Norton 2008

Just received special offer. Anybody any comment on the above claim?
Norton internet security 2007 was a total disaster.

 

Hope you don't mind a total moron chiming in on this one re: NORTON, but I threw mine out more than 3 years ago - as a geek friend commented: Nortons itself is one big virus. I've been using BitDefender since then, have just upgraded to the 2008 version - absolutely BRILLIANT!

Of course there are other very good AV programs - but check out BD at:

www.bitdefender.com

You might just be very pleasantly surprised!!!

And to the mods - if I stole your thunder here, I apologise!

 

Thanks Kim, but I'm really interested in some first had experience of Symantec's claim.

 

Norton is not a virus, let's clear that up first!

But I agree with a lot of what Steve_East9 said, in that Norton products can be a resource hog, depending on the system you are running. It isn't necessarily a given. However, this has been my experience in recent years and I no longer use any Norton/Symantec products.

You may like to check this link out to find a whole array of free AV, firewall and malware prevention software that Steve referred to.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/page.php?id=20

 

I think everyone is missing the OP's point here. He just wants to know if Symantec is telling the truth about 2008 vs. 2007. I don't really think he is asking whether he should use it or not, or alternatives.

I could be wrong, of course. I'm kind of curious myself, though I'd never install it.

 

Good point Adryn - now I've re-read it, I think you are right...possibly....

Quick glance at reviews can be summarized as...

2007 scored an average of 7.8 in reviews. 2008 is scoring 6.8 on average. This is out of 10.

 

Couldn't have put it better myself in fact I obviously didn't.

 

You say tomato....

Why are we arguing on whether it was academic or not? Lets leave the thread to those who have tried 2008.

 

I'm fully aware of the pedigree of Norton, having sold it, installed it, recommended it, recommended against it, serviced it.............

I have clients whose pc is running very happily with Norton (even the 2007 version). Is anybody seriously suggesting I remove it for them?
I have other clients who are only too glad to see the back of it, having paid to get it and paid again to get rid of it.

However 2007 has been a bad year for several well respected antimalware products. Both Panda and ZoneAlarm caused considerable grief at the beginning of the year and Mcafee in the second half.

I have come across things which have got past Nod32, Kaspersky and Bit Defender - and other self proclaimed 'leaders'.
None are perfect.

Anti malware companies put a deal of money, time and effort into their products and charge very modestly by comparison with some software companies, not only the obvious one. Why should they not reap a reasonable reward for their efforts?

I often say to client's "Wanting to get out of paying for antivirus is a bit like instructing your garage to use only water in the car radiator to save the cost of antifreeze, and about as short sighted." Suprisingly many clients are businesses who still try to avoid paying.

So I would welcome mature and reasoned discussion about the future of Antivirus in general and Norton in particular.

 

I made mention of a friend of mine - also a geek - who has a very low opinion of Norton's and during a phone discussion we were having on AV programmes, he said Norton itself is one big virus - he personally hates it. I think he said it as a joke, but he could also have been serious. Ah well, to each his own!

Personally I experienced too many problems when I had it installed on my machine until some 3 years ago - it was the professional 9 version, and I updated regularly, but some real nasties still managed to give me grief - Acebo, Datom, and the worst one, Opaserv or Opserv - the darned thing just kept replicating itself, regardless of what I tried to get rid of it. Eventually it cost me a small fortune to have my hd reformatted and everything installed again, and that was it, as far as I was concerned.

It beats me what kicks people get out of writing viruses - are they trying to prove how clever they are? I don't know!