Anti-Virus program wants me to junk my Firewall

Avira have brought out an updated antivirus program, the 2012 version.

I uninstalled the old program, and then set about installing the new one.... and got the message shown here, saying ZoneAlarm firewall needs to be manually removed.



Why would a virus protection program want anyone's computer to be left without a firewall? The Avira product doesn't replace the firewall functions, does it?

It all seems a bit odd, to me. Suspicious, even.

I can understand an AV program being incompatible with something relatively obscure, such as Spybot Tea Timer, but surely Zone Alarm is sufficiently widely used and respectable for someone at Avira to have taken it into account, when designing their new product?

One possible explanation has crossed my mind, but the implications are rather grave, and I'd have carefully to think about how I expressed it, before committing myself to print. These days, one can't be too careful!

My current solution is to regard Avira with deep suspicion, but let it do its thing, alongside ZoneAlarm. I'll see how they shake down together.
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