Comodo -An interesting take

Comodo is a cool company, and I don't just say that because I use their products either. Comodo puts an interesting spin on internet security and backs it up by providing free desktop security products including an award winning firewall, an antivirus, an on accss malware scanner, a backup program, and others.

Unlike other companies though, Comodo rarely will try to upsell you to get a version of their product with more features (recently, they have introduced a "virus insurance" type program with their firewall), reason being is that there is no product with more features. What you get is a free for a lifetime, non feature reduced version of a wonderful product. Believe it. Or just try it out. 

Now you ask, how does the company make its money to continue to produce these products. Well,Comodo actually specializes in SSL certificates for online merchants. Their hope is that you come to trust that brand name and will buy from merchants using their certificate/ask merchants to get that certificate to earn that trust. I believe they do offer other products, but I'm not certain of that (just because I'm not an expert in online security certificates). Certainly is an interesting way to make money and spread word of their business. Comodo can't slack off either, they must continue to excel for the simple reason that if their products turn bad their business model goes to hell in a handbasket and they're out of a job. Realistically, no one is going to ask an online merchant to have their certificate, nor require them to before purchasing from them if Comodo starts putting out sub par software.

Essentially, user trust is their business model and our loyalty is what they're gambling on. Check them out though, it's your security at risk. Not mine.

To be fair and keep myself transparent (I value that) I am a moderator at their support forums. That is, I volunteer my time to assist other users. Volunteer is bolded in this case because I wish to assure others that I was in no way paid for this post by Comodo or to advertise for the company. I did it because it's a great attempt to promote internet security while at the same time making a living.

A few links?

www.comodo.com -Main website

http://forums.comodo.com -Their support forums, in addition you can find the companies business model written by the CEO himself.

http://www.comodo.com/products/free_products.html -A list of Comodos free products, in particular I recommend Comodo Firewall Pro and Comodo BoClean.

Dave

PCLinuxOS - Home Sweet Home

I'm not sure if this actually qualifies as a product for you, but it sure does for me. PCLinuxOS is a desktop operating system (much like Microsofts Windows brands) based on the Linux kernel. It is provided to us by a bunch of guys going by Tex and the Ripper gang free of charge. Besides being just free of charge it is also easy to learn and for many people provides more than enough packages to completely jump ship from Windows. Claims to fame include stability, speed, ease of use, and of course, FREE. Don't just take my word for it though, try it for yourself. Download the .iso, burn it to a cd/dvd, boot it from your cd/dvd drive and take it for a spin! Nothing touches your hard drive and (precious?) Windows installation unless you tell it to. All it took was one try for me and I was hooked.

Questions, comments, concerns? Please don't just post to tell me Windows rules the world and Linux will never take over. I could care less about comments like those. For this purpose, at least, I don't care about Windows v. Linux desktop share, or the feasibility of Linux to become more prominent in the market. Maybe another day.

Links:
www.distrowatch.com   -A helpful site that keeps track of distro updates and ranks some according to page hits.

www.pclinuxos.com -This should speak for itself, register, ask some questions, find a home.

www.linux.com -A helpful resource for new Linux users.