Will "Client ​Protection&​quot; compete with McAfee and Symantec

...Called Microsoft Client Protection, the new service could be seen as new competition for McAfee and Symantec, who have otherwise worked closely with the company in recent years to combat the increasing tide of security threats

That service is expected to include antivirus, anti-spyware and malware protection, as well as computer tune-up and backup functionality when it launches sometime next year.

http://informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=171203475

http://www.betanews.com/article/MS_to_Ship_Malware_Protection_Utility/1128597859

Q: Will "Client Protection" compete with McAfee and Symantec?
A: You betcha.

Myself, I'd like to see an open standard for virus definition format.  Then I could mix and match my AV engine(s) and my definition vendor(s).

Yeah but that is how AV companies make money... I mean just because Norton releases a new anti-virus product each year doesn't mean you are any safer...

In my opinion AV companies do screw their customers over a LOT, I mean Norton, for one years subscription charge £19.98 ($24.99) -- that is after you pay £39.99 for the original version... But the virus samples are sent in for free by their clients, all Norton have to do is confirm it is a virus/trojan/worm and update their database to include a new hash or identifying string... Does it cost them £19.98 per customer per year to run that single lab with maybe twenty employees?

I think that you are right that it will represent competition.

Let's be clear...  Microsoft is offering consumer and enterprise solutions.

The consumer product is OneCare.

The enterprise product includes workstation and server components.

The workstation component is called "Client Protection".

The feature sets are being incorrectly merged together.  OneCare is the one-stop-shop (AV, malware, etc, tools, etc).

Client protection will compete with the managed AV solutions from the aforementioned companies (Symantec's NAV Corp, Network Associates' Mcafee enterprise)

To show how muddled things are at redmond, check out the URL for the enterprise webpages:

http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/enterprise/default.mspx

Hmm... I'll bet this URL changes soon