Virus Software Recommendations?

[Rileska]

I really like Hijackthis

Granted you kinda gotta know what you're doing in order to use it.

[Jyn]

Resurrecting a 2.5 year old thread here. I'm starting to get tired of McAfee as it is a huge memory hog and, I suspect, at least partially the cause of random memory leaks. Since the info in this thread is from 2007, I wanted to see if Thresher recommendations for free anti-virus were still relevant.

AVG and Avast still good? Any new ones out I might not have heard of that do the job? I generally put more stock in what you guys have to say over what is posted on other websites

[leira]

AVG has treated me pretty well over the years. I've been using it at work for around 3 years now. Seems to give good protection without much of a performance hit. Avast was good when I used it, but that was a few years ago now.

[Halyanne]

We also us AVG on all our machines here at home, and when we were in the states, we set it up for my mom to use on her pc.

[Loigan]

Originally posted by Rosuav
Free operating system? What's the catch?

The catch is that it is not compatible with 90% of the software on the market.

Originally posted by Rosuav
Free office suite that's comparable to Microsoft's? What's the catch?

The catch is that it will sometimes not properly read formatting and other adjustments from files created in MS Word '03 and '07

Originally posted by Rosuav
Free C++ compiler that produces better code than many commercial ones? What's the catch?

Free movie/sound player? What's the catch?

Most video players and compilers are free, I am very fond of 'Eclipse'.

Originally posted by Savaric

Free virus software? See I always raise a brow when something as useful as virus protection is offered for free. So what's the catch?

The free AV softwares are pretty useless, if you insist on using a free one you are better off not using one at all and saving the system resources.

[Rosuav]

Originally posted by Loigan
The catch is that it (Linux) is not compatible with 90% of the software on the market.

I disagree on the percentage. So much these days either works in WINE, or was written cross-platform in the first place. Yes, it's not compatible with a lot of software. Windows is also not compatible with a lot of software. (A lot of old DOS programs have to be run inside DOSBox - which is a cross-platform DOS emulator, so you can run your programs just as well under Linux as under Windows.)

The catch is that it will sometimes not properly read formatting and other adjustments from files created in MS Word '03 and '07

No, you misunderstand. I didn't say "program for reading MS Word files". I said "office suite". The fact that Open Office does a mostly good job of reading the opposition's file format is just gravy.

Most video players and compilers are free, I am very fond of 'Eclipse'.

Absolutely. Eclipse (if it's the same one I'm thinking of) is a great tool for writing Java code for smart phones, but it's not the only free compiler around. There was a time when lots of companies sold language compilers for good money... now, I think Microsoft and Adobe are the only companies that try to make big money out of that sort of thing, and the competition is pretty stiff. As to video players - don't be deceived by the fact that Windows Media Player came with your Windows installation. It's not free; part of the money MS collect on their OS goes to the media player.

The free AV softwares are pretty useless, if you insist on using a free one you are better off not using one at all and saving the system resources.

Well, that is a definite possibility. I myself do not use any AV software, relying on my innate sense of "That is not something I want to download" as primary protection. But there are many MANY people in the world who do not understand computers well enough to know this sort of thing, and for them, AV is an easy marketing tool ("Buy our product and BE SAFE!"), relying on a bit of FUD about how easy it is to cop a virus that melts your hard drive. The fact is, viruses aren't the biggest threat these days - you're in much more danger from random port-scans finding open, and vulnerable, services, so a firewall (hardware for preference) will protect you from a lot more than AV software will.

[leira]

Originally posted by Loigan
The free AV softwares are pretty useless, if you insist on using a free one you are better off not using one at all and saving the system resources.

That is HIGHLY innacurate, as is most of your post. There are some seriously amazing things going on in free software these days, including AV software. Between work and home, probably 90% of the software I use is free these days, and I'm gradually phasing out the remaining paid software as good free alternatives become available.