ESET 8 for Linux has a totally useless User Interface

[FranceBB 4]

Hi,

I've upgraded from the old version of the Linux Antivirus to the new one based on ESET 8 and I thought we were gonna go forward, not backwards, I had great expectations, but you let me down...

The new user interface is a joke, it doesn't let you do anything.

It just says "You're protected" and that's it, it doesn't let you run System Scan, choose which kind of scan you're gonna perform, see the stats about the real time protection, see quarantined files, personalize exceptions etc. Nothing. It's just a "box" with little to no user interaction.

I'm gonna downgrade to version 4.0.96.0 and stick with it 'till the end of support. If by then the user interface of ESET 8 has coped with it, I'll upgrade, otherwise I'll just look for a different antivirus and not renew my licence...

It's a shame, really, 'cause you're discontinuing an old product which works fine in favor of a new one which does less than the old one...

I know that there's the command line usage etc, but some people want the user interface, not the command line...

 

I mean, how on earth is this:

 

 

Better than this:

[Marcos 5,070]

First of all, you are comparing oranges and apples. While ESET NOD32 Antivirus for Linux desktop was intended for home users, ESET Endpoint Antivirus v8 is intended for business users where the product is managed by ESET PROTECT and therefore gui options are limited.

 

[IsNotACatNamedGeorge 2]

Agree. The upgrade experience was awful and the product is so slow on my brand new machine that it is unusable. I will downgrade or find a different solution. Why in the world should I not be able to do a manual scan?

v8 is going to mandatory for Linux users in a year and as a linux home user won't have a choice but to use it. If there is another tool to install like ESET Protect - the documentation needs to be way better.

[Marcos 5,070]

11 minutes ago, IsNotACatNamedGeorge said:

Agree. The upgrade experience was awful and the product is so slow on my brand new machine that it is unusable. I will downgrade or find a different solution. Why in the world should I not be able to do a manual scan?

I was unable to find a license registered with your forum email address. Do you have a license for ESET Endpoint products? Do you use ESET PROTECT to manage ESET Endpoint in a network?

What version did you have installed before? ESET Endpoint Antivirus for Linux v7? Didn't you experience the said issues with v7? Did you contact ESET support and opened a ticket for the performance issue?

[IsNotACatNamedGeorge 2]

The forum would not let me use my regular email address so I had to use a gmail (didn't make me happy from a personal security perspective) to post here. I had NOD32 and followed the email to update to v8. It's my personal machine. I am not managing a network of machines. I don't use Protect. I have not opened a ticket yet. I just did the update to v8 from NOD32. It took ten minutes to switch users on my machine and I needed to get to work. So as soon as I can, I will remove it. Honestly from a home perspective, it's all pretty useless and it's bizarre to take an application for home users and push them to a business app like this. In fact I wouldn't recommend it for our business users that have standalone linux either. We don't manage their machines like that.

 

Edited August 4, 2021 by IsNotACatNamedGeorge

[Marcos 5,070]

15 minutes ago, IsNotACatNamedGeorge said:

The forum would not let me use my regular email address

I'm not aware of any special restrictions for registration email addresses and would like to check why your regular email address was not allowed. You can send it to me via a personal message, maybe the domain would suffice.

Quote

I had NOD32 and followed the email to update to v8.

I've inquired a sales person about the email. Allegedly only business users have received an email suggesting to upgrade to Endpoint v8. Therefore I assume that you have a business license. If possible, please provide your public ID in the form of XXX-XXX-XXX.

Quote

It took ten minutes to switch users on my machine and I needed to get to work.

Is it that after upgrade to EPv8 switching between users now takes ten minutes while it was almost instant with the previous v4?

Could you please provide more information about the Linux distro that you use? Is the performance issue the main problem why you want to uninstall Endpoint v8? The thing is that no users have reported such issue so it's rather something specific that we'd like to investigate. Also if there are other things that you mind about v8, please name them so that we can try to address them, if possible.

[azeu666 2]

I agree with FranceBB and IsNotACatNamedGeorge's views.  I will stick with version 4.0.96.0 and wait for an improvement (which I doubt will happen) to ESET 8.

 

[IsNotACatNamedGeorge 2]

It would not let me use my protonmail address. @pm.me

The email:

Quote

Your ESET NOD32 Antivirus for Linux Desktop product will be terminated in one year, on August 3, 2022.

For continuous protection of Linux devices, we are migrating all users to our renamed solution, ESET PROTECT Essential On-Prem. Please see your license details below.

