Seattle, October 4 :

Computer security firms McAfee and Symantec dropped their usual rivalry to jointly condemn Microsoft’s upcoming new operating system Vista as a threat to online security.

The companies, which make leading security software like Norton Antivirus, said today that the design of the new operating system would lock them out of the source code for the Windows kernel — software that governs the most basic functions of the programme.

The charges could increase the problems for Microsoft in Europe, where regulators are already checking whether Vista will violate antitrust laws. Microsoft may even delay the European launch of the long-awaited programme because of antitrust concerns. McAfee charged that the kernel lockout represented an ‘inherent weakness’ in Windows Vista and alleged that it was designed to give Microsoft an unfair advantage in peddling its own security software.

“Microsoft is being completely unrealistic if, by locking security companies out of the kernel (core), it thinks hackers won’t crack Vista’s kernel. In fact, they already have,” McAffee said in an advertisement in the Financial Times.

Echoing earlier arguments by Symantec, McAfee said that if Microsoft came to dominate the security market it could have dire repercussions on computer users.

“Only one approach protecting us all: When it fails, it fails for 97 per cent of the world’s desktops,” McAfee said. Microsoft denied the allegations. “Partners are at the core of Microsoft’s business model. We have worked closely with our security partners throughout the development of Windows Vista, and continue to do so,” the company said.