This will not surprise anyone who knows about computer

[fpb]

How in the name of Hell and of every variety of evil did Norton Antivirus ever become the best-selling commercial protection software? The damned thing is as damaging as the viruses it's supposed to fight. It has just caused me the most elaborate and unmanageable computer crash I have ever seen, which even led to me being physically injured (as I was removing the battery and the power cable, the only way I could see to shut the machine down, it fell over straight on my ankle, where it cut right into the flesh). To misquote the old song, Norton is a moron.

Comments

[guarani]

Two options:

1- Migrate to Linux... it's become quite friendly and, unless you have very, very specific software needs, it may suite you very well.

2- Use Kaspersky anti virus (www.kaspersky.com). None is perfect, of course, but some are less intrusive than others.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

In spite of everything that can be said against Windows, I find that in general it works for me at least well enough that I do not feel the urgent need to change. Even the screen crashes that used to sicken me every once in a while seem to have become less frequent - or maybe I have got smarter in using the system. Mind you, Vista might be the straw that breaks the camel's back - worse in that this is the first computer I ever bought new, instead of second-hand, with a seasoned Windows system full of patches and improvements. Norton, however, is different. I have never once had it on (I used it for brief periods a few years ago, and now I got one month free with the new machine) without any serious problems. Conversely, AVG has always satisfied me - for one thing, you can set it for three in the morning when you are asleep, and for another, the worst it does even at the height of activity is to slow down the computer a bit. Norton works so badly, especially compared to AVG - and AVG's basic model is free - that it was wholly counter-intuitive to me that it should sell at all, let alone be the marktet leader. I think superversive below gives quite a credible account.

[guarani]

If it ain't broken, don't fix it. But it's always good to be aware of the available options.

[dirigibletrance.livejournal.com]

Bleh on Linux! As much as I love the idea of open-source computing concptually... I have yet to get Linux to *actually work* when I've tried to use it. Even the supposedly ultra-friendly Ubuntu, which even a non-savvy person is supposed to be able to set up and get going with right away.

The day that I can can Linux to function as easily and painlessly as Windows does most of the time, then I'll jump on the bandwagon with you. But that day hasn't come yet.

[guarani]

I'd been using it since the late 90's and had never had any problem deploying it either in a corporate network or in personal computers. Now I'm not using it just because the only PC I have access to belongs to the company that hires me, and Linux is not an option for it. But I'm planning to mount my own notebook, which will run Linux (and maybe have a WIN partition to be used with VMWare, for the few programs that I cannot get to run under WINE).

That being said, I understand that the choice to use of a given system comes always from a combination of factors, and I'm not aware of yours (except for the ease of use that you mention). All systems have their pros and cons, and this is by no means some sort of "evangelizing" crusade.