antivirus and bloatware

i'm not a fan of bloatware...i don't think anyone is.  when you install something, you expect it to be exactly what you want.  aol recently got nailed for having their latest software install a bunch of other software without the user's knowledge.

two chronic violators i think for bloatware: acrobat reader and quicktime.  acrobat reader: to me that means a reader.  so why is it 20MB?  compare to foxit reader which is 3.7MB (which is about 2MB more than the previous version even) and does the same thing (reads PDFs, search, etc.).  yeah, yeah, acrobat reader can do a few other things, but enough to warrant 6x the size and how many people really use (or even know about those features).  quicktime? don't even get me started.  a "plugin" that installs a startup task, system tray icon, etc.

while doing a recent installfest for vista, we were talking about antivirus solutions.  etrust provides free licenses for microsoft users, but vista recommended trend micro pc-cilling for vista.  etrust: 7MB; pc-cilling: 80MB.  wow, what's with the huge delta in difference?  it was interesting to note that.  avg free edition: 14MB.  it's just curious that there is such a wide variety of sizes in vendors when to the average consumer "they do the same thing"

anyhow, just an observation.  as a developer, i know there are many things that could contribute to ending size, but when i look at the features of foxit reader vs. acrobat reader -- that one baffles me.