4.0 beta release date?

I was going to paste the same, you beat me to it...

 

Would you two like to elaborate?

TH

 

I just recall a few posts where either Joe or yourself gave the reply "it will be fixed in version 4".
Not only in this thread, I would have to trawl through the posts to be more specific.

Quote: Prevx 3 with SafeOnline still works fine and we are well protected!

This may well be the case, I try to read every post regarding Prevx as it is my chosen protection.
I am still concerned that the above quote may not be 100% true.

There has only been one update since the sale and that was to vers. 3.0.5.220. I can't recall a period where Prevx
hasn't been updated for that length of time.
Sometimes I think that all work has stopped on vers. 3.5 and version 4 is all that matters, at present.

Don't get me wrong, I still have Prevx installed, but I am worried...

 

1. Prevx 3 with SafeOnline does give us full protection with supported Browsers!

2. Prevx 4 is being Developed PrevxHelp has said many times!

3. In a nutshell! https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=1855469&postcount=464

4. And I'm not worried!

TH

 

1. As I stated: this may well be the case

2. If you read my post, that was never disputed, it was actually partly the reason for my concern.
QUOTE:
There has only been one update since the sale and that was to vers. 3.0.5.220. I can't recall a period where Prevx
hasn't been updated for that length of time.
Sometimes I think that all work has stopped on vers. 3.5 and version 4 is all that matters, at present.

3. I am well aware of that post by Joe, my post, in essence has nothing to do with vers. 4 as such. It has more to do with the apparent lack of support for vers. 3.5 due to the development of vers. 4.

Remember you did post:

I, as do many others eagerly await vers. 4, but not at the expense of vers. 3.5.

EDIT: I just realized I should have omitted this from my first post.
and triple helix is saying that everything is fine, 2 contradictions if you ask me. anyway i have switched as i will not give up my portal to the interwebs (firefox 4) just for a security program.

 

I understand fully but you were Quoting treehouse786 and I was concerned with the contradictions that he saying about PrevxHelp and I. There are no contradictions so that is what was confusing me! As to Prevx 3.0 and the future of it only the Prevx Team knows.

TH

Edit: Got it!

 

"Prevx 4 is being Developed PrevxHelp has said many times!"

Prevx can keep saying it all night if they want to.
My take on this is that Prevx is not working properly, if at all, in FF v4.
If it was then we would be able to see it and work with it.
To tell us that it should be cleared up with v4 is to tell me that Prevx cares less about protecting us now than they do about taking care of problems with a version that has never been released.
I paid for protection with my supported browser only to find out that my supported browser was too much for Prevx to deal with.
So I was told that I could revert back to v3.x for the time being.
It's been quite a while. Perhaps too much time for us to keep hearing the same words.
It would be great if you could just fix what you already have!
At this point I'm sorry I spent my money on Prevx again.
Hugger

 

webroot internet security

 

Betas are nice. Just don't put 2 of them in the same fish bowl.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

But seriously -- I find that SpyShelter is very light & it functions well as a substitute for SOL in the interim until . . . whenever.

 

I choose my security software to work with my chosen applications, not the other way round. When I originally purchased Prevx with SafeOnline, I expected that Firefox would continue to be supported through its update path with the version of the Prevx software that I had purchased, or at the very least I would be offered an upgrade to a fully tested new production version of Prevx that would support later versions of Firefox as and when released. In any case, the latest versions of browsers are often more secure than previous versions, which is another reason to want to update.

Quite apart from the now significant time delay between the release of Firefox 4 and the yet to be released Prevx 4 beta, IMO paying customers shouldn't be put in the position of having to be beta testers for Prevx if they want SafeOnline browser protection for Firefox 4 any time soon.

Security companies usually warn their customers of the risks of running beta software on their production systems. What Prevx are effectively saying is that if you want to update to Firefox 4 and maintain browser protection using SafeOnline, you've got to agree to run beta software which, like any beta software, may contain serious bugs.

I can't help thinking that since the Webroot acquisition, customer commitment has deteriorated somewhat. I hope this isn't a sign of things to come.

 

A difficult one I think given that Prevx are working on Prevx4 full tilt (I assume) and presumably have there development plan set in advance...and so fitting in an upgrade to Prevx3 just because Mozilla release Firefox 4 may be difficult. Do they divert resources away from Prevx4 (when a lot on this forum are howliing about how 'late' (moot point in itself) the new version is, or keep to the plan?

Also, we still do not know what upgrade path and under what terms, will be offered once Prevx4 is released.

