Avira Software Has Gone To The Dark Side

What does a purchase ( at less than half price ) of the paid version have to do with the free.

 

I have a laptop that I am experimenting with different security products to get the right combination of security and usability with. In light of this post Avira will not get anywhere near it. I am leaning toward Avast or Panda Cloud.

 

It has everything to do with it. I don't support this kind of activity and have ditched products in the past that added questionable stuff to the installer.
Edit:
It is obvious they don't think much of their free customers.

 

Thank you hayc. I can relax a bit now since I have licenses for three paid versions of it. Still though, watching this cautiously.

 

THAT is the POINT!! thank you

 

Agreed regarding Pro Active, however they aren't the only vendor to have issues with 64 bit OS and some of their features.

 

No I do not.

 

According to this post, they are sending emails to paid subscribers trying to encourage them to buy Registry Booster 2011.

http://forum.avira.com/wbb/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=131720

 

Do you have any idea what having a free option does for a company of this nature? Having a free option means you're likely to have many more users of your product (if it's worth a crap), which leads to reputation, which leads to popularity, which can lead to an increase in sales when free users tell their friends, etc about your product, and may even end up switching to the paid version themselves if you give them good reason, via better features/stronger protection.

You have been schooled, good sir.

 

Quite frankly, (and don't take this the wrong way) people using the free product should kiss the ground and be thankful they are getting something free from anybody. Free is a privilege not a right. So, if it is such an outrage, exercise the option to not install the web guard or use a competitors product. But in case you get the idea that I agree with Avira's move I don't.

 

they must pay a fortune, I mean all the bad press norton got, they must lose loads of customers.
It's got to be worth they while though, I would have though financial suicide tbh.

 

I don't agree with that. A company in Avira's position can't afford to lose customer trust because it can take a long time to gain it back and that is if they ever do. How many people do you think are watching this unfold and thinking when my license runs out I am going to something else. It was not in their best interest to do this imo.

 

http://www.calendarofupdates.com/updates/index.php?showtopic=16253&st=0

TH

 

Or the thousands of users that have the kiss the ground[love that]
free version...that might upgrade someday after trying the free version!!

 

The question that popups is "Why", I mean they really don't need to do this .

But hopefully they will loose so many users that they will have no choice but to quit this partnership. But I bet it will be very hard to get the lost users back anyway since they are likely going to start using the other free AV that starts with an "A" I think.

 

I agree with your position except that it's Avira's mistake to make. As far as people paid or free moving to another product I say vote with your wallet and/or your conscience.

 

That I do agree with you on.

 

I don't quite get the way AVIRA is running their business. Like 1 or 2 years ago they were top stuff. And i mean TOP pretty much everywhere. A year later, no new versions, no innovations, no upgrades, they go silent and they reintroduce ads and add toolbars and so on. Why are they wasting everything they have achieved not so long ago just straight away?

I'm sure there is always some other way, some other than going with the damn toolbars.

 

Yes,Actually ...but befor 3\4 monts, yes.
CPU 50\100 % do you forget?
Are you see the Proactive reaction on 32 bit?
On x64 is another story.

 

I wondered why as well, I mean, one can probably safely assume they are doing alright. Couldn't they have gone the bundle Chrome route or something? I'd say even Yahoo was an option, but after downloading their messenger recently and trying to get rid of everything they put on there, I'd have to say that would be just as bad of an idea.

Edit: @ Rezjor: That bothers me as well, regarding how a top notch company can just change relatively in the middle of the night like that. It makes me nervous for others like Avast, Panda, and so on.

 

I haven't had any issues on my system, and my friends that use it haven't either.

 

I'd go with one that starts with a P instead.

 

Indeed, it would surely be much better than this way.

 

thats disappointing news

 

I'm not certain if Google pays companies to do that anymore, my guess is yes. If so, both Avira and Google would benefit. I don't know, you'd think a security company (well, at least one who has been in the game for such a long time) wouldn't take such a risk.