Author Topic: My curent avast! "2017" concerns...  (Read 10200 times)

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Offline RejZoR

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My curent avast! "2017" concerns...
« on: December 23, 2016, 12:50:10 PM »
As we are all already aware, avast! team is prioritizing AVG over avast!. Now that I understand what they are trying to achieve, I don't worry over it much. But there is still one thing I'm very much concerned about. While avast! and AVG merger gave excellent Software Analyzer to avast! infrastructure, new avast! and AVG are both scheduled to be released early 2017. We are only getting AVG beta builds. Meaning they'll basically just design core and than slam it into GUI for avast! in January 2017 and release it whether community likes it or not. Yeah, I'm actually getting that impression and that kinda worries me.

Problem I see with this is that avast! community apparently won't have ANY say at how things should go, what new features should we see. And not being involved when new major version is being shaped, this means we won't see any requested features till 2018 when new version will arrive.

I've made tons of recommendations on how DeepScreen should be engaged for Hardened Mode excluded files, Sandbox usage for CyberCaptured files, the idea for anti-ransomware protection via existing HIPS module etc. I have no clue whether any of this will even get into avast! 2017. The interface preview we got was frankly not the best and now that they are postponing the whole thing in favor of AVG, we have no idea if they'll just run with it or redesign it entirely.

Not being involved anymore and not knowing what they are planning worries me indeed. I know they still have the final word on everything, but seeing how our recommendations shaped avast! over years to be more how consumers want it and less how programmers intended it, it really feels awkward not being part of that all of a sudden.

I always look at the situation how avast! as a software would benefit me personally the most, but at the same time I always think how having that feature would also benefit AVAST Software the most. And I still believe avast! needs to make headlines from protection side of things through innovation. If new unique malware arrives, like ransomware did months and years ago, if you deliver efficient protective measures first, that's the best PR you can possibly have. But avast! just plays it so passive all the time. I mean, just look how everyone is designing ransomware counter measures for very long and avast! doesn't really have anything yet despite them basically having all the functionality already there, they just have to connect. avast! is a security software after all and no matter how fancy GUI they use, people still look at protection efficiency as highest priority. Recommending it to others is the easiest task if you have clear arguments to back that up. But if you have to constantly make excuses like "well, but you see..." you've already lost the argument. That's why I think it's important we have a clear communication from both sides. Mine is endless bitching because only that actually makes things better for everything and everyone and avast! team telling us how things are going on their end so we both know where we are and how things will/are go(ing). It worked absolutely amazing for years and it would be a shame to ruin that by lack of communication (which in all honesty am sensing at the moment). avast! just has so much potential and they keep on under utilizing it for some reason. Not knowing where avast! 2017 is heading is not helping that either. There is a lot of uncertainty floating around and that by itself is causing a bad PR by itself as well...
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Offline TrueIndian

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Re: My curent avast! "2017" concerns...
« Reply #1 on: December 23, 2016, 06:56:22 PM »
This is indeed something that is concerning Rejz.

However,this time something tells me that we won't be let down.I have faith in them as always and I am hoping to not be let down.

Cheers!  :)

Offline DavidR

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Re: My curent avast! "2017" concerns...
« Reply #2 on: December 23, 2016, 08:25:05 PM »
I too have some concerns over the amount of development going on on the AVG AV Beta, with what seems a halt on Avast beta testing/development.

By this I mean of all of the avast team developers who have primarily been developing avast, surely they all can't be developing the AVG beta combining the integrated avast elements. You then have to ask what are the AVG developers actually doing.

Surely there could or should be a similar/concurrent program of integrating the AVG elements into avast Beta, so that this too can be beta tested by avast users. But we are seeing avast users actually beta testing AVG and not knowing if we will actually see an avast Beta incorporating any AVG elements before we are given a RTM version of avast containing the AVG merge/elements.
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Offline Patrick2

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Re: My curent avast! "2017" concerns...
« Reply #3 on: December 24, 2016, 02:16:57 AM »
Concerned as Well in terms of Avast Development,  Received 1 Beta for Avast in November, and nothing since,  Had Serious issue with that beta on my Windows 10 Pro System, BSOD with memory management not once, but twice, corrupted user profile too--did clean OS install, and stuck with Stable version now on this PC, and created a new system image

Plus with Windows 10 Creators update coming supposedly by March, will Avast "2017" version be even ready in time, or will there be final version of 12.4, then another update late February/early March to get ready for Creators update.   


