How-To Geek

This little news item seems to be flying low under the radar, but Microsoft has officially announced that they will discontinue Windows Live Onecare, their security suite for home users. Here is the news item:
http://www.microsoft.com/Press.....ityPR.mspx

It seems to me that this product was not doing well from the get-go. Onecare was in beta for a long time and, even after it was released, there continued to be betas of the next version available (1.5 beta, 2.5 beta). It never scored high on AV shootouts. Now after being a real product for less than a year and a half, it's end has been announced. The only good news is that they will be replacing it with some kind of free software, codenamed Morro.

Until the cutoff, however, it looks like they will continue selling this product to unsuspecting users. They are still selling (as of today) a one-year 3-user subscription for $49.95 US, with no warning that in 6 months it will be unavailable and replaced by something free. Shame on them!

From TFA:

"Windows Live OneCare will continue to be sold for Windows XP and Windows Vista at retail through June 30, 2009. Direct sales of OneCare will be gradually phased out when “Morro” becomes available. Regardless of their method of purchase, Microsoft will ensure that all current customers remain protected through the life of their subscriptions."

My understanding is that OneCare will be updated for the entire length of your paid subscription, however long that may be. As you know, it's a full suite and *may* offer some advantages compared to Morro(?). And while it's true OneCare never scored very high in the AV tests, it wasn't the worst either. I find it more than worthy but will not renew when our subscription expires in 3+ weeks. Then again, we paid $9.99 at a Costco Xmas sale last year, so it was worth it :)

Rick, now "Cloud" computing definately seems to be the way M/S is going. Apparently M/S has 70000 servers worldwide which ofcourse are not always fully used, e.g. when it´s nighttime in North America the servers are hardly being used, whilst here in Europe they are working overtime!! M/S netted 60 billion dollars in 2008 and the weakest link was the Internet!! I think there´s going to be a massive change in how they are thinking, the so called Windows Azure online O/S being launched in 2010 and before that the stripped down online "Office 14" due to be released end of next year!! We´ll be in for a surprise sooner or later!!

I see nothing nefarious about Microsoft working on a cloud OS. It seems that Google is doing the same and probably others. At least there will be competition in this space and that should be good for us consumers.

I don't approve of Microsoft continuing to sell a product -- Windows Live Onecare -- that has no future without a warning. Yes, I'm sure they will continue to support it and put out definitions, but there will never be a version 3.0. Eventually, anyone who has Onecare will have to abandon it, find a replacement, and learn the new product. At the very least, they should fully disclose the end date to all current subscribers and potential purchasers.

@Matt,
All I can say is you must know the History of and Follow the "Big Technology Companies" as well as us old timers do. I haven't seen you miss (even one small detail) in the on going "saga" of MS v. World or what the other "Players" are doing. Really enjoy your postings. Ever think of starting a Blog ??
Kindest Regards,
Rick P.

If MS does do this "subscribe to an OS service" stuff, I pretty much agree with Spacegold that there will be an enormous backlash, especially in these difficult economic times . . . indeed, MS couldn't have picked a worse time to try and launch this nonsense.

If it was a boom time and everbody was prosperous, that may be different. But right now people don't have much disposable income and businesses are scaling down. Very bad timing to ask people to dig into their already light wallets. Plus, unemployment is going up, and Joe Computer just flat out does not have the money to be spending on this stuff. When it comes to a choice between putting food on the table and subscribing to an OS service, Joe's going to spend what little money he has to put food on the table.

In fact, I bet the free software offerings are going to be more sought out now. Linux, as Sapcegold pointed out, and all open source offerings are going to have an opportunity.

The MS marketing people better take a look at the 6 O'Clock news on the economy! Helloooooo . . . !

Just to clear some things up here:
According to what Microsoft has released when OneCare goes away a new free AntiVirus program will be released.
There is no subscription anymore for it nor is there going to be one for Windows. Anything that says otherwise is just spreading a rumor.
Microsoft is not doing a disservice buy leaving OneCare on the market, it is still a good AntiVirus and anyone with a OneCare Subscription can use the new free AntiVirus program when their Subscription is up.
I'm glad Microsoft is releasing a free AntiVirus for free. Then everyone will have a good free Firewall (Windows Firewall), Anti-Spyware (Windows Defender) and Anti-Virus.
People will no longer need the performance lowering programs of Norton and McAfee or use free ones that want to sell you an updated version (though not all may do that).

Replies:
> "If MS does do this "subscribe to an OS service" stuff, I pretty much agree with Spacegold that there will be an enormous backlash, especially in these difficult economic times"
Indeed I think many woudn't want that.

> ". . . indeed, MS couldn't have picked a worse time to try and launch this nonsense."
Except, that they aren't. People have been saying Microsoft wants to do a subscribe to the OS service for at least the last 8 years and nothing has ever come of it.

> A lot of businesses have already moved over to Linux, and it wont be that long before it is ready for Joe Computer.
Like my point above, people have been saying this for many years and it hasn't happened yet so I wouldn't expect it to happen anytime soon.

Normal Message:
Besides the other points, many people probably wouldn't be to willing to tie to their OS to Microsoft after the incident of Microsoft's activation servers going down and not being able to use their legal copies of Vista RTM.

Edit:
To add to my message on Anti-Virus above, there are probabably Anti-Virus programs that are not as big of performance hogs as Norton and McAfee though I think it's still possible that Microsoft's free Anti-Virus could be faster then them as Microsoft knows how Windows the best.
I don't really want them to make the Anti-Virus makers go out of business as that would suck for those employees.
Also I would agree with ScottW above the Microsoft should at add a notice to OneCare that they will need to switch to a different program.
Though as long as the free Anti-Virus comes out before the subscription expires I don't think the lack of a notice is that big of a deal.

It's not clear yet what Microsoft's free AV software, codenamed Morro, will be like. It may not be a full security suite in the way that Onecare is. It may not be a suitable replacement for all the Onecare subscribers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morro_%28software%29

Personally, I would be very disappointed if I purchased some software and then found out a few months later that it would no longer be sold or developed and that this was known for many months and I was not told. And I'd really be upset if the manufacturer started giving away the same (or similar) thing that I paid for, free to everyone who didn't!

BTW, from the article on Morro, I noticed that I had the dates wrong and Onecare has been around for a full 2.5 years, not 1.5 as I stated above.