What exactly is "the number of providers" mean?
IM, P2P, NetShield, WebShield, Internet Mail (Outlook plugin), Standard Shield, Script Blocker (Pro version) are providers of avast.
What does number of skins have to do with actual virus protection?
Nothing. It's an 'extra' feature.
Besides the boot-up scan, do you think the actual virus protection capabilities are superior?
Well, from times to times it is lower, most of the times, it's better than AVG.
I didn't care for the boot up scan & disabled it.
It's not to run every boot... only when needed.
How is confiurability
Click, for instance, 'Settings' in my signature and you'll find how flexible is avast.
updating superior?
AVG has only one free server to update. avast has 50 or more... So, you get your update and with AVG you wait, wait...