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Offline DavidR

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Re: My curent avast! "2017" concerns...
« Reply #4 on: December 24, 2016, 04:07:13 PM »
I think that we need to drop the 2017 moniker as that year title didn't last long (only 2016) by avast.

Any any big new changes would ordinarily be a whole ordinal increase (1) to what we have now 12.3 to 13.0. But then again would they jump the lucky number 13 entirely.
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Offline RejZoR

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Re: My curent avast! "2017" concerns...
« Reply #5 on: December 24, 2016, 05:37:45 PM »
I'm just calling it that so you guys understand whichh version I mean. I even placed year in quotes...
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Offline DavidR

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Re: My curent avast! "2017" concerns...
« Reply #6 on: December 24, 2016, 06:37:51 PM »
I'm aware of that RejZoR, my comment was more directed to Patrick2's post above mine. Mainly because of the reference in paragraph two of his post

<snip>
Plus with Windows 10 Creators update coming supposedly by March, will Avast "2017" version be even ready in time, or will there be final version of 12.4, then another update late February/early March to get ready for Creators update.   
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Offline Patrick2

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Re: My curent avast! "2017" concerns...
« Reply #7 on: December 25, 2016, 03:35:06 AM »
Yeah I may have forgot to put the year in quotes, but anyhow hoping Avast version will be good when it's final, just spent a few hours setting up a  new PC for family ughhh, family member kept arguing with me why I pick this Antivirus over Windows Defender lol, i'm like for one better detection, faster scan time, unless wanna wait 3 hours for Defender to scan for full scans (at least was on my personal PC years ago)

Anyhow Have a Great Holiday Everyone, looking forward to January for any news on Avast versions

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Offline A. User

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Re: My curent avast! "2017" concerns...
« Reply #8 on: December 29, 2016, 02:31:20 PM »
Fully support that.  :)  We need to see more of security technologies being improved and new components being added for protection, and leave the other PC cleaners and so on for once you are better in protection. This CyberCapture is a very good thing, what i want to see is improving the time for a verdict being returned. And Hardened mode on Moderate running the samples in sandbox until a verdict is returned, maybe on Aggressive blocking them like a lockdown mode. It is debatable whether there should be such a distinction with the two Hardened modes should continue to be available both after CyberCapture is improved. I mean, running unknown files in an isolated environment and sending information about activities is better than just blocking them right away. Comodo, like it or not, is the best at stopping "patient zero" infections for now. I would like to see a Kernel Rules Engine like in Panda, which hardens known processes like word.exe, chrome.exe, microsoftedgeCP.exe and others against known and unknown vulnerabitilies (like an antiexploit). I would like to see the Identity protection autonomous behavior analyzer implemented. I would like to see an on-demand scan for potentially unwanted system modifications like the one in Qihoo and Malwarebytes. I would like to see ELAM with Measured boot and avast having a protected service because of that. I would like to see a better WebRep a.k.a Online security. I want to submit comments, choose for the site to be malware, phishing, scam, pornography. Now there is no option even for phishing and malware!?!?!?!?! I would like to see an antiransomware component which protects some folders by default. Have a list of known safe programs, block injections into them with Kernel Rules engine and behavior blocker and let them change the files, for other unknown ones... ask. I would like to see avast watching and submitting the actions of all of the files on the PC to be classified. I would like avast to be able to correlate each of the components as a whole view through the machine learning AI and take decisions based on file age, file date first seen, file characteristics by heuristics, file source and file looking like other known files. Like a lockdown with containment and none files being able to execute without being automatically or manually classified. Hard work guys and you'll be on top, you're not less capable than the other.