As per above this is an unfortunate confluence that happens...more often than not...because app providers do not communicate with each other about these sort of things (now there is a novel idea...?). IMHO we just have to make our choices based on what is avaialble at the time and go with it.

Not sure I agree with your interpretation but if correct then my take is that Prevx betas are generally vastly more stable than most other software suppliers' and based on my own personal experience I would almost treat a beta as an RC or better.

You may be right in what you say but I personally have not noticed any deterioration...that is more than that which I would expect when a company is working hard to get a new version out. Not excusing this but suggesting that once again it is normal and we need to understand that. Having said that you may want to look at the followng as an example that Joe is still juggling his balls : https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?p=1873888#post1873888

Just my halfpenny's worth on some good points made.

 

It has to be said Symantec have only just released an update to their Norton range of products so that they work with FF4. Now it could be argued they should have done this when FF4 was released in March.

As far as Prevx is concerned, it has been mentioned by PrevxHelp that adding support for FF4 in Prevx 3 would be more complex than introducing the code needed in Prevx 4, which is a complete rewrite anyway. To quote PrevxHelp:

 

That's weird because all of the companies that have been acquired by Webroot still have the same quick responsiveness as before hand when I talk to them. They all made sure that they responded to any requests I sent in and each of them took care of what I had asked them. I still think they are doing a good job of customer commitment.

Joe is still here and answering questions. Its not like the new version of Prevx is late, I have not seen when a release date was guaranteed.

 

it is ok i have seen it my self companies litle by litle lose comnication with customers but its ok as it is not the only software to protect our computers,i really love prevx alot and i mean but if i have to move to another company to protect me so be it,i want to have prevx in all my systems that is my dream software but if the go way like ProcessGuard did well i will move and find an alternative it is reallity

 

I'll have to say that somebody in Webroot made a very poor marketing decision of the timing of the new upgrade of PREVX 4.0 version. 1st and foremost I think most of us got PREVX so that we can do safe banking online and so forth and we use the browser to access the banking and naturally we want to use the latest browser for security and yet we cannot if we want the full security of PREVX. FireFox road map schedule of upgrade was well known and a well run company should have been ready from day 1 releases of Firefox 4. We as a PREVX users would then be happy for then we have the security of Firefox 4 and PREVX 3. As it is we only have 1/2 of the security and waiting on PREXV 4.0 before we can upgrade FireFox 4.0.

If only PREVX had version PREVX 3.0 working and ready for FireFox 4.0 and then we as an user would not care when PREVX 4.0 comes out for we would have full security already ( or at least we hope so ).

 

I completely agree with you.

The issue for me isn't related to the timing of the Prevx 4 beta. I have never asked when the beta will be released as I would much rather Prevx take their time until they are happy with the build quality than to release the Prevx 4 beta publicly before it is ready. If Prevx 3.0 already supported Firefox 4, there wouldn't be a case to answer.

My point is that - even after the beta has been released - there will be some users who want to update to the latest most secure version of Firefox but don't want to run beta versions of security software on their production systems. Those customers have not been accommodated, and as paying customers I think they should have been. Anybody buying a license for Prevx 3.0 with SafeOnline, knowing that Firefox 3 is a supported browser, may have done so in the expectation that they would be able to update to the latest most secure version of Firefox and still enjoy full Prevx browser protection without having to run beta software to get it. For those customers, the question of how stable the beta may prove to be when it is released for public testing is irrelevant; the point is it is beta software and not what they have paid for, on the basis that beta software is not usually sold to customers.

Whilst I understand that many of the posters at Wilders are happy to run beta versions of security software on their production systems, and there are others who are happy to remain on Firefox 3.6, there will be Prevx customers out there who find neither of those alternatives acceptable, who should have been better served. It's just a personal point of view and not one that everybody will necessarily agree with. I can't help wondering if Prevx had still been an independent company, whether things might have been different but I guess we'll never know.

 

I personally suspect that if Prevx had still been an independent company, things would have been different and that we would probably not have the extensive cloud functionality/network that Joe has alluded to coming in Prevx4. I also suspect that the Webroot purchase has enable the original plans for Prevx4 to be enhanced/pushed and that is one of the main reasons for the delay, i.e., getting the infrastructure in place to support the new fucntionality.

Just a conspiracy theory...

