Looks like AVG caught Norton-itus. It used to be a pretty good trial-ware alternative to NAV, but they have bloated it up pretty bad.
AVG has been excellent in the past. Now they've added anti-spy and a IE search tool bar. Insane. One of my clients "upgraded" from 7 to 8 and then had to call me because his computer was working extremely slowly... would you believe twenty seconds between clicking on start and having it finally pop up??? It turned out that AVG was forever downloading, ever and ever... without end. Getting rid of the tool bar helped some... but getting rid of AVG solved the problem. Damnit, I liked AVG.
I would disagree completely. While rolling the AVG AntiSpyware (Ewido) engine and AntiRootKit engine into the AntiVirus product did make it heavier (no doubt), the resulting increased real-time and on-demand protection is substantial.
This from an avowed Ewido fan who is more than a little peeved that AVG/AS and all of the Ewido tools will soon be gone :(