For the best part of last week we were being told in the weather forecast that snow was on the way for the weekend.
Well, it arrived Friday night, and snowed through most of Saturday and this evening (Sunday) there has been even more. There was a beautiful sight out of my office window this evening – with the yellow street lamp lighting up the fresh snow.
No photo of that, unfortunately. But some from the rest of the weekend:
First snow...
... more snow ...
... and the result!
You might at least be considering it after reading the latest announcement that Microsoft made this week. After all, most virus scanners at the moment cost money, and if you combined them with a firewall they become even more expensive.
I have probably used nearly all of the major virus scanners in my time. My first experience was with a scanner from McAfee that ran under DOS. It must have been around 1990 and I remember removing the Jerusalem virus with it – from a 60MB (yes, MB!) hard drive.
Later I moved on to Norton (later Symantec) Antivirus, and even the Internet Security versions. A number of my employers used their corporate versions as well.
But one year I had trouble installing the annual update, and so then I discovered F-Secure. I stayed with them for about a year, until I finally ended up with Avira’s Antivir. Here I have used the free version (privately), the premium version (which scans e-mails and websites) and the professional version (for my business computers). I still find it the best virus scanner out there at the moment.
Other employers have used Trend Micro and McAfee (for Windows), whilst I have customers that use Kaspersky and G-Data solutions. So you can see that there are a number of solutions out there, and I have experience with most of them.
Let’s turn now to Microsoft. For the last couple of years there has been a programme out there called OneCare – Microsoft’s security package. I have yet to see this running on any PC that I have come into contact with, not even at any of the trade shows that I go to.
So what will happen when they release their free anti-virus solution? Of course, various computer publications will test it and then we will know fairly quickly how good it is. But even if it doesn’t recognise absolutely everything, will users still be prepared to pay for a better scanner if they can have it for nothing?
It will be interesting to see if it comes pre-installed new computers. If it does, then I am sure that Microsoft will have the same problems in Europe as they did with the pre-installed Windows Media Player. Maybe they will have to pay another fine to the EU and produce a version without the pre-installation, but that doesn’t mean that user won’t still see it as a cheap alternative and use it anyway.
Although I can have Microsoft’s Windows operating system without the Media Player (so-called “Windows N”), I have seen very few computers that do not have it installed. But the number of installations of other products such as QuickTime, RealPlayer, WinAmp, MusicMatch etc. are – in my opinion – declining.
Are the current anti-virus products doomed to suffer the same fate?
There were times when I felt that the internet technology in Germany was far more superior to that in the UK.
Whilst many households in Germany have ISDN lines, the technology is widely unknown in the UK – even for many small businesses.
Broadband arrived earlier in Germany than the UK. Whilst I was going online with almost 1MBit, most UK internet surfers were still using 56k modems. By the time 1MBit was on offer in the UK, German providers were offering 6MBit.
For a long time now I have been able to listen and watch selected TV and radio programmes from German public service broadcasters, and more recently some private ones, yet the BBC iPlayer has only been out since the end of last year.
Now, it seems, the UK has not caught up, but has overtaken Germany!
A report in the Telegraph states that the average person in the UK spends just over 4 hours per week longer online that the average German. Working so much on websites I would probably buck that trend, but does the average Brit really spend 14 hours per week online? Do they really spend 3 times as many SMSes per month?
But then, what counts as online? Surfing the web is probably obvious, but does sending an E-mail count? Am I really online at that point? Surely that depends on the type of E-mail that I use. Webmail is online, but how about IMAP accounts that synchronise with their servers? Or company Exchange servers that are online even when their users are not?
What about Skype? I know that my computer is online when I use Skype to make a telephone call, whether it be to another Skype user or to a landline, but surely that’s different type of ‘online’?
The gap may be about to widen even more, with the announcement that BBC 1 and BBC2 are to be streamed online. Unfortunately this will only be available to viewers in the UK (why can’t they allow us ex-pats to subscribe to them as well?!) But although there are similar services for some channels in Germany, they are not directly from the broadcaster themselves.
This is, of course, wonderful news for students with broadband access. Now they no longer need to fit a television set and computer into their rooms (do they still have those 2 amp sockets?) but can watch online. Online? Are they really ‘online’ when they are only watching their favourite soaps? That should push up the online statistics a bit more.
Which just leaves the question of whether those same students will still need to buy a television license to watch the channels on their laptops. In Germany they would…
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