Some things in life should be rejected outright even when offered free – like free tickets to Ajith’s Aegan or Abhishek Bachchan’s Drona or a free copy of Microsoft’s Windows Live OneCare PC security suite.

Dei gratia, Microsoft has now decided to kill its Live OneCare product, one of the worst PC security services ever put out, and in its place offer a free anti-malware product code-named Morro.

Given Microsoft’s disgraceful track record on security, we think a more apt name for the upcoming product should be Moron. After all, only a moron would entrust the security of his PC to Microsoft.

Here’s what a PC Magazine story on a review of Live OneCare said last year: 

In each of three categories – viruses, macros, worms and scripts; backdoors, trojans, and other malware; and a third category, combining the results of the first two – OneCare received the worst score out of seventeen products tested, according to AV-Comparatives.org, a group of IT graduate students who have published formal analyses of antivirus tools since Feb. 2004. The effort is led by Andreas Clementi, the project tester and a graduate student at the University of Innsbruck.

The Live OneCare non-security product had non-security features like printer sharing and PC tuneup as well.

Morro in 2009
Microsoft said Morro would be available in the second half of 2009 and provide comprehensive protection for PCs from malware including viruses, spyware, rootkits and trojans.

Comprehensive protection from Microsoft – if you believe that, you’d better also believe Shabana Azmi learnt acting from Nayantara and that Naseeruddin Shah was trained by Ajith.

Comprehensive protection from Microsoft  – Ha ha ha. It’s been a long day here and we needed a good laugh.

Microsoft claims that Morro will be architected for a smaller footprint that will use fewer computing resources and be ideal for low-bandwidth scenarios or less powerful PCs.

Morro is supposed to work with Windows XP and Windows Vista operating systems and the forthcoming Windows 7 OS as well.

Microsoft attributed its decision to kill retail sales of its Live OneCare subscription service effective June 30, 2009 to the focus on the simplified offering a.k.a. Morro. Ha ha ha, again.

Buying a Microsoft security product is like letting the fox into the coop and requesting it to keep an eye on all the hen there.