Why do Norton antivirus is so hated?
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I've used it in my house computer (as it is my wife computer and it came with that AV installed (360 I think)). It works and it is not a problem having it there... In the other hand, I'm always reading posts that make it clear that the writer hates Norton... What happens with that AV software?
[www.tamautomation.com] Robots, CNC and PLC machines for grinding and polishing.
Norton made some great stuff back in the early/mid 80's when Peter Norton first founded the company - Norton Commander, Norton Utilities. Ever since they sold out to Symantec their products have been bilgewater. It's bloated. It doesn't detect many things it should, and flags up far too many things it shouldn't. I've lost count of the number of support calls we've had that have been caused by Norton AV stopping perfectly valid products from running. About the only thing you can say for it is that the UI is pretty - very low on the priority list for an AV product. It cripples your system and it doesn't do the job it needs to do. Even worse, it comes pre-installed on far too many systems and it's an absolute b*tch to uninstall. Enough said? Stay away...
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The problem description from Griff and Rage is completely correct. But I would like to add that those problems are to a large extent historical. Today it's not as big memory- and performance hog as it used to be, and it will occationally find a virus. So it's not the worst antivirus on the market anymore. The ones you get as popups on certain homepages are worse.
Light moves faster than sound. That is why some people appear bright, until you hear them speak. List of common misconceptions
If it's biggest claim to effectiveness is that it's better than the popups you get on certain homepages, would you buy it? That's like saying it's better than my spam phone calls: "Meester Thomas, We have receeved a notification from your Windows computer that eet has a virus...".
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If it's biggest claim to effectiveness is that it's better than the popups you get on certain homepages, would you buy it? That's like saying it's better than my spam phone calls: "Meester Thomas, We have receeved a notification from your Windows computer that eet has a virus...".
I should've put a joke icon next to that sentence. But the fact that noone seems to take it as a joke tells us much about the perception of Symantec.
Light moves faster than sound. That is why some people appear bright, until you hear them speak. List of common misconceptions
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I've used it in my house computer (as it is my wife computer and it came with that AV installed (360 I think)). It works and it is not a problem having it there... In the other hand, I'm always reading posts that make it clear that the writer hates Norton... What happens with that AV software?
[www.tamautomation.com] Robots, CNC and PLC machines for grinding and polishing.
For me, it goes way back to when they first started. Their background scan would drag a system down to the point where you couldn't use it. It was too much of a resource hog. I haven't used it since. It may be better now, but I don't bother with it for that reason.
There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
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My own semi-recent experience: it came bundled as trialware with my laptop (Toshiba machine with Vista circa 2008). On my laptop very first boot, I was greeted by a crash window from Norton. I'm not kidding (and I've got a pic, somewhere, so it did happen!).
'As programmers go, I'm fairly social. Which still means I'm a borderline sociopath by normal standards.' Jeff Atwood 'I'm French! Why do you think I've got this outrrrrageous accent?' Monty Python and the Holy Grail
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I've used it in my house computer (as it is my wife computer and it came with that AV installed (360 I think)). It works and it is not a problem having it there... In the other hand, I'm always reading posts that make it clear that the writer hates Norton... What happens with that AV software?
[www.tamautomation.com] Robots, CNC and PLC machines for grinding and polishing.
Just the name symantech makes me shudder. I agree with most opinions that it is indeed a POS. Slows your machine, which I suppose I could live with if it did its job. I got viruses on two occasions which went undetected by an up-to-date symantech, which were a royal PITA to rid myself of. I tried MalwareBytes and MSE, both immediately found the issue. Attempting to uninstall symantech was another PITA. When you need to post a set of instructions on how to manually uninstall your product (which they do) you know somethings wrong. X|
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I've used it in my house computer (as it is my wife computer and it came with that AV installed (360 I think)). It works and it is not a problem having it there... In the other hand, I'm always reading posts that make it clear that the writer hates Norton... What happens with that AV software?
[www.tamautomation.com] Robots, CNC and PLC machines for grinding and polishing.
I wouldn't classify myself as a NA hater, because it is what it is. But I'm not a fan, either, because it is what it is. I used to use it on all of my computers and it worked OK, however, the computers seemed to run slower. Finally I changed all over to Microsoft Security Essentials. No costs, works at least as well as NA, and it doesn't seem to get in the way of anything.
CQ de W5ALT
Walt Fair, Jr., P. E. Comport Computing Specializing in Technical Engineering Software
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The problem description from Griff and Rage is completely correct. But I would like to add that those problems are to a large extent historical. Today it's not as big memory- and performance hog as it used to be, and it will occationally find a virus. So it's not the worst antivirus on the market anymore. The ones you get as popups on certain homepages are worse.
Light moves faster than sound. That is why some people appear bright, until you hear them speak. List of common misconceptions
Don't know about the home versions (I use Avira, personally), but the enterprise version on my work laptop is the pits. >It sometimes blocks all network access during updates (seem the "Current Location" determination of Wired, Wireless, Other gets confused) >appears to set off a system restore point, which makes my system crawl because the hard drive is grinding hard for 3-5 minutes, even though I have System Restore turned off >has 3 or 4 different processes (not including the all the AV and policy update processes executed automatically) each taking up its unfair share of resources. Need I go on??? :-D Wish I could change my shop's mind, but I'm just a minion. :) -EM
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I've used it in my house computer (as it is my wife computer and it came with that AV installed (360 I think)). It works and it is not a problem having it there... In the other hand, I'm always reading posts that make it clear that the writer hates Norton... What happens with that AV software?
[www.tamautomation.com] Robots, CNC and PLC machines for grinding and polishing.
I used to use it, now I use Avira Antivir or whatever they call it now (free) -- which I think topped a list I saw recently. I used to install the latest Norton Antivirus when I built a system, let the subscription expire after a year, and repeat a few years later. NAV was happy to continue running on the old virus file indefinitely. But the last (and I do mean last) time I used NAV, it shut down and wouldn't do anything after the year expired. :mad: And don't try to uninstall; just build a new system and start fresh.
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I used to use it, now I use Avira Antivir or whatever they call it now (free) -- which I think topped a list I saw recently. I used to install the latest Norton Antivirus when I built a system, let the subscription expire after a year, and repeat a few years later. NAV was happy to continue running on the old virus file indefinitely. But the last (and I do mean last) time I used NAV, it shut down and wouldn't do anything after the year expired. :mad: And don't try to uninstall; just build a new system and start fresh.
I am especially pissed @ Norton because it interferes with my users' ability to install updates. If, like us, you only have a few thousand users or under 1 million or so downloads per year, it warns you that nobody is downloading this product so, ipso facto, it must be dangerous. If we had buckets of money we'd sue them. (Actually, it could make a nice class-action suit if all small developers got together. :) ) Symantec is in the business of selling fear so they block anything that they don't know about with huge, frightening warnings. These generate fear which generates income. McAfee is almost as bad. Give them a few iterations and they will be. Norton products are probably useful to protect your family and most clueless web users from the predators. Norton products are dangerous for businesses in that they can cause essential updates to do uninstalled because their messages arouse such fear. A large percent of our post-release support calls concern Norton and McAfee. These products also interfere with Registry settings and operations. Once we had to wipe a developer's machine because Norton had somehow permanently blocked access to the Registry areas that concern SQL Server. We have removed all these fear-mongering products from our operation - replacing them with Microsoft Security Essentials which is free, doesn't interfere, and effective. As to the gentleman who said Norton products weren't too slow, he must be running a multi-cpu overclocked box or dreaming in color. They are boat anchors in the real world.
Murray