Microsoft has announced that it will release a free anti-virus product by the end of 2009.

This is an interesting move and aims to compete with products from the likes of Symantec, Trend and McAfee.

According to the reports and comments by people in the industry it is not going to be much more that a stripped down version of Microsoft’s OneCare offering.

Whether or not the product will deliver an equivalent security package is yet to be seen. Also I would expect it to be free only for personal computers, not corporate organizations.

If Microsoft is smart what they will do is simply buy a company and rebrand the product to deliver real competition to the other big security vendors. After all, under the current economic conditions there are probably some bargains out there.

Keep an eye out for the beta which should be released soon.

(source: New York Times)