To stay safe without any interruption, we recommend installing and activating ESET Endpoint Antivirus for Linux at no additional cost before your current license expiration date. You can activate it with your License Key detailed below.

INSTALL NOW

ESET Endpoint Antivirus for Linux is a business product that is perfectly suitable for your home Linux desktop or laptop, providing even stronger protection than your current product.

The product offers:

Cutting-edge multilayered protection supporting ESET LiveGrid®, a system detecting and blocking the most recently introduced threats
Robust protection that automatically cleans or deletes infected files, except system files
Notifications not requiring action. These are displayed only when a threat has been eliminated

I had a home license I think, but it's now a business license. I upgraded because, why not? If that is what it's going to be, then fine. But there are no options, you cannot even manually scan. 

I have a brand new machine 5800x 32gb ram and nvme drive. It's very fast. Until today lol. It takes like 30 seconds to open terminal. Neofetch took almost a minute to grab info vs about a second before. I use PopOS 21.04.

I will DM you the license. 
 

[petar 2]

I also received the email. It states that ESET NOD32 Antivirus for Linux will be migrated to ESET PROTECT Essential On-Prem. For uninterrupted protection, ESET recommends installing and activating the ESET Endpoint Antivirus for Linux solution. I am a private user and have received this email. A shock after installation and laborious activation. Real-time protection does not start. There is no possibility of setting anything on the GUI. What a step backwards. What should security software do without real-time protection?

It's catastrophic.

I recently switched the repo from opensuse to ubuntu. Because ESET no longer supports opensuse. Now that. Hey ESET, I've always been very happy with your products. But now you are disappointing me. Why changing a running Software like ESET NOD32 Antivirus for Linux?

 

 

[Marcos 5,070]

There is real-time protection and there are also basic settings configurable. When reporting issues, please provide as many details as possible, especially information about what Linux distro you use and how the issue manifests.

[IsNotACatNamedGeorge 2]

37 minutes ago, Marcos said:

There is real-time protection and there are also basic settings configurable. When reporting issues, please provide as many details as possible, especially information about what Linux distro you use and how the issue manifests.

Can you share what is configurable? I cannot find one single thing to toggle. There is literally no buttons or configuration menus.

[Marcos 5,070]

12 hours ago, IsNotACatNamedGeorge said:

Can you share what is configurable? I cannot find one single thing to toggle. There is literally no buttons or configuration menus.

I stand corrected. EEA v8 can be configured basically only through ESET PROTECT.

[Marcos 5,070]

17 hours ago, IsNotACatNamedGeorge said:

Why in the world should I not be able to do a manual scan?

This will be added in the next version of EEA. Currently an on-demand scan can be launched either from terminal or from ESET PROTECT.

[azeu666 2]

Marcos,

You advised: "This will be added in the next version of EEA. Currently an on-demand scan can be launched either from terminal or from ESET PROTECT. "

1) When will the next version of ESET 8 be available?

2) What else will be included in the next version in terms of additional GUI functionality?

[Marcos 5,070]

1, There is currently no public ETA.
2, Only the on-demand scanner will be added in gui in the next version.

[FranceBB 4]

On 8/4/2021 at 11:17 AM, Marcos said:

First of all, you are comparing oranges and apples. While ESET NOD32 Antivirus for Linux desktop was intended for home users, ESET Endpoint Antivirus v8 is intended for business users where the product is managed by ESET PROTECT and therefore gui options are limited.

 

And here lies the problem: with the fact that NOD32 4.0.96.0 is gonna be discontinued, home users like me are being prompted to upgrade to ESET Endpoint Antivirus v8 and have received a business licence for it via email. This is ok if it wasn't for the fact that in businesses from what I understand users will have virtually no control over what is done underneath as everything is handled by the IT Department of the organization through ESET PROTECT.

This is kinda a problem 'cause for home users such a solution makes no sense; I mean, using two different products to manage the same system.

I think that, going forward, there are gonna be two options: either not deprecated NOD32 4.0.96.0 and keep offering definitions update etc, or introduce the very same options that were available in NOD32 in the new ESET Endpoint Antivirus v8 and introduce something to check what the rules are and either enable users to modify those settings and use the options or disable them from using them and hand over the control to the IT Department in case of a corporate environment.

This way, both home users and business users are gonna be happy.

21 hours ago, IsNotACatNamedGeorge said:

v8 is going to mandatory for Linux users in a year and as a linux home user won't have a choice but to use it.

