One year of good, bad and uncertainty

[Firecat]

Hello,

I'm not sure whether this is the correct forum to post it to, or whether this thread even fits into the Ewido forum, but it suddenly struck me that it has been exactly one year since Grisoft acquired Ewido back in April 19, 2006. In the one year that has followed, we have seen the following developments:

- Release of Ewido 4.0
- Release and rename of Ewido to AVG Anti-Spyware
- A new "clean driver" for AVG Anti-Spyware 7.5
- Better update servers thanks to Grisoft's high speed akamai servers
- The same great detection rate as always

Also, we have had some amount uncertainty regarding this product:

- The whole debacle about the lifetime licenses which has been solved now
- Some questions on how much prority is being given to AVG AntiSpyware
- Some doubts about the future of the product
- Various update problems which are to be fixed soon

As we can see, the ewido product has survived and lived well in the one year since Grisoft acquired the company. Much of the support and the virus submission process remains the same, and Ewido remains an overall good product in terms of Anti-Trojan and AntiSpyware.

So, after all speculation, Grisoft didn't discontinue the product, nor have they significantly destroyed any of its former charm. Ewido remains as great as ever, and for this, I feel I should thank Grisoft.

So here's celebrating one year of this magnificient acquisition, one that has actually meant great things for both Grisoft and Ewido (and to some extent, the users of both companies' products as well). Kudos to the staff of both companies, you've been doing a great job! :)

[Firecat]

Seems no one gives a penny for my thoughts. :'(

oh well, maybe this "anniversary" is not such a happy memory for anyone eh?

[Don Pelotas]

Maybe because they are not as positive about this as you are? :)

I don't see it as postive because from were i'm sitting ewido has been put on the backburner and "more important" Grisoft projects are being developed i'm pretty sure. I vividly remember that one of Karl, Peter or Vinzenz posting in october/november that the new version would be out in circa 14 days!

I'm not blaming either of those three, they have new bosses now and have to dance to their tune, but it does not seem like ewido is high on the priority list at Grisoft, nothing new has been developed yet, it's still the old ewido program with a slighly different GUI. All that has happened is more signatures being added, no new stuff etc since the takeover exept being integrated into other AVG products.

I probably sound like old grumpy, but i'm just critical about something i liked = a bunch of young germans who made something for themselves, they unfortunately had to sell out or die i'm sure................and now they are slowly being buried by Grisoft and used for other things.

I could be wrong, but i think i'm not and thats not very positive unfortunately. :)

[Huwge]

I'm not too sure about this product now either. My sub has recently expired. I havent renewed yet....I bought it for the trojan aspect but Im not sure it worth resubscribing for that or maybe I should look elsewhere

Edit.....Just seen that Boclean now released so trying that now

[Chubb]

Maybe another round of consolidation had began:

In late 1998:

Symantec acquired IBM AntiVirus and Intel LANDesk AntiVirus
McAfee acquired Dr Solomon's AntiVirus Tooklit (my favorite)

All of a sudden, 3 products disappeared from the industry.


In 2006

Grisoft acquired Ewido. It is not known for how long AVG Antispyware would continue to survive.


In 2007

Comodo acquired BOClean. It is also not known for how long BOClean AntiMalware would continue to survive.

Maybe more merger and acquisition may happen for the remainder of 2007 and 2008 as more and more company are now moving towards the suite, and competition in the security industry will be more intense.

[strangequark]

-{ Quote: " I probably sound like old grumpy " }-

Yep you do but I think you have good reason to, you raise some valid points.

[Firecat]

Well, at least we're seeing Grisoft developing lots of new technologies...I have good reason to believe that Grisoft wouldn't be where it is today had it not been for this acquisition. The Anti-Rootkit tool may have been a lot more mediocre than it is. And since there is profit to be made in selling a separate AntiSpyware product, there is no real sense in discontinuing AVG AntiSpyware.

