Hi iBob,
We gave up on publishing the offline installer a while ago. There were several reasons however the main one was that it would require to repackage the offline installer after each update of the virus definitions database(aka vps). And because we are updating the virus definitions 3 times a day it would be quite a lot of work. We haven't found real world scenario where you'd need to install AV offline in end user world.
The situation is a bit different in SMB/Enterprise world...
If we don't repackage the installer with new virus definitions file then either an user ends with old definition (and may be vulnerable) or the antivirus will try to update the virus definitions automatically. We do "diff" updates but if there is more than 10 diffs between your vps and the latest one then it is better to download the whole new vps. It'd be safer and less bandwidth consuming.
iBob, let me explain how the offline and online installation work (I'm simplifying it...)
- Offline installation - you download one big DMG with the installer and virus definitions file. Installer installs product files and unpacks the virus definitions to your mac drive. And then it tries to update the virus definitions to the latest available version (another download)
- Online installer - you download a small DMG with the product installer. Installer downloads the latest virus definitions from Avast's servers. Then it installs product files and copies downloaded virus definition to your mac drive
Best regards,
Lukas
Dear Avast Team, can you please consider to publish the Offline download link for Mac version as well(like the post for Windows version)? It will really help to save some time for installing. Many thanks.