Back in March, Microsoft announced that Live One Care, a suite of security products, was going the way of the dinosaurs. Vendors such as Symantec and McAffe rejoiced that they didn’t have to go up against the 900 pound gorilla, and everything seemed to be fine with the world. Everything was back in its proper place.
That’s what you thought at least. In reality it has been leaked that Microsoft has been working on an AntiVirus program that will be free, and will be officially announced soon. Morro, as it is being called, is supposed to offer protection from viruses, spyware, trojans, and rootkits. It is also going to be free. Now it will supposedly only compete with software such as the low end offerings from the Major AV vendors, plus items such as the AVG free software out there. The real question is, how will this affect the AV companies, and is this going to be bundled with Windows 7.
Why bundle it with Windows 7? Well, the rumor is that it will be out of beta and on the market near the end of 2009. This puts it in the same time frame as the release of Windows 7 (Oct. 22, 2009). I figure it will come out as a High Priority Update a month after Windows 7 is launched, to try and circumvent the antitrust issues bundling Morro with Windows 7 would cause.
Try as the might though, if Microsoft ties Morro in anyway into Windows there will be antitrust allegations. Honestly, we have seen this sort of behaviour from Microsoft in the past, when it went head to head with Netscape back in the 90’s. Just look at all the lawsuits from that. The difference is that the AV/Security companies do have a lot more resources available to fight Microsoft in the courts.
My big question is this, why must a company such as Microsoft try to be everything? Can’t they learn to focus on the OS and other current offerings without getting into another software area? Add on that you can bet Morro will be heavily targeted by the underworld on the Internet, just because it is Microsoft.
This is something to keep your eyes on.