 

I suspect that you may well be right on all counts, and that's the positive side to the scaling up that a takeover by a larger organisation can bring. To me that makes it even more surprising that, given access to a larger resource pool, they couldn't have committed some resources to further enhancing and supporting Prevx 3 until Prevx 4 has been released as a final version. Then again, if you're run by venture capitalists, more interested in cost minimisation/profit maximisation than servicing existing customers, dropping all development of Prevx 3 like a stone and concentrating entirely on Prevx 4 would be the way to go.

Just an alternative conspiracy theory ...

 

Hmmmmm! I work in the industry and often when you have a dedicated team, ie, product specialists, and you need to expand it one cannot just throw bodies at it (well, you can but the results are generally not good)...so there is a difficult decision to make as to how to proceed. Prevx, as I understand it, pre-Webroot, was not a large company, and it will take time to enlarge IMHO to enlarge the specialist base to a level that is comparable with the original Team...so that they can turn out the quality of product that we are used to from the Prevx of old.

You may well be right in terms the key influence on which route was chosen...but my hope is that which ever way they have gone the quality going forward will remain as good as previously.

Just a perspective...

 

Come on give them a break, what problably happened



rising star company is putting a lot of effort in a new major release

established company takes over rising star

after takeover the dev teams of the established company gets a look in the kitchen (pre-take over analysis was financial mostly)

dev team comes home and says this is really great those rising star guys are making

marketing team of established company gets the word, says: when our dev is correct we demand a gui rebrand , our customer base is large potential market just waiting to get introduced to our new star sibbling product, it has to have our company identity

board of established company tells to the board of the rising star that in the interest of integration and market potential it is best that new release will have the looks of established company

dev team of star company is told to meet introduction dates AND have the guy refurbished to webroot branding.

dev team says can not do with same resources so management of star company allocates more resources to new release development and meet dead line (obviously slowing down new upgrades of the current version 3.xx).

A modern IT product has a three tier architecture (GUI - process - data/objects), so 3.xx maintenance developers will problably be assigned to refurbishing the 4.x gui to webroot (can be done - but interfacing GUI to process layer has to be frozen or synchronised in heart beats which causes its own slow downs). Throwing in new bodies from Webroot as Baldrick allready mentioned is not the way to go when facing dead lines (new webroot bodies have to learn new product and environment and new bodies will cause more slow down than they add additional development power). A new GUI is more complex than changing skin in a browser, but it is not going to change the engine/core of the new release, so quality should remain the same IMO.

bottem line:
I am getting very curious to the new release: it must be very good.

 

I too work in the industry so I know exactly what you mean. It is impressive just how much Prevx did manage to achieve as an independent company given their small size. In terms of enlarging the specialist base, there is evidence that Webroot got off to an early start in encouraging cross-functional working between the technical teams, as reported by the following article: -

http://news.techworld.com/security/3246802/antivirus-scanning-becoming-inadequate-says-webroot-ceo/

The key paragraph is: "Webroot will now spend the next six months integrating Prevx’s cloud-oriented application profiling into its own development program. The Derby employees will be retained and the technical effort spread to engineers based in the US and Austria."

Given that the Webroot acquisition was publicly announced on 1st November 2010 and the digital signature for the current Prevx v3.0.5.220 executable is dated 25th November 2010, it looks as though a fairly rapid decision may have been taken to halt any further development activity on Prevx 3. Of course, this is pure speculation and could just be a coincidence.

In any case, I too hope that the quality going forwards will remain as good as previously, and that the Prevx team retain their own identity and technical edge for innovation, and are not simply dispersed and absorbed into the wider Webroot technical community. I also hope that Prevx technology will continue to exist as a standalone application and not simply be integrated into Webroot's other product lines. Prevx 4 will survive because the project was no doubt already quite a way down the software development lifecycle when the acquisition occurred but whether we will ever see Prevx 5 remains to be seen.

 

I cant say much but, everything Joe has said is the truth. Prevx 4 is coming just as he said. Taking longer then we wish? Yes but there are valid reasons and none deal with second thoughts on its behalf by Webroot.

Prevx 4 is real, plain and simple. But it gets old for Joe to answer the same question over and over again when it is dealing with development that isnt under his control.

Joe has spoken the truth and Prevx 4 is real and coming.

 

@ Joe if you are still reading this thread......

Will ALL the coming versions of Prevx for Windows, Mac, etc... have the same features or will it differ from OS to OS?

Thanks

 

Above seconded & thirded. I think that if Prevx 4 is as good as we hope and as innovative as Joe has alluded too, hopefully more uesers will sign up & buy it and then that should add impetus for a Prevx 5 & onwards...hopefully.

 

Sometimes, wishes do come true.