Originally Posted by
Uplinker
if aftermarket software is free, then what's in it for the producers of that software - what do they get out of having their free software on your machine?
Is that not rhetorical?
Free version is a delivery platform for the paid version.
Paid version is a delivery platform for solutions to problems you never knew existed before.
Premium Extended version is overpriced (1 licence), so that family package (5x licences 3 devices each) can be sold at 2x the price and look reasonable.
Once all householders have their installation done, you'll never change the product due to the effort and coordination required.
The degraded performance is to a large extent due to the need to be seen doing something.
OTOH, I do believe the core AV from Avast, Eset, AVG, Kaspersky, NOD32 et al are good, useful and more amazingly elaborate tools. Just that for a home user the embedded protection is sufficient.
The dirty trick, for completeness, is paying a lifetime super-premium package. 2 years down the road either the product is not performing or the SW gets renamed and discontinued.