He didn't say that, he simply pointed out an unfortunate incident that everyone knows did happen. He didn't suggest giving up on Avast! because of it. He is simply asking for opinions on why people think one or the other program is good.
I would say what I've said before. Both products do a good job of protecting you from malware infection. MSE is simpler (on the surface anyway, underneath it's more complex than it looks) to setup and configure and is well suited for those with limited computer expertise. Avast! has more features and therefore more configuration options. Both have excellent detection rates of known threats and both are regularly updated. In most tests I've seen, MSE currently does a little better at blocking new malware due to how it will check suspicious files with the latest definitions on the Microsoft servers (definitions that you may not have received yet through the updating process) and will also check with the latest submissions to things like the Smart Screen filter, the malicious software tool and the other malware fighting resources Microsoft provides. I expect Avast! to improve at blocking new threats by improving the behavior shield. There are two computers here, one running Avast! and the other MSE. So far, both have detected a few threats or unsafe web sites and nothing has gotten past either one. I personally feel that the combination of IE8 and MSE works very well on the Vista machine and Avast! with IE8 and the Comodo Firewall works well on the XP system.
