Symantec McAfee pooh pooh about accessing Vista kernel

I have read with great interest the recent gaafs by Symantec and McAfee who are grumbling because they can no longer access the Windows kernel. They rant anti-competitiveness and such however, as a reseller, they have done a piss poor job of protecting the Windows systems. I know, I fix heavily infected systems everyday that have up-to-date desktop versions of their suites. Their desktop security suites are inferior and just plain don't work. As far as I am concerned Microsoft shouldn't let ANYONE access the kernel henceforth starting with the new Vista OS. Pound sand Symantec and McAfee. You've screwed consumers long enough with your inferior products and its time Microsoft put their foot down.

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Tibbys Computers wrote:
I have read with great interest the recent gaafs by Symantec and McAfee who are grumbling because they can no longer access the Windows kernel. They rant anti-competitiveness and such however, as a reseller, they have done a piss poor job of protecting the Windows systems. I know, I fix heavily infected systems everyday that have up-to-date desktop versions of their suites. Their desktop security suites are inferior and just plain don't work. As far as I am concerned Microsoft shouldn't let ANYONE access the kernel henceforth starting with the new Vista OS. Pound sand Symantec and McAfee. You've screwed consumers long enough with your inferior products and its time Microsoft put their foot down.

but ... how do you REALLY feel

How strange. I've been using Symantec AV/Firewall products for a couple years now, and haven't had an infection yet despite having a high-speed connection and spending time on IRC. I certainly don't feel "screwed" by Symantec. As long as ignorant/apathetic users keep opening emails from people they don't know and executing "PICTURES OF MY DOGS.NOT A VIRUS.JPG.EXE", they're going to get infected with malicious software -- and no amount of system protection is going to completely eliminate that risk.

mcaffee and symantec are overpriced, anyway. avast! is where it's at!or, y'know, you could just not be stupid when you're browsing the net. it's not that difficult to avoid viruses. just don't go to p2p sites or piratebay or any other shady sites that offer free cracked versions of vista rc2 and have advertisements for bad stuff up and down the sides of the page.

Should Microsoft leave a known vector of attack available merely to allow Symantec the opportunity to make money protecting the against attacks that exploit it

In addition, why is there not more "privacy" advocates up in arms over rootkits like Symantec Their software has the potential to disclose a lot more information than, let's say, Microsoft's WGA.