Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by tmitchell 6171 days ago
She boldly declares, "Grisoft just lost a customer, and I'm guessing it won't be the last." It seems an overstatement to call a free AV user a "customer".

Those looking for a free A/V solution should check out Avira, though you'll have to disable the annoying upgrade popup.
2 comments
andrew1 6171 days ago
I think 'customer' is a somewhat fair term. The fact that I use the free version of X makes it more likely that at some point I might buy the non-free version of X if I've built up a level of trust with the company, and/or that I'll recommend the product to others/at my work and they will get more users/corporate bussiness. For example I use DropBox and have almost hit the 2GB free limit. I will definitely upgrade as I really love the service, unless Dropbox do something annoying like AVG have done in this article in which case I'll find a different solution.
link
msc 6170 days ago
She used it for years according to her blog, and doesn't mention buying a non-free version of any of their products. Becomes unhappy with the product, and doesn't mention contacting the vendor about it. Writes on her blog about how it sucks, and recommends another freeware product. I definitely wouldn't call her a customer.
link
jacquesm 6170 days ago
You can't really blame the user for the (lack of a) businessmodel by the vendor.

If the price is 0 it does not reflect on the user at all.

Even at pricelevel '0' you can be a customer.

link
nreece 6170 days ago 

  Those looking for a free A/V solution should check out Avira,
  though you'll have to disable the annoying upgrade popup.
Avira AntiVir Updates to Version 9 – Make It More Usable: http://www.tipsfor.us/2009/03/18/avira-antivir-updates-to-ve...
link
miguelpais 6170 days ago
Yes! I was going to ask if anyone used it, and what did they think of it, because there's been a long time since I don't work on a windows machine on a daily basis, but at the time I did I used Avira.

I was just wondering if after the years that passed it had become less good or something...

link
deimos 6170 days ago
Switched to Avira for almost a year now for most of the machines at home and friends. No problems so far, and works fine.

Still, the nag screen is annoying, but how hard it is to click one button. :P

link