The beta of Microsoft Security Essentials was launched recently, a free antivirus package designed to help the average consumer protect their computer from all the badness that exists out there on the internet. A good move by Microsoft, but it seems that the announcement rattled some cages at top paid-for antivirus firm Symantec, as their Product Manager for Asia-Pacific Consumer Products and Solutions David Hall went on the attack in an interview with technology blog BLORGE.

“If you are only relying on free antivirus to offer you protection in this modern age, you are not getting the protection you need to be able to stay clean and have a reasonable chance of avoiding identity theft … Microsoft’s free product is basically a stripped down version of the OneCare product Microsoft pulled from retail shelves.”

“Consumers don’t need less protection, they need more.”

He goes on to give some more vague and desperate-sounding excuses why people should be using his company’s product. Of course, the internet being the internet, the site’s readers have come out in droves to defend free antivirus products and attack Symantec’s notoriously buggy, slow, expensive, and generally terrible software. A few highlights:

“Every time I have given Symantec “another” go, I ended up frustrated and shitty. It is a bitch to uninstall properly too.”

“I used Norton antivirus for 2 years, and found it slowed my computer down horribly. Used Avast (free) and it removed adware that Norton had never picked up. Add this to Symantic sending unsigned updates (pifts.exe), and being a pain to uninstall, and I’ve lost trust in them.”

“Naturally, Symantec (McAfee, too) are trying to convince users that they need a bloated, expensive security product, and they have just the software to fill that bill!”

…And so it goes on. It looks like Symantec’s PR attempt backfired a little here.

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