Fahim is constantly trying out different software. The last couple or so weeks, he’s been on an anti-virus/firewall binge. He uninstalled whatever he was using at the time, installed a new one. Tried that for a day or three, found something he didn’t like, uninstalled that one, installed a new one. Rinse. Repeat.
He ended up liking Norton Internet Services 2008 a lot, which I found surprising given how much of a resource hog Norton products have been since, well, the last few times I tried them out. I inevitably uninstall Norton products as fast as I can because they slow down my system or cause it to crash entirely. And then there are the problems with actually uninstalling Norton – Norton seems to leave a lot of traces of itself behind that are pretty much impossible to remove entirely, which causes further system slowdowns and crashes.
Because of that, I’ve refused to even touch Norton products for a good long time – all evidence in the form of other people who experiment with the products have confirmed to me that Norton hasn’t changed their resource-hogging ways.
But. Then Fahim tried out Norton Internet Security 2008 (NIS 2008) and really liked it. A lot. Like I said, surprising. So, because we’re attached at the hip, I allowed myself to be persuaded to try it out, too. If I liked it, we would buy the 3-user license for the home office (I think that’s what it is). We were trying it out using their demo period of 15 days.
Oh, don’t get me wrong – I was more than happy with my free version of AVG. Not resource heavy at all, except when it’s either running a system scan or it’s updating, but that’s easy enough to schedule when I’m either away from my computer or doing something that isn’t resource intensive or important, so not a problem. Plus it’s at the top of the list of most effective anti-virus software, which is always a bonus. 🙂
I uninstalled AVG and installed NIS 2008. And this is where the differences between Fahim’s computer and my computer become immediately apparent.
Fahim has 2GB of RAM on his laptop. I have 512MB. If you can’t do the math, I’ll spell it out for you. 😉 He has four times as much RAM as me.
It immediately slowed my machine down. Noticeably. I even rebooted, hoping that that would help. Nope. Switching from one open window to another took a couple of seconds. In computer seconds, that’s an eternity. Delays were… Readily apparent. Even to Fahim, working on his own computer beside me. Was NIS 2008 updating? Nope. Was it running a system scan? Nope. There it was, minding its own business, happily sitting in the system tray, doing nothing.
I was going to give it two or three days to see what I thought, but I gave up after an hour or two. I just couldn’t. I couldn’t put up with a slow system for that long.
So, once again, I’ve written off Norton products as resource hogs that slow everything down. Whether it still crashes systems, I don’t know – I doubt I had it on my machine long enough to really know. But once again, I will support and agree with those who say No! to Norton.
I uninstalled it, and this time, instead of having to uninstall four or six separate pieces of software (when I originally only installed one), I only had to uninstall two products – NIS 2008 and LiveUpdate. And this time, they both actually uninstalled the first time. That’s a first for me.
And I happily installed… Avira Avast (which makes me want to break into pirate talk). Because, yes, I’m now sucked into trying out new antivirus solutions with Fahim. I am his guinea pig. 😀
So far, I’ve had Avira Avast on my machine for close to 24 hours. It has a smaller resource footprint than NIS 2008, of course – I think nearly everything does (Norton, are you listening?) – and it even appears to have a smaller footprint than AVG, which I wasn’t complaining about anyway. Avira Avast is also a top-rated anti-virus program, and happily, it’s also free. Of course you can get the paid version with more bells and whistles, same as AVG, but the free versions work perfectly fine for personal use.
Oh, the other interesting thing? Avira Avast caught a virus that both AVG and Norton had missed. Oh, the shame! The shame! 😀
Edited to add: I don’t know why, but I confused Avast with Avira. Major brain lapse there. Sorry!
When I was still using a PC, I used AVG. A lot of the free options out there are fairly similar, admittedly, but I seemed to be able to find more help with AVG if I had an issue. I can understand the urge to try out new software, though — it seems like there’s always something new, that might be just a little bit better.
Oh my, I’m now regretting having NIS 2008, which I got (the premium version) because we can use the same program for up to five computers, and with DH telecommuting, it made sense for that aspect. I also use Ccleaner and Adaware. I guess you can’t be too careful, and Ccleaner always catches stuff that NIS and Adaware miss. Grrr…technology and the dang bastards who keep coming up with new viruses.
wordsmith, I’m not sure why you’re now regretting NIS 2008. If it’s because there are free alternatives out there that are just as good, yeah, I can understand that. If it’s because another antivirus solution caught a virus that NIS 2008 didn’t, I wouldn’t be.
And now I’ve made the explanation into a long post…
Oh, it’s Fahim – he’s a hard-core geek. He tries out word processing software on a lark, or firewalls or anti-ad/spyware software, or… Seriously, he’s constantly installing and uninstalling stuff. It’s pretty amusing in a way, except when something goes wrong and his computer stops working and he gets all stressed. 😀 But then, some of this we do for the magazine. Last issue, we had a lineup of software for writers.