When it comes to free anti-virus protection for your PC one of the names that many computer users trust is AVG. AVG has long offered its excellent AVG Free service that has no cost to download or update. I have used AVG free for years and have not once been infected with a virus. Microsoft has announced that it intends to offer a free anti-virus service to computer users in mid-2009.

AVG has released a statement that Microsoft is facing an uphill battle with its new offering. AVG claims that Microsoft will face enormous overhead costs to support a free anti-virus product along with the required product management and upgrades. AVG also thinks that Microsoft will see a backlash from channel partners whose sales will be negatively impacted.

When Microsoft starts to bundle its free anti-virus with its operating systems the pressure is likely going to be more on AVG than on Microsoft. We didn’t really see the sort of backlash AVG predicts when Microsoft started offering its free anti-spyware software on Windows machines. I doubt that we will see this sort of backlash from free anti-virus either.

Via AVG