Offline Lisandro

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Re: My curent avast! "2017" concerns...
« Reply #9 on: December 30, 2016, 01:20:37 PM »
RejZoR, thanks for your comments. They're quite long :)

Problem I see with this is that avast! community apparently won't have ANY say at how things should go, what new features should we see. And not being involved when new major version is being shaped, this means we won't see any requested features till 2018 when new version will arrive.
You know this is not true. Avast is always listening its users and if I'm not wrong, you know some of them while you've traveled to Prague. Avast is following a monthly-basis update scheme since Avast Nitro Update. From CyberCapture to the interface renew, we saw a lot of movements in 2016 and I'm quite confident we will continue moving on. Talking about CyberCapture, it's a very important feature for Avast (https://blog.avast.com/cybercapture-protection-against-zero-second-attacks and https://blog.avast.com/an-in-depth-look-at-the-technology-behind-cybercapture). Please, read between lines and got the mind of it :)

We have no idea if they'll just run with it or redesign it entirely.
It was already redesigned: https://blog.avast.com/the-new-avast-brand-the-story-behind-the-amoeba-and-more
It was not just a change of colors...

It really feels awkward not being part of that all of a sudden.
You're being part of the process, be sure. Just figure that it was a huge movement toward unity between Avast and AVG and it is almost finished. I'm quite impressed it took so fast, people worked really hard.

It would be a shame to ruin that by lack of communication (which in all honesty am sensing at the moment).
Change your feelings: be happy. Bob, Asyn, Rednose and tons of other users won't agree with this "lack of communication" feeling. Am I wrong guys?
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Offline Lisandro

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Re: My curent avast! "2017" concerns...
« Reply #10 on: December 30, 2016, 01:23:02 PM »
I too have some concerns over the amount of development going on on the AVG AV Beta, with what seems a halt on Avast beta testing/development.
No, this is not happening. We'll see in next months...

By this I mean of all of the avast team developers who have primarily been developing avast, surely they all can't be developing the AVG beta combining the integrated avast elements. You then have to ask what are the AVG developers actually doing.
We must think as one company. There is not Avast or AVG. There is not an Avast team and an AVG team anymore.
https://blog.avast.com/avast-and-avg-become-one

Not knowing if we will actually see an avast Beta incorporating any AVG elements before we are given a RTM version of avast containing the AVG merge/elements.
For sure it will.
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Offline DavidR

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Re: My curent avast! "2017" concerns...
« Reply #11 on: December 30, 2016, 02:35:09 PM »
1. Lets put it this way, it doesn't feel like it and if this isn't communicated how are we to know. Then we make our judgement based on what we see and feel.

2. Nothing wrong in thinking as one company - I can't believe that there isn't an avast team and an avg team. These companies/teams have built up expertise in their areas to abandon or merge that really would be counter productive.

3. Again we have the communication thing, if we don't know (get informed) then people are going to speculate on what they see. All we see is an avast beta that has essentially stopped whilst it is full steam ahead on the avg beta. So what are people to think.
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Offline RejZoR

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Re: My curent avast! "2017" concerns...
« Reply #12 on: December 30, 2016, 04:20:44 PM »
They have redesigned it. And we got 1 beta version. And that was it. Now we know NOTHING if they are sticking with the initial beta design or scraping it entirely and doing everything new. We just have NO info about any of that.
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Offline Secondmineboy

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Re: My curent avast! "2017" concerns...
« Reply #13 on: December 30, 2016, 04:23:29 PM »
They have redesigned it. And we got 1 beta version. And that was it. Now we know NOTHING if they are sticking with the initial beta design or scraping it entirely and doing everything new. We just have NO info about any of that.

Most important for me is protection, UI redesign is also good but i would really like to have info on new security-related stuff thats coming up.
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Offline A. User

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Re: My curent avast! "2017" concerns...
« Reply #14 on: December 30, 2016, 04:41:45 PM »
I want to see the protection technologies being the top priority, currently it feels like Marketing is the priority. Like "Protecting 400 million people worldwide makes us world number one in the market. Protect your device too....". Whoa, number one in the market. Forgive me Avast, but who cares if you're number one in earning money or number one with users? I am trying to give feedback because i have chosen Avast to be my protection, not because i have to use it. It is my choice and the only thing that i want in return is for you to check what the users give as feedback. When i see the features that Kaspersky, Norton and Bitdefender have, i am starting to feel jealous. It is a sin to let users feel that way. Take a look at the wording that Bitdefender use... they have 500 million users, not 400 million, but i see words as, excellence, effective, pure performance, revolutionary, unparalleled. Feels more secure, right? Ban me if you want, but someone has to say these things to you. After all i've chosen Avast, not Bitdefender.


For now.