If you're keeping score at home, Microsoft needs to bring two heavies to a fight with Google, but it can lay the smack down on an AV software firm like Sophos all by itself. Richard Jacobs, chief technology officer and master of inflammatory rhetoric at Sophos, points out that Windows 7's XP Mode makes computers vulnerable to attack due to it operating independently from the underlying OS and therefore not having the same firewall and anti-virus protection. For those who actually go to the trouble of buying and updating security software -- like say, most businesses -- this essentially doubles costs for each new Windows 7 machine. Microsoft has countered with the fact that big businesses will be using its MEDV management software, while smaller shops will be able to update the virtualized XP in the same fashion as they would a physical PC. Storm in a teacup, then? Absolutely, but you'll want to give these a read if only for the passive aggressive silliness that ensues.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/24/s...ers-chill-pil/