Today we’ve published new versions of our security products VIRUSfighter (desktop and server) and SPYWAREfighter. I’d like to tell you about them, and their evolution to where we are today.
All of these products, in version 3 (SPYWAREfighter) & version 6 (VIRUSfighter) are from the ground up re-writes.
This approach was taken to help us achieve two key objectives:
- We wanted to make the products easier to use and update (and updated more frequently, to offer our users better protection); and
- We wanted to make them much faster, taking up less system resources.
We’ve achieved both, but, of course, we want to make them better and better.
Usually, this would involve adding features. However, this goes against the reasons we rewrote them in the first place.
Software design (in general) and security software design (in particular) is as much about what you leave out as what you include. The debate is straightforward:
In customer focused software, what does a feature add to the customer? If nothing, it’s just a feature, then one has to ask the key question: why are we doing this?
The answer can be telling.
Many software companies add things because they are “cool” or because “our competitors do this”, but that often is to miss the point. I’d like to think that the most important thing we can do, with our security software, is to protect a users PC. Everything on top of that is fluff.
Sure, we need to have configuration ability, so users can decide what level of protection they want; but we should always provide the best default protection “out-of-the-box” (an expression that makes less sense in an electronic download world) so that it’s only necessary to visit the configuration pane when a user wants to, not because they need to.
So, our ethos here at SPAMfighter is to offer fast, low-resource requirements and great protection; think install and forget, but with the right mix of additional features, such as configuration, to allow our customers the ability to use their software THEIR way.
So, as we evolve our products, to better meet your needs, our approach is going to be simple: make it faster, make it better. And maybe add a little fluff, just to help those that absolutely need to tweak their software. That’s it.
You won’t, therefore, find mapping software, to follow outbreaks real-time. You won’t find pointless, but cute, skinning abilities, to make our software look like, well, anything you want. We could do all of these things, but they’ll make it slower, and that adds nothing to your needs of just great software that protects you.
We hope we’re getting that balance right, and would welcome your comments to tell us how we are doing. Over to you.
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