ok, so it was bad enough when sony's digital rights malware got labelled a rootkit, at least it really was malware... but now anti-virus products and other legitimate programs are being called rootkits too...
this is basically a witch-hunt, everything that hides anything is getting called a rootkit and it clearly isn't serving the public's interests... at what point in the process of calling legitimate apps and even anti-virus products rootkits does one wake up and realized they've made a tremendous error? at what point does one own up to that mistake and admit it? before or after you become a media darling?
cloaking of any kind is bad and microsoft agrees? windows cloaks things... "Hidden files and folders", "Hide extensions of known file types", "Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)"... and don't get me started on "NeverShowExt"
there are some circumstances where hiding things is clearly bad, such as hiding them from the administrator... however hiding things from ordinary users can reduce confusion and the potential for user initiated disasters... hiding things that can help to detect the presence of malware from that malware can reduce the malware's viability in the real world... so long as the administrator has the ability to disable beneficial cloaking there should be no problem...
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