Symantec products [NA]

[Let'sgoflying!]

I welcome the average end-user with no tech background (like me) to respond to this, as much as those in the business so - pipe up with your preference!

I am going to buy a commercial AV product for my wife's IBM.

It came with a home business starter product from Symantec.

What would you recommend (one-user, home-use is fine)

a) from Symantec (this would be easiest)
and
b) if you really don't like them - who else and which product?



Thank you.

 

[mikea]

I welcome the average end-user with no tech background (like me) to respond to this, as much as those in the business so - pipe up with your preference!

I am going to buy a commercial AV product for my wife's IBM.

It came with a home business starter product from Symantec.

What would you recommend (one-user, home-use is fine)

a) from Symantec (this would be easiest)
and
b) if you really don't like them - who else and which product?

For Anti-virus software, return the Norton AV and get:
http://avast.com/eng/avast_4_professional.html

Save your self while you still have a chance. NAV is really hard to fully remove.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

I welcome the average end-user with no tech background (like me) to respond to this, as much as those in the business so - pipe up with your preference!

I am going to buy a commercial AV product for my wife's IBM.

It came with a home business starter product from Symantec.

What would you recommend (one-user, home-use is fine)

a) from Symantec (this would be easiest)
and
b) if you really don't like them - who else and which product?

Dave,

I'm assuming you mean what do we recommend for business software? I see Mike did not make the same assumption, hence my request for clarification.

However, I don't know what on earth Symantec has in the business starter area.

Frankly, while I don't much care for Intuit's business practices, for a small business owner QuickBooks (or Pro if needed) is essential. I've used many small-to-medium business accounting packages, and none comes close to the ease of use of QuickBooks. Plus, many accountants use it and you can simply e-mail them your file at the end of the year. It doesn't get much better.

Or are Mike and I both wrong and you're looking for AV software?

 

[wsuffa]

Symantec is OK for AV software, but it essentially becomes a "buy the upgrade every year" deal because of the way they price the definition renewal. My experience has been that Symantec litters the hard drive with files and registration entries, and turns on by default a number of things I don't care to have running, gobbling memory and making it difficult to totally remove.

Having said that, I have Symantec running on one machine, a byproduct of a former company requirement that I use Symantec.

I use the free version of AVG on one machine and AntiVir on another. Both seem to work OK, though they do operate differently than Symantec.

 

[JoeSelch]

I second the free version of AVG - automatically updates every day and never bugs me for money.

Dumped Symantec when they went subscription AND made it so I couldn't renew conveniently online. If they wanted my money, they should have made it easy for me to give it to them!

 

[Brian Austin]

Symantec is OK for AV software, but it essentially becomes a "buy the upgrade every year" deal because of the way they price the definition renewal. My experience has been that Symantec litters the hard drive with files and registration entries, and turns on by default a number of things I don't care to have running, gobbling memory and making it difficult to totally remove.

Having said that, I have Symantec running on one machine, a byproduct of a former company requirement that I use Symantec.

I use the free version of AVG on one machine and AntiVir on another. Both seem to work OK, though they do operate differently than Symantec.

I like AVG and have heard good things about Avast but I don't have the issues you're seeing with SAV. It's currently installed on 80+ workstations and laptops in my company.

Yes, it's a subscription-based service for the definitions. Most commercial products are this type of "pay for what you get" type subscriptions.

I don't like their full blown Internet Security suite and just use the AV component in my network. I also detest the whole Systemworks suite and would recommend a complete reformat of the hard drive to get rid of it. Anything short of that tends to leave remainders all over the place for some reason.

 

[mikea]

For business software you gotta consider if you want to make the software company your business partner. This partner will just demand periodic payments so you can access your business data, sorta like Tony Soprano.

If would stay away from Symantec products in general just due to their obvious lock-in and make you pay ploy.

I just read the license on my free copy of Intuit's Quickbooks. It says you agree that to their "Sunset" policy but doesn't say what it is. You have to dig up the ever-changing thing at their web site. Then the help file has stuff like, "For a user group: Make your members your customers in Quickbooks, and your assets are your inventory and ...." How about if you just use a (OpenOffice(!)) spreadsheet rather than making your business fit their software so they can have a revenue stream?

Then there's Microsoft who helpfully bundled a 30 day trial version of Office for Mac so that if want to see any work I do in it after those 30 days I'll have to cough up $400 to buy it.

 

[Keith Lane]

I'd go with AVG.
I use it and it seems to work well with no intrusions. Update itself automatically on a schedule of your choosing.

I'd run like HE-DOUBLE HOCKEY STICKS from Symantic. Like REAL Player, you will NEVER get rid of all of it till you reformat/replace/burn/excorcise the entire disk.

 

[Graueradler]

Symantic worked fine as long as it worked fine. Once it didn't work fine, I never got it to work fine again and their support service was the pits. Some one in India would tell me that I needed to do things that I had already told them I had done, etc. Went to AVG free quite awhile ago and have had no problems since.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

I just read the license on my free copy of Intuit's Quickbooks. It says you agree that to their "Sunset" policy but doesn't say what it is. You have to dig up the ever-changing thing at their web site.

Mike, is that the copy that came with your MacBook? I'm using the copy I got (free) with my PowerBook to run the flying club finances. I'm guessing the reason their sunset policy is subject to change on the Mac is they keep changing their mind about how many new versions they're actually going to write.

For now, this old copy works just fine. I called them to "register" it and get out of the 25-launch limitation. Didn't cost a thing - I think they're expecting everyone to upgrade to Pro. I expect it'll continue to work the way I need it to work.

Then the help file has stuff like, "For a user group: Make your members your customers in Quickbooks, and your assets are your inventory and ...." How about if you just use a (OpenOffice(!)) spreadsheet rather than making your business fit their software so they can have a revenue stream?

Because it is WAY more powerful and easy to use than a spreadsheet for many business tasks. For the flying club, the members are customers and the vendors are vendors. I have a class set up for each airplane so I can easily keep track of maintenance and fuel costs on an individual basis. It's a wonderful tool. I do have a spreadsheet for keeping track of the airplanes' tach times and doing the billing from that. Best tool for the job, I guess.

Then there's Microsoft who helpfully bundled a 30 day trial version of Office for Mac so that if want to see any work I do in it after those 30 days I'll have to cough up $400 to buy it.

Yeah, they finally put a crippled, rather than simply "unregistered" version in there. They must have realized that people like me would go "Hmmm... 10 digit reg number... Microsoft probably didn't secure this any better than anything else they write... 1234567890... nope... 1234567899... nope... 1234567898... nope... 1234567897... Bingo!"

 

[Let'sgoflying!]

Reformat the HD to remove Symantec? Well the product is IN the reinstall disks. Actually the "disks" are now a partition of the HD itself - that is how the backup is, no cd's - its all on the HD!
Funny I did not see their solution if the HD fails! (except buy a new one from IBM)