Is B.A.R.T. no longer under development?

[ssummit]

We haven't heard anything from the B.A.R.T. team in a long time.  Is the product in stasis; is there going to be any more development, or what?

[Vlk]

Hi,

thanks for that question. It is true that the people who programmed the original BART (and v2) are now busy working on different projects, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the program is in its dead end.

We have some plans to extend BART in the area of rootkit detection tools because external boot is probably the only thorough way to do it, and fighting against rootkits is becoming more and more important...


Thanks
Vlk

[electronikk]

We have some plans to extend BART in the area of rootkit detection tools because external boot is probably the only thorough way to do it, and fighting against rootkits is becoming more and more important...

I'm glad to hear that! In my opinion BART should become part of the avast professional edition. This would add some great value to the professional edition. Apart from that rootkits seem to become a common threat to all PC users, so i think everybody should be able to have access to the appropriate countermeasures (i.e. external boot disks like BART)...

[Lisandro]

I'm glad to hear that! In my opinion BART should become part of the avast professional edition. This would add some great value to the professional edition.

I fully agree with this 
What does Alwil think about it? 

[justin1278]

Hi,

This is a great idea to add BART to the Pro version of avast! but this may make avast! Pro more expensive and as said many times on this forum avast! does not have a world wide price range so it is the same price for everyone even the people in the countries with less money.

[Lisandro]

This is a great idea to add BART to the Pro version of avast! but this may make avast! Pro more expensive

Of course, this is not my intention... I mean, I think the diference between Home and Pro could be improved (and the sellings of the Pro version) KEEPING the same price. If BART is not sold... it's not a profit to let it how it was.
It's an extraordinary product to be kept in the underground.

[electronikk]

This is a great idea to add BART to the Pro version of avast! but this may make avast! Pro more expensive [...]

There is a software called BART PE builder, which allows the user to create his own BART CDs. I guess the biggest problem with these preinstalled environments (PE) is, that you have to have a full windows license for th PE (for example a windows xp home license).
As far as I know the BART PE builder allows you to implement so called "plug-ins". In general most regular programs can become BART-plug-ins. I don't exactly know how much modification is necessary to create PE plug-ins but since there are many available plug-ins I assume it can be done with a reasonable amount of work. 
So I could think of a pro-version of avast, that contains the avast on demand-scanner as an BART PE plug-in. This would allow you to create your own BART CD when you have regular windows and avast licenses.

And I don't know, if I am allowed to mention this here, but there was a release of the German computer magazine c't which came with a special version of the BART PE builder. It contained free versions of bitdefender and the GDATA AVK (!). They offered update support for one year: (All you needed was a windows xp license.)
(BTW: I am in no way affiliated with any of the mentioned products or the c't magazine!  )

Comments? Maybe an alwil official can comment on this topic? 

edit:
oooops, totall overlooked the sticky topic... 
Anyway, I'm looking forward for any official announcement concerning the future of avast 4 BART!