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Pastimes : Computer Learning -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Esteban who wrote (27323)	5/31/2002 12:28:32 PM
From: mr.mark	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 110655

i agree on all counts. it's a bit of a mystery and it's good for us to be aware. only answer i can come up with, that is besides the "pay off" accusation, is that the tests are so much more thorough and exhaustive, involving many more exotic viruses than the average user is routinely exposed to, and this is where AVG is falling down. to relate this to the automobile testing industry, think for a minute about all those test drivers speeding through obstacle courses, whipping the steering wheel back and forth, slamming on the brakes, accelerating to high speeds, trying to tip the vehicle over when cornering, etc, etc.... then think of the average driver and his or her normal, everyday use of a vehicle, and the fact that few of these events would ever be encountered on a regular basis. the testing just has to be more stringent than what is normally incurred. that's the best explanation i can find for what we're seeing. to put it another way, when pcmag says AVG missed 6 viruses and gave 7 false positives, i'm saying that it must have involved very uncommon infections. and the same goes for the 14 failures in 15 attempts. it occurs to me that it would be quite telling if we could see a number from each company.... the number would be simply how many viruses their program protects against. symantec uses such a number. as of 5/30/02, NAV protects against 61,155 viruses. i don't know the answer to this question... perhaps an AVG user can respond... how many viruses does AVG protect against? if it's a number less than NAV's number, have we then discovered a possible explanation for these poor results? maybe

To: Esteban who wrote (27323)	5/31/2002 2:33:01 PM
From: Robert Graham	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 110655

Estaban, IMO apparently you are not able to see the "software for sale" industry on the Internet from a completely realistic perspective. There may be important aspects to this business that you may not be aware of. Please do not take this as an insult, but a statement coming from a person who has been in the computer business since the original IBM-PC back in the early 80s, first as a user of the PC, and then as a programmer of PCs. Also the Internet was a very different sort of place to be back in that time. I am speaking strictly from this perspective, with NO implications about your skill level with computers. Let me make several statements. These are observations I have made over the years watching first the PC industry, and then the Internet grow to both become commercially viable. Then I will request you think about their implications. 1. The software industry is still in some respects like a "cottage" industry that it was in the beginning of PCs. The Internet has continued to make this viable. 2. The Internet continues to be the "Wild West" of today. 3. Many if not most software authors do not understand many of the important aspects of managing a business that are involved with developing and marketing and maintaining software. This is particularly true with the shareware industry. 4. Anyone can set up a software business on the Internet. I have even seen ISPs run out of college dorm rooms. 5. Many people have a need to believe what they see in advertisements. And they are easily "wowed" by what they find on a slick web page on the Internet. A good part of the reason is due to both their inexperience with computers, and inexperience with the Internet. IMO another other part is due to their need to believe they are getting "something for nothing". This is a motivation that I believe is in all of us to some degree. 6. The tools are available to create an impressive web site that instills confidence in the viewer, and garner support for a product. Would you believe that many are students, housewives, and hobbiests operating out of their "kitchen", and not the "business enterprise" that is described on their web page? Think about the result when the above observations are operative in this business of software. What kind of place would the Internet turn out to be for the person who is looking for a software product? In other words, do all of these statements, if they were true, give you that "warm and fuzzy" feeling that all there is to be found on the Internet is right and makes sense? Furthermore, does it need to make sense to you? Take care! :-) Bob Graham