Microsoft Will Fight Viruses for Free but Is It Fair to Other Fighters?

It looks like Microsoft is ready to try and compete everywhere when it comes to software - same as Google now does everywhere online. Today’s announcement is the product code-named “Morro”, security software targeted at end users of Windows operating systems. The anti-malware product will be available as a free download for all users of Windows XP, Windows Vista and upcoming Windows 7.

The product is promised to be not resource-intensive and will be able to run even on netbooks. I am sure everyone has felt frustrated at some point about anti-malware software consuming too much memory or too much bandwidth so there will be consumers happy about some a lighter solution.

The Morro security software to be available by the second half of 2009 will be focused on fighting many types of security threats: viruses, spyware, rootkits, and trojans. The motivation is rather simple: at the current price of anti-malware software packages there are still many computers that don’t enjoy any protection at all. And that is a big problem for many companies, including Microsoft that constantly gets new proofs of how insecure their operating systems are.

Microsoft has actually played in the for-pay anti-malware products market for a while with its Windows OneCare suite. But OneCare has been criticized a lot and has only received a tiny market share so after the free “Morro” software is available to consumers Microsoft will not ship OneCare any more. And since Morro will offer less features and only focus on anti-malware protection where OneCare offered backup as well, Microsoft decided to send consumers that need more extensive functionality to third-party vendors.

But while OneCare did not effect business of anti-malware software vendors significantly, this time the situation is totally different as the new product will be free for users - so it is logical to expect that companies working in the anti-malware industry (both investing a lot in research and earning a lot in fees from their customers) should be worried about this idea as it may very well damage sales of their products (often rather expensive products, at that).

Of course the consumers will win when they have a free option but vendors of anti-malware software will probably be damaged and could even try to come up with some legal actions - depending on what distribution model Microsoft chooses for Morro. If the product is actually offered as a free download and is not bundled with the operating system, it will be difficult to blame Microsoft is abusing its distribution channel. But at the same time if the product is a standalone download, there will still be computers that are not protected - something that Microsoft claims to want to change - so the software giant will need to figure out a way to supply this piece of free software to everyone. And everyone knows the corporation is perfectly capable of making this or that oh-so-needed free downloaded noticeable.