Technology News
McAfee Bundles 10
Utilities In One Suite
(09/20/98; 8:22 a.m. ET)
By Andy Patrizio, TechWeb
Four years after Microsoft started the
bundling trend with Office, utility vendors
like Network Associates have decided it's
a good idea.
Symantec was the first out of the gate with
SystemWorks, and hot on its heels is
Network Associates with McAfee Office.
McAfee Office is packed with a lot more
software than SystemWorks, which
consists of three utilities from the Peter
Norton Group. SystemWorks originally
contained four, but Symantec was forced
to remove Uninstaller Deluxe after losing
a lawsuit with CyberMedia earlier this
month.
The utilities included in the McAfee suite
are VirusScan, Nuts and Bolts 98, First
Aid 98, UnInstaller, Guard Dog, PGP
Security, Hurricane 98, Oil Change 2000,
ToolBox, and Netopia Virtual Office.
McAfee Office is like most first versions
of suites: It's more a collection of
products in one box with a ribbon around
it than an integrated product. But Network
Associates did perform some integration
work that will continue in future releases,
said Tracy Hulver, senior product
manager for utilities at Network
Associates.
Network Associates could have waited to
further integrate the software, but wanted
something on the shelf in time for the
Christmas season, said Hulver. The idea
behind the suite is to provide a single,
complete package. "It was becoming a
little intimidating to walk into CompUSA
and walk into the utilities section with
numerous utility packages with lots of
overlap," he said.
But this first release is somewhat
coherent. The installation is from a single
CD with one installation program, and it
has a common program launcher, so all 10
products are launched from the same
place. There is also a common interface
that will eventually be on all of the
programs, but is only used on VirusScan
and Nuts and Bolts for now.
Version 2.0, which has no launch date as
yet, will have tighter integration and will
leverage the other applications better, said
Hulver. For example, if a diagnostic tool
in Nuts and Bolts finds an outdated driver,
it will launch Oil Change to update it
automatically.
McAfee Office ships to retailers next
Friday. Its estimated street price of $99 is
nearly 75 percent off the $380 price of the
separate 10 products.
Regards
Neil |