Think of it this way, because of the acquisition, both AVG and Ewido products will become more advanced in the future. :D

OK now I'm beginning to sound like a girl who's going to get married soon ;D

[strangequark]

-{ Quote: " OK now I'm beginning to sound like a girl who's going to get married soon ;D" }-

as opposed to to AVG AntiSpyware that's beginning to seem like never the bride always the bridesmaid ;D :P

[Chubb]

And I would prefer that the Ewido guys give standard replies for availability of the new Vista versions, something like "in the works" instead of available in XXX days, on in XX weeks. Users are very sensitive to release dates and they have high expectations that you can make it if you have announced it publicly. Although "in the works" is not a very informative answer, it is better than not being able to deliver according to announced schedules. Beta testing sometimes takes more than the expected time to nail the bugs.

[Biscuit]

Is it even in beta yet? :(

Maybe he meant April 2008?

[Firecat]

-{ Quote: "Is it even in beta yet? :(

Maybe he meant April 2008?" }-
Standard Grisoft policy when making point releases of products, i.e. same product version, but optimized to support a certain platform or configuration, is that there will be no beta at all.

AVG Anti-Malware 7.5 for Vista had no beta, AVG Internet Security for Vista had no beta, and going by this trend, AVG Anti-Spyware 7.5 for Vista will have no beta.

[ratchet]

-{ Quote: "Maybe because they are not as positive about this as you are? :)

I don't see it as postive because from were i'm sitting ewido has been put on the backburner and "more important" Grisoft projects are being developed i'm pretty sure. I vividly remember that one of Karl, Peter or Vinzenz posting in october/november that the new version would be out in circa 14 days!

I'm not blaming either of those three, they have new bosses now and have to dance to their tune, but it does not seem like ewido is high on the priority list at Grisoft, nothing new has been developed yet, it's still the old ewido program with a slighly different GUI. All that has happened is more signatures being added, no new stuff etc since the takeover exept being integrated into other AVG products.

I probably sound like old grumpy, but i'm just critical about something i liked = a bunch of young germans who made something for themselves, they unfortunately had to sell out or die i'm sure................and now they are slowly being buried by Grisoft and used for other things.

I could be wrong, but i think i'm not and thats not very positive unfortunately. :)" }-
With you 110% on this, have been having the same thoughts for months!

[Biscuit]

-{ Quote: "Standard Grisoft policy when making point releases of products, i.e. same product version, but optimized to support a certain platform or configuration, is that there will be no beta at all.

AVG Anti-Malware 7.5 for Vista had no beta, AVG Internet Security for Vista had no beta, and going by this trend, AVG Anti-Spyware 7.5 for Vista will have no beta." }-

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/222/470984919_0fe0c81a8a_o.png

???

[Firecat]

-{ Quote: "http://farm1.static.flickr.com/222/470984919_0fe0c81a8a_o.png

???" }-
I mean to say that only major product versions have beta, i.e. AVG 7.5 was in beta even for Vista RC1 as well as XP/2000/98SE/Me.

They have not specially released any AVG beta product for use with Windows Vista (i.e. no "AVG beta for Windows Vista" package was ever released. All AVG betas and release version supported the latest available version of Vista at the time of release.

But I do not understand what you mean by showing the screenshot. ???

[Biscuit]

That AVG 7.5 was in beta.

[Firecat]

-{ Quote: "That AVG 7.5 was in beta." }-
Hmm.....I've not used AVG for very long (only since December or so), so I was purely speaking out of what I saw during that period. Maybe I was wrong. :-\

[boromeo]

I don't doubt that AVG anti spyware is a very good piece of software but the updates problem is drivin me crazy , again yesterday when clicking on the update tab it would say receiving date but without downloading anything) it was 3 pm , at 5 am the day after it was still saying that it was receiving data without downloading anything again, then i closed AVG AS , and then restarted it , and then clicked the update button again and clicked on start update manually and then Miracle ,it started to do the updates but the trouble wasn't over yet, cause then it said updates aborted , so i had to click on the start update again , and then it was up to date

Avg AS has to do something about this and it's a priority for them to do so..They act like if they don't give a damn about it ! I paid for this product but i suppose they wouldn't give my money back (of course) ..and it seems they don't reply when you email them so the more it goes the less i have trust about this product and i'm not the only one , that update problem has been for all April and it continues on May, Well that was my opinion !