It doesn't seem a very good test if all the computers were doing was sitting there connected to the Internet. If they had been used to visit many and various types of site over the 4 week period, there might have been a different result and conclusion.
There's always been a debate regarding free and paid security programs. I don't think any can be absolutely relied on. They can all get false positives and occasionally might fail to detect malware. Paid programs can have features that people consider worth paying for and others consider 'bloat'. It just depends on your point of view and preferences.
I read of some who are turning completely away from programs that rely on detections in favour of programs that work
solely by blocking or preventing malware from taking a foothold in the first place. If that's successful, malware doesn't get as far as needing detection by a scanner of one sort or another. I do that with Sandboxie but wouldn't personally go so far as dispensing with an AV program that monitors and scans for malware.
I'd say to always have something in place whatever, unless the computer is just connected to the Internet and nothing else is done with it. It will most likely be OK then.
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What about the conspiracies that abound that the big AV companies develop and release new viruses to feed the paranoia and thus keep the revenue coming in ,is that likely or just paranoia ?
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I don't believe AV companies do this.