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AVG has a long history of doing scammy things. Starting from pushing toolbars heavily, flagging software that is harmless but poses competition etc. They will n

by forcer 11y ago

AVG has a long history of doing scammy things. Starting from pushing toolbars heavily, flagging software that is harmless but poses competition etc. They will never change. Unfortunately, most of the public is not knowledgeable enough to understand this. In Czech Republic many people see this company as a national pride. I have been dealing with that company for a while and certainly do not agree with my fellow countrymen.

x0x0 11y ago
The thing that befuddles me is if someone came up to you on the street and handed you $100, you'd most likely refuse until you could figure out what the catch is. If someone offered you free movies or music on the internet, you'd either assume they were stolen or there was a catch. But when people download software that was both complex to build and intricate and expensive to maintain, they assume that there isn't a catch. I don't understand.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- forcer 11y ago
  I agree but one would expect that AV vendors have enough opportunities to make money without sacrificing their users and their reputation. Look at how many products AVG has. I think they should do just fine by converting free users to paid subscriptions. Couple of years ago most of their revenue came from toolbars. Since then they have converted their business model to push more for premium upsell. They do it well, I don't have problem with such a business model. Free users serve them well as free marketing force, they don't have to abuse them.
- cm2187 11y ago
  linux is free. What is the catch?
  - x0x0 11y ago
    Significant expertise is required to install, configure (sound, sleep, 3d accelerators, multiple monitors, printers, scanners, projectors), and maintain the os.
    - cpeterso 11y ago
      Linux is only free if your time is worthless.
      - pataprogramming 11y ago
        And Windows is free if you your time is worthless and you pretend you didn't fork over a wodge of cash. Can we kill this meme already?
        frozenport 11y ago
        On one hand Windows is free because it came with my laptop, on the other hand a day of my time lost on Linux is worth more than the $200 Windows license. Although this is very much about Linux on desktops.
        ionised 11y ago
        Your laptop costs more because it comes with Windows. It's not free.
        vetinari 11y ago
        I've lost orders of magnitude more time on windows, than on linux. (Embedded linux devices included in the math).
        BetaCygni 11y ago
        Windows: easy things are easy, normal things require some googling, hard things are impossible. Linux: easy things are easy, normal things require some googling, hard things are hard.
- vacri 11y ago
  The internet is full of free stuff - you even access the web through a free bit of software.
  - x0x0 11y ago
    only firefox could remotely be said to be free chrome is google's tool to control browser apis and to fight apple (viz who is attempting to move app-like functionality into the browser, vs who is keeping that inside apps for their leading app store). It also gives them various other capabilities: monitoring browsing (site suggestion), monitoring ssl cert corruption, etc. And it's their attempt to replace the OS with a browser ala chromeos. safari is similar: apple's ability to control the internet and how it evolves, including veto power over apis that strategically threaten their business so too ie/edge, both historically (stifling development of js and internet apis, activex) and now with their still leading os marketshare and even firefox only lives as long as yahoo, microsoft, or google find them useful, since one of those three basically pays all the bills with search revshare deals. So you could consider even ff as their bulwark against being recognized as a monopoly
    - vacri 11y ago
      The general public doesn't make a distinction between free-as-in-beer and free-as-in-speech. Browsers are free, as far as the general public are concerned. The general public also has no idea how difficult it is to make software. Frequently even programmers don't see software as that difficult - witness how many times someone has to raise the 'mythical man-month' or similar.
- marcosdumay 11y ago
  If people could give $100 and not lose them, there would be people trying to give you a bill at every corner. Mostly for good reasons.
Aqwis 11y ago
Between this and JetBrains' unpopular licensing changes, this has been a bad week for Czech software companies. The only thing that could top it would be allegations that Bohemia Interactive are selling military simulators to North Korea. :)
- lemevi 11y ago
  I love IntelliJ IDEA and it's forks so I wasn't really that upset about any of those licensing changes, well other than requiring an internet connection. You know sometimes I'm going to want to do work when I don't have internet on, like on the train to work or while waiting for my daughter to finish her music lessons. I am glad that they reversed those decisions.
signal11 11y ago
Isn't ESET (NOD32) Czech too? They are pretty decent and I quite like their "gets out of your way" UX.

