Lindows.com offers anti-virus software for its OS

MIAMI — The first antivirus software tuned specifically for Lindows.com’s Linux-based desktop operating system is now available, the company said Tuesday.

For the new software, called VirusSafe, Lindows.com took Central Command’s Vexira Antivirus for Linux Workstation software and adjusted it to integrate it with the LindowsOS operating system, said John Bromhead, Lindows.com’s marketing vice president.

The integration work gave the Vexira software a graphical user interface, thus making it more user-friendly than the product’s regular version, which uses a command-line interface, Bromhead said. Lindows.com also automated the process of downloading virus definitions for the product from within the LindowsOS environment, he added.

For $29, users get the Vexira software plus one year’s worth of virus-definition updates, which are downloaded automatically from the Internet. The general version of this software — that is, one that is not tuned for LindowsOS — with a one-year’s worth of virus-definition updates costs $34.95 from Central Command, according to Central Command’s Web site.

“We buy in volume, so we pass on those savings to our clients,” Bromhead said.

The software scans hard disks and floppy disks for viruses on a scheduled basis. It blocks access to infected files and gives the user several options of dealing with these files, including repairing, renaming or deleting them. It also employs a heuristic approach, flagging suspicious software behavior, to detect new macro viruses that don’t yet have definitions. A future version of the product will provide real-time file scanning, Bromhead said.

Lindows.com was prompted to offer an antivirus software and service tuned specifically for its operating system after a recent survey of its clients showed this to be their top request, Bromhead said.

The $29 license is “family friendly,” Bromhead said, which means that the software and service can be installed on several PCs in one household. For businesses, the license is granted on a per-user basis, which means that one user can install the software and service on as many PCs as he or she has at work, he added.

Those interested in buying the software and service can go to http://www.lindows.com/virussafe/.