Microsoft Makes It Easier For Other Vendors Security Systems. Slow Downs Ahead

Brian Krebs, in a Washington Post column, is reporting that in order to keep things out of the courts and (speculation alert) to keep things on track for the release of Vista, Microsoft relented and made it easier for outside vendors (think Symantec, McAfee, etc..) to hook their software into the Vista OS. This is certainly good news for consumers who will have a choice of vendors to choose from.

Looking at this from a different perspective though, I wish Microsoft and these vendors could somehow be forced to declare how much their security products slow down a system. Granted it is still in Beta, but even Microsoft’s OneCare deals you a performance hit. Is that a price we have to pay in today’s world? The answer is sadly yes. But I’m guessing if we could compare these products not only by the claims of how protected we we will be, but by how much of a hit we can expect on system performance, we’d see a heck of a lot better coding going on. Sometimes I wonder if the cure isn’t as bad as the disease.

Something to think about.