Is TDS-3/4 fading?

I know that TDS-3 has a large dedicated following and since it was one of the earliest and is probably the best known Anti-Trojan among the well informed, I hesitate to question what is going on. I've more or less scoured the web reading forums, reviews, user comments, etc., trying to decide who is now leading or will lead the pack and deserves my subscription dollar. Is TDS-3 living off of its former glory and not investing in product improvement? I've actually had my credit card out a couple of times at the DiamondCS website, but just couldn't pull the trigger. I see what appears to be failing interest in TDS-3. Perhaps part of that is due to the perception that the long awaited introduction of TDS-4 is in trouble. Of course people on the outside can't know what is going on inside Diamond, but I doubt if I'm the only one who seriously wonders if DiamondCS isn't trying to wring a few more bucks out of an aging product that's being overtaken by better run competitors and will eventually throw in the towel. I really would like an answer, but am thinking that it's going to take more than a paragraph or two of denial or a few angry posts from the faithful to answer the question.

 

Antibuddha,

I've been a TDS3 owner for a couple of years now and still believe that it is an important detection and diagnostic tool. I also believe that it is not lagging the competition. I do use it in a demand only context, which I will naturally reassess on the next version release.

As for DCS's approach, look only to ProcessGuard and how that has evolved since it's release. It is clear that a substantial amount of work went into that product up front and additional effort has had to be expended on it as it hit the mass market and issues that emerge only when a heterogeneous user base is involved came to the forefront. This effort will certainly bear some fruit in TDS4.

On a second front, the raw volume of malware has exploded over the past year. I only have to look at the signature database size to gain an appreciation of what's happening here. I happen to have an idled partition with an retired TDS3 installation. The signature database is August 2003 and is 1,036 kB in size. My current signature database size is 2,093 kB in size. That's a doubling in size in ~18 months. That explosion in malware volume simply has to effect the rate of progress on implementing the next version.

It is clear to me that the strategic decision to go in the direction implied by PG means DCS is by no means sitting on their laurels. They are certainly investing in the future. As they've already noted, some of these newer technologies will only be available under WIN2k/XP, while the program itself will run on WIN95 and above, see here.

At this time, I own every product produced by DCS. I don't see that changing in the forseeable future. Like you, I do look forward to the release of TDS4. Since I'm simply a user of DCS products, my comments really don't go beyond what is publically known by all.

I'll sign off as just a very satisified DCS user.

Blue

 

Hi there!
Just read the light blue link in my signature. I should add that thanks to all the DiamondCS education and on which i built on among others here i'm now a proud ASAP member.
TDS has helped my and other peopel's systems around me a lot.
Of course we like to recommend to add ProcessGuard and all the other DiamondCS tools (not to forget all those free tools from the products pages!) if you like to take layered protection seriously.
Having a registered version gives access to the Private TDS forum and more goodies. You know already about the free upgrade to TDS-4 too.