I'm willing to recommend it as an alternative, but it should be noted that AVG Free will be upgraded to version 8 in the future, so it may end up as another hog, a leaner one, but a hog. Also, recent versions of AVG had been using the same method as AntiVir to promote the paid versions, with a popup that appears after updates (this one tries to mimic Vista looks), so take that into consideration.
I'm curious, why the Network Edition?