Okay, I admit the title is a little provocative, but that’s what this thing is really all about: according to Reuters Microsoft will begin a public beta test for their new service, Windows OneCare Live, which will later become subscription based (non-free). The service offers the same things as many third-party vendors already do: antivirus, firewall, backup and recovery.
In fact, standard Windows XP installation already delivers some of these services. So, what can we deduce from this new service? First, obviously even Microsoft doesn’t trust the current firewall of WinXP. Second, Microsoft will allow the existing features to deteriorate further to make market for the new service. Third, as security should be a basic feature in an operating system, it seems that Microsoft doesn’t even plan to make a decent operating system as long as they can get away with delivering crap while charging big bucks.
This new service proves that Windows security is going to remain inadequate, unless you are able to spend some extra on it. It begs the question, why bother paying at all for crap while better products are available for free? Is that brand loyalty or what…