McAfee is so irate over Microsoft’s decision not to allow

them access to the core of Windows Vista that they today took out a full page

ad in the Financial Times.  Symantec is

equally as unhappy about the move, recently stating that Microsoft has

withdrawn its cooperation as it move to replace their security related software

with its own.

The ad made some weighty but fair claims:

“Microsoft is being completely unrealistic if, by

locking security companies out of the kernel (core), it thinks hackers won’t

crack Vista’s kernel. In fact, they already

have,”

“Only one approach protecting us all: when it fails, it fails for 97
percent of the world’s desktops,”

“Computer users around the globe recognize that the most serious

threats to security exist because of inherent weaknesses in the Microsoft

operating system.”

The European Commission has stated that no action is begin taken at the

present time as no formal complaints have been made.  It will be interesting to see if this follows

the same path as previous confrontations between Microsoft and third party

software companies (think Netscape, Novell and RealNetworks).