full-disclosure - Re: Windows' future (reprise)

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Date: Mon, 17 May 2010 00:18:34 -0400
From: Valdis.Kletnieks@...edu
To: stuart@...erdelix.net
Cc: full-disclosure@...ts.grok.org.uk
Subject: Re: Windows' future (reprise)

On Mon, 17 May 2010 03:48:36 BST, lsi said:

> It is mutating at approx 243% per annum, a rate which is more than
> twice as fast as Moore's Law (200% every 24 months).  I do find this
> alarming, because I want my CPU back.  So does everyone else I know.

Unfortunately, you haven't shown that the CPU actually consumed is going up by
243% or any significant fraction thereof.  Admittedly, A/V products are slowly
taking more and more resources, but nowhere near a Moore's Law rate.

Do some benchmarking.  Time how long it takes to scan a collection of 500 or so
random files using a 2007 version of your favorite A/V software and signatures,
and time how long this week's version take. The difference between the two
numbers is the CPU you can "get back". I guarantee it has no relationship
to the 243% you're complaining about (for starters, even if it *was* gaining
243% a year, that's a 243% grown rate of the 5% or so your anti-virus uses,
not of your entire CPU capacity.

> I'm not analysing infections, I'm analysing "new threats" (as defined
> by Symantec).

Read Thor's description of the difference between threats and risks.

Defending against threats doesn't consume additional CPU.
Defending against risks *may* consume additional CPU.

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