As Vista Nears Release, Symantec Cries Louder
Symantec is still whining loudly and throwing tantrums about Microsoft making Vista more secure. The whining and lawsuits are not going to prevent Microsoft from responding to its own customers’ complaints and requests to make the operating system as secure as it could be.
From News Factor here:
Symantec said Microsoft’s Vista, scheduled for release in January 2007, is specifically designed to shut out other firms’ antivirus software. Symantec also said Microsoft is deliberately withholding information needed to develop products that work on Windows Vista.
Symantec Communications Director Chris Paden said Vista will “reduce consumer choice” and create confusion for consumers when it comes to picking security software.
Symantec said the new interface comes with preset defaults for virus protection, firewall configuration, and spyware blocking and that users can install replacements for the default apps but not access those replacements through the built-in Security Center.
Paden said Vista’s Security Center control panel will confuse people who want to install third-party software. “It would be like trying to drive a car with two dashboards,” he said.
Although Symantec has not yet filed a formal complaint, Paden is hoping that, by speaking out, more public pressure will force Microsoft to allow other products to communicate seamlessly with Vista’s new security features.
It seems to me that they are threatening to sue again. Symantec seems to think that the userbase of Windows is so stupid that a new security panel interface will confuse them. I think that is insulting.
I think Symantec is way off base here, and I’m not the only one. From the same article, Natalie Lambert lets Symantec have it with both barrels:
Natalie Lambert, a security analyst with Forrester Research, noted that Symantec has been extremely vocal regarding Microsoft’s security plans. She said that, on several occasions, Symantec’s CEO, John W. Thompson, has gone so far as to tell audiences that users would be better off ditching Windows altogether for Macs.
Forrester’s Lambert disagrees with Symantec’s assessment of Microsoft’s cooperation with security companies. “[Microsoft has] spent a lot of time working with all security vendors and getting information to vendors to work on new solutions,” she said. “Symantec is the only vendor that has raised the issue.”
Lambert said Symantec has “great security software” but suspects the complaints are arising over the firm’s reluctance to retool its products.
If CEO John Thompson is advocating that users ditch the one product that has made Symantec famous, that of Windows products, he should be fired by his board of trustees. Not only did Thompson nearly crash the company with the unwise purchase of Veritas, who owed almost a Billion dollars in fines and back taxes, but he is refusing to innovate his own products to stay competitive in an ever-changing space.
McAffee is doing well with a great new line of IPS products and integrated security management. But Symantec seems to be a big yellow blimp that can’t stay in the air.
