Symantec says Vista will “reduce consumer choice”

Symantec and Microsoft have always had an uneasy relationship: the former depends on the latter for a platform for its products, yet often finds itself in direct competition with the software giant. Now, with Microsoft's new operating system Vista still on pace for release in January 2007, Symantec is warning that the OS may harm it and other security software companies. In a statement released today, Symantec communications director Chris Paden said that Vista will "reduce consumer choice" when it comes to computer security.

Paden's beef is with the new Windows Security Center, an update to the control panel that made its first appearance with Windows XP's Service Pack 2. He claims that the interface comes with default programs to handle virus protection, a software firewall, and a spyware scanner, and that the user can install replacements for these applications but not access them through the security center program.

At least as of Windows Vista RC1, some of his claims are true, but not all of them. A clean install of Vista does come with a firewall (based on an enhanced version of the Windows XP SP2 firewall) and anti-spyware courtesy of Windows Defender, but does not come with any anti-virus software (the Security Center complains about this via an orange shield with an exclamation point in the taskbar notification area, and urges the user to install a third-party AV program). The default Windows Vista "Welcome Center" contains an icon to subscribe to Microsoft's Windows Live OneCare, which includes AV support, but the icon is not visible from the Security Center. As far as the firewall and anti-spyware applications go, the Security Center doesn't appear to have any easily-accessible way to swap out these programs for third-party equivalents. Indeed, the firewall panel even warns that "Two or more firewalls running at the same time can conflict with each other."

Paden believes that the presence of this control panel will confuse people who want to install third-party security products. "It would be like trying to drive a car with two dashboards. This is going to cause a great deal of consumer confusion," Paden said in a statement.

This is not the first time that Symantec has had a beef with Windows Vista. In May of this year, the company attempted to get a court injunction against Microsoft, charging that the company violated intellectual property licensing agreements for the bundled version of VolumeManager. In July, Symantec warned that Vista contained serious security holes in its new TCP/IP stack, despite the fact that the holes in question had already been patched in a later build. And just this month, the company filed a formal objection with the European Union over alleged antitrust violations with Microsoft's bundling of security products with the operating system.

Is Symantec just trying to stir up controversy, or do they have a valid case against the bundling of security features? The answer may be a little of both. Microsoft has often landed in hot water over the addition of extra functionality to their operating system, most notably with the bundling of Internet Explorer 4.0 with Windows 98, a move that brought on the Department of Justice and nearly broke up the company. However, there are those who will argue that Microsoft has every right to include new functionality with every release of the OS in order to make it a more compelling upgrade over previous versions. Virtually every release of Windows (and indeed, other competing operating systems such as Mac OS X) has done this. Windows 3.1 integrated multimedia support, Windows 95 integrated a TCP/IP stack, 98 brought the infamous Internet Explorer, XP included a firewall, and so forth. Generally, the addition of bundled programs has not destroyed the market for third-party replacements, especially if they can boast a superior feature set. Having said this, if Vista comes prebundled with all the security software most people would need, it could make things tough for companies such as Symantec and McAfee.