hand, is refreshing the browser, and is anticpating the violent response he’s going to get.
$50 can get you 1 year domain registration plus 1 year hosting, on which you can start a company and grow into a 100 billion dollar company and compete against Microsoft probably take over the company and dominate the universe with your own products and services.
Hard Nard:
I was thinking exactly the same! Go 007 – er I mean OSX!
I can’t even see the good spin they can attribute to this story.If they rolled out a stable product that would be one thing but due to their own OS inefficiencies I am supposed to pay them 50 bucks. Yeah right. Also just a silly thought why would I trust the company who can’t deliver a stable OS to create a secure and effective security service?
I can just hear the marketing and sales folks discussing all of the security software and firms making money and that they should by rights be part of the action. Hey yeah people OneCare – you’ll only have OneCare now. Honestly, I’m insulted. Talk about thinking we are all lemmings. Now heres a different thought how many people think they will conveniently “break” antivirus software or ship this new Onecare feature standard a la Internet Explorer.
Where’s the class action lawsuit on this one??????????
this is an intelligence test, plain and simple…
and so far the only person on this thread that has failed is ‘windows user’ who, as it happens, shares his wisdom from that lofty pedestal… the company help desk.
If some Windows user actually buys this (and I’m sure many will), I’d like to ask them one question, after they’ve handed over the money.
“Since Windows has all these virus holes in it already, what it is that makes you think that their VIRUS PROTECTION software isn’t full of as many holes itself?”
LOL!
I knew they were gonna do this!
Whatever happened to this so ‘called’ free security that they promoted when they launched this.
Pay M$ for the OS, spend 8hrs a week running patches and then pay M$ again to patch the patches that they made in the first place!
LLLLLOOOOLLL!!!!
GOD YOU WINDOWS USERS ARE THE BIGGEST MUGS IN THE WORLD!
And you being a “Windows user” posting on a Mac message board doesn’t make you an even bigger loser yourself??? Find the Dell Daily News board or something, you’re obviously lost here…
Windows User – please repost and separate independent ideas with a period please.
Ive used Macs for 20 yrs mate.
So don’t flame me – I use them at home and at work.
Gave up on windows many many years ago.
$50 a year?
I think the question is this – if you choose NOT to pay Mafia$oft $50 per annum, are you MORE likely to become owned after 20 minutes of internet activity?
.Mac suddenly seems quite inexpensive, at least I can use it to create things like websites and iDisk.
I use my Mac to have fun, not worry about whether I am under attack.
I bet poeple will still think macs are more expensive, even with the added $50 for semi-security.
Windows users don’t even deserve pitty if they stay with MS through this!
Windows User:
If I bought music from iTMS, I could just burn my tracks to a CD-RW and then re-rip it as MP3 if I wanted to use it on a lesser player.
But the problem I have with your point of attack is that, here in Europe, we are losing iPod competitors on a monthly basis: we never had the Dell DJ, I’m not sure the m:robe ever made it here, and iRiver are allegedly considering their future in Europe (presumably they can’t cope with the white heat of a competitive marketplace).
And then there’s the small question of Macintosh and iTunes compatibility: if you think that Apple prevents third-part hardware manufacturers from developing for either the Macintosh OS or the iTunes application platform, you’re even more of an idiot than your writing style suggests.
At a meeting with someone from iRiver, I was told that they had consciously decided not to develop hardware support within iTunes because, and I quote, “we don’t want to be closely identified with the iTunes Music Store”.
So, they decided not to support the leading content management software because they didn’t want to the consumer to be confused by a store which – even today – accounts for less than 10% of the global music market: pure genius.
What does this service say about Vista? And, wasn’t Vista’s raison-d’etre security?
Isn’t there also a perverse incentive for MS to make a virus-ridden Vista to sell more security service? That’s like a pharmaceutical company giving people HIV and then offering to sell them anti-HIV drugs!
After actually _looking_ at this service I noticed several things aside from what has been widely reported:
– $50 per year for up to _3_ computers ($17/PC/yr). That’s not _too_ bad…
– Managed _two-way_ firewall. That one’s good.
– Boot-time tracing for performance tuning, automatic defrag, etc. Might be useful…
– Managed back-up to removable media or external HD. I wonder how well they’ll do that…
– E-mail, phone and chat support included in the price!!! This is probably the clincher that will make it worthwhile to many people, especially the older generation.
Does Apple offer support via E-mail, phone or chat for an affordable price?
theloniousMac
Well, if Dvorak’s right, there’s always Linux. It’s starting to really come together on the desktop these days.
AND it runs on 64-bit dual-core AMD processors tied together with HyperTransport. Sort of strangely familiar in an iWish sort of way.
Mere speculation I know. When is Dvorak ever right?
Windows USER:
“Yesterday I had some idiot call in on a support line asking for help connecting his Mac to the internet. I actually laughed at him… You know why? I said to him its a Mac aren’t you just supposed to be able to plug it in and it does everything for you?”
I honestly hope you were fired for that.
Tech support lines are to help, not to smear. If a support person laughed at me I would never, ever do business with their company again. How unprofessional of you.
I’m selling my Apple stock and buying M$!!! I need money to finish my sex change operation.
(Overheard recently at a Starbucks in Seattle…)
[Vinny] Hey, Bill – when are we gonna start collecting on that “security” program we gave you to feed to the masses for free last year? Ain’t it about time we got something back for our trouble?
[Bill] Oh, right. Sorry ’bout that, Mr. Scarzarelli. We’ll start charging everyone right away, sir. Right away. You’ll get your first check by the end of the year.
[Vinny] Bill, my friend, I’m afraid that won’t be good enough. We have to show the big boss a very favorable increase in revenue well before then. Plus, you need to cover the losses of your former partner’s miserable performance the Super Bowl. How’s about you start up by the end of February? Say, at $30 per subscription?
[Bill] Oh, my. Oh, my. We can’t move this behemoth of engineers and technocrats and beurocracy that fast! Give us a few extra months, Mr. Scarzarelli and we’ll increase your percentage while raising the price to $49.95. They’ll never know the difference and that should cover Paul Allen’s losses, too.
[Vinny] That still puts a significant crimp in our plans, Bill, but I can appreciate that perspective and will give you until June 1. But that’s it, Bill. There will be repercussions, Bill, if this doesn’t happen on time – and you and millions of others will not be very pleased about the results.
[Bill] Oh, I understand perfectly Mr. Scarzarelli. I’ll make sure it happens. Wouldn’t want anything to happen to that revenue stream. Melinda keeps nagging me about the next payment on the billions of dollars in pledges we’ve made to make the world a better place. Can’t mess that up and ruin my reputation, now, can I, Mr. Scarzarelli?
[Vinny] Of course not, Bill. Be safe, Bill.
I agree with the MDN take except for this line: Wonder what will happen if and when Microsoft’s security subscription earnings dip and need to be, ahem, “reinvigorated?”
The implied accusation is completely wrong. Obviously MS has much more to gain financially from selling a secure OS than by selling software protection. I would expect even MDN to be able to comprehend that.
I’m an old geezer, We used to say ” Thats like putting Willy Sutton in charge of security at the bank”