Clamwin Anti-Virus (FREE)

[gandalf]

I got asked about this in liew of the recent Windows vunerablity as I suggested this software as a decent free anti-virus. So I created a reply based upon my reasearch. I thought it was pretty relavant for computer users and everyone here is, so I thought I might post it here:



I was asked about the valitity of clamwin software. The person
was worried about it being bad (spyware/virus/etc).

I'd be hard pressed to trust anything 100%. And it's not exactly like
another virus scanner would confirm or deny that clamwin is good or bad,
but I found clamwin on sourceforge. Sourceforge is a base of operations
for open source (free) software. Sourceforge used to be only for the
linux/unix world, but over the last few years windows projects have
started turning up. There is even a project called OpenOffice by Sun that
is a compatable replacement for MS Office (completely free).

They gave clamwin the honor of being project of the month for January
2005. Here is the sourceforge page:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/clamwin
You can check the curent bug list, and make feature requests there. You
can even email the programmers.

It is currently in Beta version, but seems to work well on my machines.
I'd say for free it's pretty nice. It's probably not as good as norton or
macaffe _yet_, but it's real close and doesn't charge you $10 a month just
to keep your computer virus free.

[gandalf]

To each his own. I've long felt that Norton & McAfee were overpriced for what they do. AVG is the free version of a for pay software peice. Pretty much the same as Zone Alarm, which is pretty nice if people want to check it out. Myself I tend to prefer non, handicaped free software. Glad to hear about AVG. I'll have to check it out on a machine.


Norton & Mcafee are garbage. They catch nothing and have too many flaws.
An alternative. The BEST - REALLY BEST anti-virus (100% FREE) is AVG Anti-Virus, which beats Norton and Mcafee and ANY other virus protection out there on the market. It's FREE and can be downloaded from here: www.grisoft.com (https://www.grisoft.com)

[gandalf]

ummmm

https://www.grisoft.com/doc/289/lng/us/tpl/tpl01

yes, it is. Not really any argument there. It's the free version of the normal product they sell for $40 or so. It has limited features.

Here's a document listing the differences between the two versions:

https://download.grisoft.cz/softw/70/filedir/presale/cmpsheets/mm_pfp_cmp_us_2.pdf

I didn't mean to upset you, but it is the free version with limited features. That's what the writers of the software say. I didn't mean to suggest that it's not good software. I'm sure it is. I just like the idea of free (as in coffiee) software that good now and getting better all the time. Also it is illegal for any orginzation or bussiness to use the free version of this software and it does not matter if its for profit or not. It is only free for single user/single computer home use.

Please use whatever virius scanner you want, but please everyone use one on a regular basis.


Gandalf,
AVG is NOT handicapped or crippled in ANY way. It's a FULL, UNLIMITTED version which I have now used for 2 years - and use on all my clients (500+) computers with FANTASTIC results!! It's THE tool for viruses, and absolutely free, no limitations or restrictions. My clients can all vouch for its effectiveness :)