Exactly what I said: here we're seeing home users being pushed towards a business oriented solution with no regard to home users...

4 hours ago, Marcos said:

EEA v8 can be configured basically only through ESET PROTECT.

Which is far from ideal for home users...

41 minutes ago, Marcos said:

1, There is currently no public ETA.
2, Only the on-demand scanner will be added in gui in the next version.

Please add all the other options, you're gonna make lots of people happy, I mean it...

[petar 2]

18 hours ago, Marcos said:

There is real-time protection and there are also basic settings configurable. When reporting issues, please provide as many details as possible, especially information about what Linux distro you use and how the issue manifests.

Hello

I don't doubt that there is real-time protection. It just doesn't work on my Linux computer.

The installed EEA shows the security warning: Real-time file protection is not functional.

The OS is Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS. Secure Boot is switched on and should stay that way.

ESET wants private users to migrate to the EEA business software. It turns out that EEA v8 is only designed for the client. If private users want to scan their OS for viruses, they are forced to purchase ESET Protect.

ESET Protect is currently being offered by ESET for € 380.56.

Now it's getting interesting. According to Mail, the migration from Linux Antivirus to EEA is free as long as the subscription for ESET NOD32 Antivirus for Linux Desktop is valid. In my opinion that is only half the story. In reality, the replacement product EEA is restricted in its functionality. The user cannot freely decide whether to run a virus scan, for example. All the functions of the ESET NOD32 Antivirus are not available in the EEA.

And what happens when the subscription has expired? If the Linux user wants to continue using ESET for Linux, is it forced to purchase the much more expensive ESET Protect?

Do ESET name the end of life for ESET NOD32 Antivirus for Linux?

No one from ESET has yet commented on this.

My subscription will continue to run for a while and as long as every user has the right to full functionality, as implemented in ESET NOD32 Antivirus for Linux.

I find ESET's business conduct very questionable.

[Marcos 5,070]

18 hours ago, petar said:

Real-time protection does not start.

Do you mean that you don't get an alert like this when you attempt to download the eicar test file?

[petar 2]

I'm sorry, but the real-time protection is out of order.
As long as this is the case, I will not conduct such experiments.
I think if this EEA indicates that, it is so.
 

[azeu666 2]

On 8/5/2021 at 3:17 PM, petar said:

"I'm sorry, but the real-time protection is out of order.
As long as this is the case, I will not conduct such experiments.
I think if this EEA indicates that, it is so."

Why has no one responded to Petar?

[Marcos 5,070]

On 8/5/2021 at 3:17 PM, petar said:

I'm sorry, but the real-time protection is out of order.
As long as this is the case, I will not conduct such experiments.
I think if this EEA indicates that, it is so.

Please collect logs as per https://help.eset.com/eeau/8/en-US/collect-logs.html and open a support ticket with your local ESET distributor.

[FranceBB 4]

9 hours ago, azeu666 said:

Why has no one responded to Petar?

For what it's worth, real time protection using the new version of the antivirus works on Fedora 34...

That being said, I won't update for the aforementioned reasons.

I hope ESET 8 will have a fully featured local user interface by then otherwise I'll stop paying for the product, which is a shame, really...

I really hope ESET will listen to its users rather than lose them...

@Marcos would you please bring this whole thread and the issues raised in it to the attention of ESET and its developers? We're just users, but you're part of the staff, so we would really appreciate if you could do something on your side.

Edited August 18, 2021 by FranceBB

[czesetfan 29]

It's sad that ESET is abandoning home Linux users. With the discontinuation of Ver.4, the antivirus will no longer be available for home users. The question is whether this is due to the small threat to home PCs, or ESET's small profit from them. I think that if there are threats to home Linux PCs, there should also be a protection option for them. Obviously this would not form ESET's main income, but I don't believe that if they can make the various AV free, that the HOME version, of the Bussines product being developed anyway, could not be handled. Is there really no possibility of keeping the Home version?

[Marcos 5,070]

ESET NOD32 Antivirus for Linux desktop is a legacy version based on v4 which was developed years ago and cannot keep pace with current threat development. Basically all other ESET products have moved to a different type of modules so compiling and maintaining modules specifically for this legacy product generates extra costs that overweigh the income from licenses. Of course, if there's a big demand for a Linux product from home users in the future, we would consider creating such product.

[czesetfan 29]

I understand the termination of v4. But is it a problem to release v8 for Home users? After all, that's how v4 : Home and Business edition worked. Why won't it be the same for v8?