No. Antivirus just isn’t an Operating System function. It’s an application. Remember how much trouble MS got in for merely including a web browsing application with their OS?
Not to torture the weak analogy even further, but the OS isn’t the whole car. It’s just the chassis. There’s lots of things that don’t belong there like Word Processing apps, CAD programs, and yes... antivirus apps.
Antivirus is essentially a subscription. It is a service that is continually updating patterns and engines in order to protect against continually evolving threats. It’s not a buy-it-once kind of thing.
Yoda says, "And that is why you fail."
The question isn't, "Is anti-virus an application or a system function?" the question is "Why is an operating system so easy to infect that it requires us to have this conversation?"
Other operating systems don't seem to have this problem. There are millions of Unix web servers out there, millions of Macs and Linux PCs, yet somehow all it's always Windows that has thousands of active viruses.
Oh, we could take this to the extremes of naming every part that comes on the car, and every line of code that comes in an OS, and each of us coming up with an analogy to suit our argument. Fun, but, let’s not.
I believe I’m correct as evidenced by MS spending lots of money and delivering security solutions for free, whether it’s bundled or not.
You believe you’re correct because you like buying seat belts for your 2010 Corvette. LOL
I agree to disagree. Isn’t America great? ;)