T1B

My kid came home today and told me GriSoft was making AVG an all pay application (no free or basic versions) on Jan 15th........

We have all been using AVG because it was such a good application.

Yes, I'm still a cheap bastard........$53.00 for 1 year, for 1 computer is kind of a ballsy starting price, if you ask me. I wouldn't pay that much to buy the whole damn thing outright, let alone a 1 yr "subscription". To buy it all, I'd be looking at $165.00 to protect all the PC's here for 2 years.

And they wonder why so many kids these days just go pirate the shit.

Professional opinion as to options? Or am I just being an overly cheap bastard?

Sorry, while I was bumping around the GriSoft site, looking at their ridiculous pricing structure......I clicked on a link to news/press releases.

The latest release said right there on their site, that they had extended the deadline to Feb. 18th.
Go straight to the horse's mouth.

fuck, any body have a good alternative?

Version 7.1 will be discontinued on Feb. 18th. Upgrade to 7.5 and you'll be able to continue using it for free.

Well, Antivirus industry is big business these days. I get access to free stuff for it through work so I don't search for freebies as much as I used to but here is what my freeware list included:

# check if there is a rootkit installed on my computer : F-Secure BlackLight
# check if there is a rootkit installed on my computer : RootkitRevealer by SysInternals
# check if there is a rootkit installed on my computer : RootKit Hook Analyzer
# protect the computer against adware : Ad-Aware Personal
# protect the computer against adware : Spybot-S&D
# protect the computer against spyware : Windows Defender from Microsoft
# protect the computer against trojans : ewido
# protect the computer against viruses : AVG Free
# protect the computer against viruses : AntiVir PersonalEdition Classic
# protect the computer against viruses : Avast! 4 Home Edition
# protect the computer against viruses : BitDefender 8 Free Edition
# protect the computer with a firewall : Sunbelt Kerio Personal Firewall
# protect the computer with a firewall : Safety.Net
# protect the computer with a firewall : ZoneAlarm
# protect the browser against spyware : SpywareBlaster
# protect the browser against spyware : SpywareGuard 2.2
# remove CoolWebSearch virus : CWShredder
# remove specific viruses : Grisoft/AVG Virus Removal Tools
# stop/cleanup homepage hijacking : HijackThis
# Check out Open Source Software : Open Source Freeware : 400+ free applications and utilities.
# Suggestions/corrections : eConsultant : Blog Archive : I want a Freeware Utility

Now not all of these are antivirus specific. Most are for helping to remove threats after you've been infected. AVG continues to be free, as Donovan pointed out, you just need to use 7.5. Just go to the free link: http://free.grisoft.com. Also Avira at free-av.com is free for the personal edition, but i've never really heard of them so I'm not sure how great they are. Avast I have heard of and they too offer a free home edition. BitDefender again is free. I haven't used it but at least i've heard of it.

The rest of the tools are free firewalls and spyware removers.