by forcer 11y ago

x0x0 11y ago

The thing that befuddles me is if someone came up to you on the street and handed you $100, you'd most likely refuse until you could figure out what the catch is. If someone offered you free movies or music on the internet, you'd either assume they were stolen or there was a catch. But when people download software that was both complex to build and intricate and expensive to maintain, they assume that there isn't a catch. I don't understand.

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
forcer 11y ago
I agree but one would expect that AV vendors have enough opportunities to make money without sacrificing their users and their reputation. Look at how many products AVG has. I think they should do just fine by converting free users to paid subscriptions. Couple of years ago most of their revenue came from toolbars. Since then they have converted their business model to push more for premium upsell. They do it well, I don't have problem with such a business model. Free users serve them well as free marketing force, they don't have to abuse them.
cm2187 11y ago
linux is free. What is the catch?
- x0x0 11y ago
  Significant expertise is required to install, configure (sound, sleep, 3d accelerators, multiple monitors, printers, scanners, projectors), and maintain the os.
  - cpeterso 11y ago
    Linux is only free if your time is worthless.
    - pataprogramming 11y ago
      And Windows is free if you your time is worthless and you pretend you didn't fork over a wodge of cash. Can we kill this meme already?
      - frozenport 11y ago
        On one hand Windows is free because it came with my laptop, on the other hand a day of my time lost on Linux is worth more than the $200 Windows license. Although this is very much about Linux on desktops.
        ionised 11y ago
        Your laptop costs more because it comes with Windows. It's not free.
        vetinari 11y ago
        I've lost orders of magnitude more time on windows, than on linux. (Embedded linux devices included in the math).
        BetaCygni 11y ago
        Windows: easy things are easy, normal things require some googling, hard things are impossible. Linux: easy things are easy, normal things require some googling, hard things are hard.
vacri 11y ago
The internet is full of free stuff - you even access the web through a free bit of software.
- x0x0 11y ago
  only firefox could remotely be said to be free chrome is google's tool to control browser apis and to fight apple (viz who is attempting to move app-like functionality into the browser, vs who is keeping that inside apps for their leading app store). It also gives them various other capabilities: monitoring browsing (site suggestion), monitoring ssl cert corruption, etc. And it's their attempt to replace the OS with a browser ala chromeos. safari is similar: apple's ability to control the internet and how it evolves, including veto power over apis that strategically threaten their business so too ie/edge, both historically (stifling development of js and internet apis, activex) and now with their still leading os marketshare and even firefox only lives as long as yahoo, microsoft, or google find them useful, since one of those three basically pays all the bills with search revshare deals. So you could consider even ff as their bulwark against being recognized as a monopoly
  - vacri 11y ago
    The general public doesn't make a distinction between free-as-in-beer and free-as-in-speech. Browsers are free, as far as the general public are concerned. The general public also has no idea how difficult it is to make software. Frequently even programmers don't see software as that difficult - witness how many times someone has to raise the 'mythical man-month' or similar.
marcosdumay 11y ago
If people could give $100 and not lose them, there would be people trying to give you a bill at every corner. Mostly for good reasons.

Aqwis 11y ago

Between this and JetBrains' unpopular licensing changes, this has been a bad week for Czech software companies. The only thing that could top it would be allegations that Bohemia Interactive are selling military simulators to North Korea. :)

lemevi 11y ago
I love IntelliJ IDEA and it's forks so I wasn't really that upset about any of those licensing changes, well other than requiring an internet connection. You know sometimes I'm going to want to do work when I don't have internet on, like on the train to work or while waiting for my daughter to finish her music lessons. I am glad that they reversed those decisions.

signal11 11y ago

Isn't ESET (NOD32) Czech too? They are pretty decent and I quite like their "gets out of your way" UX.