AVG vs Avast!

The funny with Avast is about 2 years ago they sent me a mail...warning me that i d be illegal if i was using Avast Home in a business,that the conseguences of the law are very severe and hope i am aware of them and something like this.The amusing part is that i had only used Avast for a week and didn't like it.Anyway,i replied them that their marketing policy sucks,that they can't send such emails almost to intimidate people that registered a free version and that if i wanted to risk my business (which btw i don't have since i m a student) with a pirate antivirus,i d certainly chose something better than Avast.Duh!

 

avast is for the second time not so good. I have a keylogger on my pc thats sends german emails to some people and a marketingplace. Kaspersky founds 4 virusses and CWS shredder found CWS.Search

AVG is better then avast

 

I think that Avast and AVG are good for basic protection and you can't ask for more from a free antivirus.I ve had KAV in the past,then Panda ,at the end i saw that the only infections were stuff in the temporary internet files that i clean more times a day anyway and maybe 6-7 times something from p2p.For the rest,if you have multiple layers and disable ActiveX ,which is the biggest hole while surfing(i use Avast for the easy activating/disactivating them),you can sleep calm.I don't even remember the last time i got actually infected.More than a year ago i think and happened after fresh format before i could put the firewall.At the end i saw that with a bit of attention you don't get infected,so now i only use free programs for my security (3 antivirus,2 antitrojans and process Guard free) and i m pretty confident i don't need KAV or anything else.

 

Enough about avast! registration...

I think that somebody should start a poll about whether or not avast! should go open-source! They could do what Sun Microsystems did with OpenOffice.org while offering a paid supported version like StarOffice. Or like how many Linux distributions offer a free version and offer a paid supported version that has a few extra features and stuff. Going open-source would allow for faster virus definition updates and overall improvement. Besides, I don't think avast! could make it any other way in this business.

 

avast! is a closed project. Don't mess free stuff(free) with open source(free+available source code).
Arey you nuts? Alwil giving away their source code!? Nope,won't gonna happen.
Try at ClamAV. Opensource AV.

 

Hyperion, would you be so kind and forward me the email you are talking about? I'd be very interested in seeing it. All I can say is that we don't send such emails.

Thanks
Vlk

 

Sorry Vlk,but as i said, it was 2 years ago and i had no interest in keeping it.Did/do you have a distributor/representative in Italy?Because i m 98% that i had replied in Italian (so the mail they sent me was in Italian too).

The mail more or less was that i was an Avast Home user and wanted to notify\remind me that in case i m using Avast Home in business the law says this and that,that hope i m aware of it etc etc ending with best regards.

My reply more or less was that i had only used it for a week and that they could check their records and see that i wasn't updating it for months,that this is horrible marketing policy and can't send such mails,that i don't have a business at all and that if i had one,and wanted to risk a fine for a pirated AV,i d risk it for something better like Norton.

Maybe the senders of the mail have a copy,because i don't suppose i was the only one to receive on of these.After my reply i ve never heard of them again.

 

OK, that would explain it. You're right that we had a similar incident with our Italian distributor some time ago... (sending out some emails without our authorization). I guess you must've been unlucky enough.

Thanks
Vlk

 

Yeah,my luck with PCs in general isn't good,although it's my preferable hobby,they give me bad surprises often, much worse than an annoying mail

 

Also,since i understand you are from Avast,i grab the opportunity for a comment.Avast is getting better year after year and has great potential,but i think it needs to be more lean,specially in the advanced interface.So many options get chaotic.As Reijor pointed out,AVG has a more graphically obsolete interface and version 7 has more complicated options than 6,yet i feel it remains somewhat more ordinate.I think Avast 5 should concentrate on cleaner interface and keeping light resources,because people begin to see the more known AVs slowing down their PCs and that's where the less famous AVs should attack the big ones (Italian market for example,is dominated to a ridiculous degree by Norton.You go to a store and you find only Norton in 3 shelves,McAfee in half,Kaspersky in 1/3 and Panda in 1/5-the last two if you go to a big store.Plus once i saw recently NOD32 and i was very surprised,since 99,9% of people here never heard of it but seems it's pushing into the market now).There are many that simply use Norton because...everyone else does.When you point them out that the slowing down can be from Norton(not to mention all the problems 2004 had),they get surprised.The non-Norton users i know,are all ex Norton people that someone pointed them out that not all AVs are the same and that certainly Norton isn't light as a feather.This should be the marketing policy of your Italian distributor,instead of teaching law infringement.Advertising Avast as a light and hopefully clean interface AV with good detection rates.Most people install and install things and don't even know that many run at startup.Having a heavy AV only makes things worse.You can never hope to beat Norton in Italy in his own playground of famous big-boy AV ,but you can choose your own battleground,cultivate a reputation of Avast as a light,lean AV that will free your PC's power.Many more would listen and even i wouldn't mind receiving such mail about new features/info on resources of new versions etc.I am in eternal search of the lightest setup and do the same for friends or people i know and ask my help.I had bought KAV,at the end i uninstalled it because of the ADS,and i saw a big increase of my speeds.That's the battleground that Avast must make his battle (as long as the lesser AVs).Detection-wise ,at the end,no AV can detect everything,I had KAV resident and i got the usual Java exploit Byteverify.KAV saw 1 file,AntiVir on demand saw 3 more which i sent to Kaspersky and confirmed me they are to be included in their definitions.Much comes to luck at the end,wether your resident will be ready for the virus you ll encounter.That's why you find people "Norton miss this,KaV miss that".I know many people who would prefer more light AV even if a bit inferior to KAV in detection.The main problem is that most people don't even know that their AV can hog their PC.

Regards