U3 has a version of Avast AV available, but I'm disappointed Avast isn't a portable app. Is that because Avast isn't Open Source?
If you can't get Avast, you should try to get some other real-time AV scanner. ClamWin is a little bit on the slow side (so it would take too long to check if any computer visited was safe).
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You should ask Avast why they only work with U3 as it was their choice.
Of course, there are significant caveats with any USB-based antivirus. If the local PC is already infected, it can thwart a USB antivirus running after the fact. Realtime may not buy you anything extra over on demand in that situation. You can do a relatively painless check of the local PC by using ClamWin to scan active processes. It'll still take a couple minutes.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
"You should ask Avast why they only work with U3 as it was their choice."
I did, actually. But I'm sorry, I didn't read the request guidelines for posting these kind of things (I didn't know about the Open Source thing)
"scan active processes"
I'll remember that, thanks.
Avast only works with U3 because U3 gives them the ability to require a license, which you must pay for for the program to work beyond the trial [well unless you know a secret or 2
]
The decision was purely financial.
Avast for U3 is not free, even for home use.
Tim
Things have got to get better, they can't get worse, or can they?
You can just as easily create a portable app and lock it to a given device. I have code that does it, already.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I didn't say it couldn't be done done without U3, just said that's how U3 got them to do it, same way they got the first edition of McAfee
Tim
Things have got to get better, they can't get worse, or can they?
Yeah, but what I'm saying is that U3 doesn't offer them anything extra to lock it to a drive than they can do without U3. More likely, money changed hands rather than any technical advantage.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
As it currently stands, commercial applications don't have a choice for any USB based solution. Remember, U3 is a commercial / official USB based solution. Yes, money changed hands due to the fact that U3 is a commercial venture. Why I don't doubt that PortableApps.com format technically is as good, if not better, U3 (for years) offers the ability for closed source applications to use the platform. Even now, at the brink of being phased out, U3 is still sold, the platform updated and supported and no mentioning on their site of being abandoned soon.
In contrast, PortableApps still has to actually release closed source support officially and, while being in the works for over a year at least, not much movement is detectable for outside parties checking out this site (besides older references to the subject matter).
U3 probably has an SDK out for years and the structures in place for commercial and closed source parties to use. Admitted, U3 has a much larger base of people behind it but the pure fact that it's out now is the reason that it's chosen by software developers to support. (That and the fact that the custom hardware is widly available globally)
PortableApps.com surely will gain interest from close source (commercial) developers and has done so in the past. When PortableApps.com officially releases the ability to fully support closed source and commercial software things really get rolling. Before that time developers would not even consider PortableApps.com because for now it's Open Source only.
I have to note I don't know how Avast handles the registration for their U3 software, maybe they themselves use the 'lock to a drive' solution.
Cheers.
There are actually several commercial applications that work with the PortableApps.com Platform already. We just don't promote them. That's what we'll be opening up.
And U3 has never really been an official anything. It's not a standard, not even a defacto one. And its usage and download numbers have always been far behind ours.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
From a consumer point of view U3 is available in every store that sells USB Flash Drives. Regardless if you want to ignore it as a 'standard', the fact is that many brands offer U3 technology, and and is currently one of the very few portable platforms available. The U3 is officially enough to have been bundled on USB devices from various vendors, official enough that Microsoft jumped in to start working with Sandisk on a successor. There have to be millions of U3 drives in roulation, and whether they are used of not, it's hard to guess the market penetration.
I know you always refer to download numbers on this issue but I don't know to what downloads you refer. I can't see any download numbers on the U3 website and the launchpad oppers the ability to download applications. You might refer to Firefox U3 versus Portable Firefox, but while PortableApps.com is very popular, U3 has presence in any computer shop and other places they sell USB Flash Drives. Until PortableApps.com USB sticks show up in shops around the world U3 has the advantage.
Good to hear that there are several commercial applications that work with PortableApps.com platform. While PortableApps.com doesn't promote them do the commercial developers promote it? Anyway, I'm sad that there seem so many legal and commercial issues to deal with before PortableApps.com format can go full force as PortableApps.com currently has the advantage... StartKey isn't available yet.
If StartKey is being released you can be certain it will get heavy promotion, possibly claiming to be unique and all the usual blabla. Then you'll see Avast and other applications quickly release a StartKey version of their applications.
I still hope we will see things moving before the end of the year, like the alpha, the volunteer developers working on the menu, the 'no compile' launcher, the installer creator, the 'closed source' support (even with the apps externally hosted!). Yeah, it's a lot, and some things still arent 101% perfect, but I'm sure these things will spur additional interest in PortableApps.com from devenopers, publishers and users alike.
We don't need to compete with U3 and/or StartKey, because the number of applications is growing as is the number of users.
U3 is now, essentially, a single-vendor platform, which is what it started to become when Sandisk bought up m-systems. Today, every other flash drive vendor has dropped U3 support for a combination of technical and financial reasons.
The download numbers I refer to reflect a lot on actual use. When I was actively working on Firefox for U3 and it was regularly updated and number one in the downloads from U3's site... at U3's height when they were shipping, I think upwards of 10 million drives a month between the multiple vendors and advertising U3 right on the boxes of the drives (they don't anymore) plus online ads across web portals and sites... Firefox for U3 had about 1/10th the number of downloads of Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition in any given month. U3 as a platform simply never caught on. Many commercial developers who tried it realized that between the low downloads and high licensing fees back to U3, it didn't make sense to support it either.
From some rumors I've heard, StartKey isn't going to be what it was originally billed as.
So, yes, we're working hard to make the first truly successful and commercially viable portable software standard.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
AVAST IS A PORTABLE APP, I'VE USED IT , AND IT WORKS
If you would care to share with us where you downloaded a FREE, LEGAL, Non-U3, Portable version of Avast I'm sure we would be interested to know.
In the meantime, please do not post in all caps, it is considered shouting.
Tim
Things have got to get better, they can't get worse, or can they?
I use clamwin antivirus and i think it works great. I like that every few days, they let you update its definition so that it works better. I think that the only think that portableapps.com has to gain by making AVAST is that they have so called "virus sheilds" I think it was pretty effective. Instead of making an AVAST portable, I think that Clamwin should have a virus sheild. That would make it much more appealing. Also, is there a limit to how big a post can be?
i have avast professional 4 portable, but the problem is that this app is in spanish
this will be difficult, non-u3 OK, portable? well yes somehow.
Even the latest version is in kind of portable package on w.... sites, but sugest very deep scan on your system afterwards, since all is full of trojan droppers etc.
Or if you don't mind to destroy your system , why to look for avast then?
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
the people call it portable full version, but well this is kind of misleading.
It can have same functionality as the u3 thing, that means an on demand scanner, similar to clamvin.
If portabilized, it will not have the real time scanners, since there is number of services running and if all that should be started portable, well I don't know what will happen in fact.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland