Thanks for the info. This is the first I've heard of it, as I haven't seen any complaints in MR forums.
However, the newest version of Fusion (3.1) says this in the release notes:
So it appears the problem was with Fusion, not AVG.
A tad bit late but still...
If you read it as it is it simply says Fusion had 1 issue with virusscanners in general regarding resuming a vm. Fusion had more issues regarding resuming a vm. It seemed that for some the overall performance gradually degraded over time. This has very little to do with AVG itself apart from the fact that AVG is a virusscanner
The 3.0.1 release notes specifically told people not to install AVG due to an error in AVG which VMware had reported back to AVG. Something goes wrong with autoupdating and is causing a 100% cpu spike in the vm. Not very uncommon that a vm becomes quite unresponsive, any machine would do that. Fusion is not to blame for that. Mind you, not every piece of software likes to be virtualised, quite a lot of applications have strange issues when virtualised and none when run on a physical machine. AVG might be one of those.
People are still having issues with AVG with this new Fusion version and there are people having similar issues with AVG who aren't using Fusion or even virtualisation software. In other words: Fusion has got nothing to do with the problems, it simply is AVG who's to blame. Quite a lot of people have switched to other products.
The last two links you posted were from 2 years ago and related to an older version's implementation of Link Scanner, which isn't necessary for AV protection.
The issue does not relate to an older version since people are still experiencing the same problem with the newer versions. Since that version the amount of problems people are having with AVG went up, before that version everything was ok. LinkScanner is one of the things that are installed by default which means you have to pay attention to what you're installing. Not installing it resolves this particular issue but logically it offers one less protection against malicious websites. If that's what you want to use than this makes something like AVG useless (the feature you want to use doesn't work, it causes problems).
I never used anything but the basic free AVG, and had no problems for me or any of the client computers I installed it on.
I've seen quite a lot of different machines both physical and virtual with the AVG free edition. Some did not recognise threats (there is no scanner that has a 100& recognition rate), some had some very strange problems that were resolved by uninstalling AVG but most had performance issues. In a lot of cases McAfee and Norton caused less performance problems. I've also seen machines with AVG free edition without any problems. Since there is no way in telling whether AVG will work properly or not (it's a gamble) I don't really recommend it.
Regarding virtual machines: a lot of people tested MSE in a Windows vm and had very positive experiences regarding performance and malware recognition. It is proven "technology" as they say which is the main reason why I would vote for MSE. Why? Because as I said earlier, some applications do not like virtualised environments. If other people have tested it and ok'd it, it's a safe choice.
@TaylorJ: security and virtualisation has become a big issue. Parallels as well as Fusion offer you to integrate the vm into your OS X. This opens up your OS X data and applications to the vm and/or vice versa. You can set it up anyway you like and even disable it so the vm because standalone as it were. If you integrate the vm into OS X and let it access your local data this poses some security risks. If the vm gets compromised (you get some malware infection, virus, trojan, etc.) this can cause your data to be infected as well. Since you're running Windows inside the vm the malware/etc. does not affect OS X itself. You won't notice the infection until you sent your data to somebody else who's running Windows or try to open it (malware can delete or corrupt data!). The recipient's virusscanner will alert them of the infected file and block it (meaning: they won't be able to open it). If you're using it as a business this makes you look like an amateur, not good. An infection could also cause corrupted files rendering your files useless.
Yes, you should be worried but not more than any other Windows user should. Know what you're doing and make sure you set up your vm wisely. If you don't need the integration don't use it. If you need it, only enable what you need and install proper security software (virusscanner, etc.). It all seems quite logical but funnily this seems to be the biggest pitfall regarding virtualisation (people forget about security).
