Microsoft to kill popular Linux antivirus product

Union College, a liberal arts college in Schenectady, New York, runs two Sendmail e-mail servers with about 4,000 e-mail accounts. It previously used antivirus software from Sophos PLC, but found that RAV AntiVirus offers the best virus protection for its buck.

"I researched antivirus solutions for a good eight months and this was the best deal for the money. We were using Sophos, which was way too costly the way they licensed it," said Michael Pate, academic systems administrator at Union College. "From a cost perspective it was US$8,000 to $12,000 for Sophos as compared with $1,000 for RAV."

Now, said Pate, "We're going to start looking again. There are a couple of competitors that license in a similar way (as GeCAD) and that run on the Linux platform."

Users aren't the only ones left scrambling by Microsoft's planned takeover of the RAV technology. GeCAD has partners in 60 countries through which it sold the product who now will have one product line less to sell.

RAE Internet Inc. in New Rochelle, New York, the sole U.S. distributor of RAV Antivirus, has more than 1000 customers for RAV's software in the U.S., most of them smaller Internet service providers, Michael Katz, president of RAE Internet said.

Microsoft was likely interested in picking up good technology cheap, Katz said. But he doesn't discount the possibility that Microsoft also relished the opportunity to take a jab at its rivals in the Linux community.

"In my view, RAV was purchased because of its integrated virus and scan engine to add into their products. It was probably dirt cheap and maybe Microsoft got the added benefit of sticking it in the side of Linux users," Katz said. Over half of RAE's RAV customers use the software for Linux mail servers, he said.

Asgher Ali, sales manager at GeCAD reseller Axia Computer Systems Ltd. in Watford, England, said it is "a shame" that RAV products will disappear. The majority of the 60 or so customers who bought RAV products from Axia bought them for Sendmail on Linux, he said.

"I was shocked by the takeover, RAV AntiVirus is a very good product and it was gaining market share. It would have become a strong market leader in the Linux market," said Ali.

Joe MacDonald, owner of Focus Computer Consulting in Kelowna, British Columbia, a GeCAD reseller, agreed.

"I think the takeover is a step in the wrong direction for RAV. I think they were stepping into a market and they were quite popular. I think they are walking away from a good thing," said MacDonald. About 90 percent of the customers that purchased RAV from Focus Computer bought it for mail servers on Linux, he said.

MacDonald thinks the Romanian makers of RAV AntiVirus just went for Microsoft's money.

"Is Microsoft using this as a method to take away commercial products from the Linux community? I think GeCAD just got offered a pretty big check that they could not say no to," he said.