Usually, yes. The Sophos installer will usually find and remove older versions of Sophos successfully, but anti-virus software from other vendors should be removed, following the procedure recommended by the vendor, before the Sophos software is installed.
Yes. Sophos has clients for many UNIX/Linux distributions.
No. Managed clients will check their management server for updates and then fallback to the Sophos data cloud. Stand-alone clients will connect directly to the Sophos data cloud.
Clients will check every hour for updates by default. Sophos will release updates as frequently as necessary to address emerging threats, averaging approximately four (4) a day.
Based on feedback from the UW community and cost considerations, a Request for Proposal (RFP) process was used. The RFP team consisted of representatives from several schools and colleges, UW Medicine, UW Tacoma, UW Bothell, Purchasing, and UW Technology. Criteria considered included technical merit (platforms covered, how well the product works, quality of research labs, etc.), vendor experience (reference checks at peer institutions, experience with large research institutions and academic medical centers), and cost. After reviewing a number of responses, Sophos was selected by the RFP team.