Replacement avast! Home Edition

[Mike098]

Dear sir,
My father has a Pentium 3 computer with Windows 98SE. As you know, avast! Home Edition will support until the end of this year 2009 for Windows 98SE. Do you know the best antivirus to replace avast! Home Edition? Thanks in advance.
Kind regards, Mike098.

[RejZoR]

None, because pretty much all of the others already dropped Win9x support...

[Mr.Agent]

Pentium 3 like you can see its about 20 or 30 years ago so i suggest to your dad to buy a pentium 4 or dual core its still really good and good price for that kind of cpu So with these cpu you will can have Windows XP SP3 which is not that bad and later maybe you will can have Windows 7

[zivilist]

Pentium 4 is wasted so much energy, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentium_4#Successor
A Core2Duo has a better efficiency and are affordable (on ebay approximate 200 USD for a Core2Duo PC).

[Mike098]

Dear sirs,
Thank you for your quick reactions. My father does not want to upgrade his computer or buy a new one. So my question remains.
Kind regards, Mike098

[igor]

I think the question is a bit premature.
The date avast! 4.x support ends is not exactly fixed yet. What the webpage says is that avast! 4.x will certainly be supported until the end of the year; what will happen later, is not clear. So it's probably not a wise thing to purchase a three-year subscription for a Win9x computer now - on the other hand, it doesn't necessarily mean that avast! 4.x updates will stop on January 1st 2010.

avast! 5.0 wasn't released yet - and when it is, it will be avast! Home/Professional first; the update for server and network editions will come later. So, my personal guess is that the 4.x support will be prelonged and won't stop at January 2010. But it's just my opinion, no promisses/guarantees.

[Mr.Agent]

I understand you Mike098 but igor i heard that Avast! will can stay the update for the Win9x on the 4.8 ?

[jgutierrez]

I think that your unique choices would be to go for a still alive DOS AV, like McAfee, or F-Prot.

[Mike Buxton]

Hi Mike098,

I have W98SE and I have a possible solution, depending upon your answers to some questions about your dad's computer and his computing habits:

(a) How much RAM does he have?
(b) How much free Hard Drive space does he have?
(c) Which browser program does he use?
(d) Which email program does he use?
(e) Does his CD and/or DVD Drive work?
(f) Does he have a USB stick?
(g) Does he acquire new programs from non-internet sources (e.g. yourself, PC magazines).

I expect to reply within 24 hours of seeing the answers.

My regards

[Mike098]

Dear Mike Buxton,

My father's computer has:
(a) 319 MBRAM
(b) about 10 GB HDD space
(c) Interner Explorer 6 SP1
(d) Outlook Express 6 SP1
(e) DVD-Player
(f) No USB-stick
(g) No acquire new programs from non-internet sources, but he can.

Kind regards, Mike098.

[Mike Buxton]

Hi Mike098,

Your dad has enough resources to try my suggestions which have three essential elements:

(1) Try Mozilla Firefox Portable browser version 2.0.0.20 (not any other version)
(2) Try Mozilla Thunderbird Portable email version 2.0.0.21 (not any other version)
Then if your dad likes Firefox and Thunderbird;
(3) Try Xubuntu version 8.04 or version 8.10 (not 9.04)

Re:
(1) google search "firefox portable 2.0.0.20" and download, then install it on your hard drive - make the install to location C:\....  then make a desktop icon 
(2) google seach "thunderbird portable 2.0.0.21" and proceed as for Firefox.
After installation and testing he can delete both installation files.
I suggest these two programs because he would not actually need to use much else in Xubuntu other than, merely as a precaution, the Xubuntu (debian) on demand version of Avast (which there currently are no published plans to discontinue).
Also,
* They are not so different from IE and Internet Express and I suspect your dad will be fine with them.
* IE favourites are easily imported into Firefox, and all Express email data is easily imported into Thunderbird.
* Both these are easily transferred to Xubuntu and can be run as Windows programs from within Xubuntu.
* Xubuntu can use the latest versions of both Firefox and Thunderbird if your dad wanted to use them directly instead of via "wine" for windows.
 
If your dad likes these two programs then there are some excellent and useful add-ons, especially for Firefox, which I or others can tell you about, but first things first.
Also, if you google search "ubuntu absolute beginner" click on the top help sticky, then click on the first post you can download a 170 free book on Ubuntu (Xubuntu is a derivative), and also see lots of other information.

Now, if you have broadband you could run Xubuntu from a CD (burned from the downloaded ISO) or
since you have lots of time you could order a free CD (even free of postage)
or for immediate delivery you could buy a CD for around 10 dollars, pounds or euros.
However, BEFORE any Hard Drive installation it would be BEST to have a Windows clone just in case.

Below is a picture of my Xubuntu screen. On the left is a fairly standard Xubuntu menu shewing detailed Accessories with the red arrow pointing to Debian Avast.
On the right are 12 W98SE programs I can load with the aid of "wine" and "portableapps".



Xubuntu can be versatile and complicated but if your dad's main aim is security it can be very simple any many of its programs are easily and intuitively usable.
Your dad will be able to load W98SE as normal, only changing to Xubuntu when he wants to.
Xubuntu is intrinsically much safer than Windows and it is often a lot faster than W98SE.

My regards

[Mike098]

Dear Mike Buxton,

Thank you very much for your clever answer to change or add to Windows a Linux version Xubuntu with avast! Linux Home Edition, I suppose, if I understand you correctly. However I think my father does not want to learn about Xubuntu, because he still does not know much about Windows 98SE.
When I laid this solution before him just a few minutes ago by telephone, he told to me, that he is not enough technical and he does not like changes to his computer.
So I fear I have to look further, although you gave me a possible right solution.

Thanks again with kind regards, Mike098.

[Mike Buxton]

Hi Mike098,

Alternatives might be clamav (free but a slow on-demand av and not a patch on Avast) perhaps with Comodo BO Clean (for active malware protection if your dad has some 50 MB of spare RAM).

My regards

[onlysomeone]

Hi Mike!

I wouldn't hurry with this decition of which antivirus to use next... Avast! 4.8 will be supported for nearly an other year (i think)... and possibly your father decides to get a new PC in the meantime or has to get a new PC
(the older the higher the risk of damages/break downs...)

yours
onlysomeone

[Mr.Agent]

I agree with onlysomeone