Just Say "NO" To Norton...There's Others

Ugh. Norton. It's better than nothing, but the only company that's more smug in the "we know what's best for you and you're too stupid to make an informed decision" department is Microsoft.

I keep a few special tools on my computer that Norton treats as viruses. In the past, this has not been a problem because I simply didn't use anti-virus software on that computer (WARNING: I am a computer security professional and know 1,001 other ways to mitigate the risks from viruses besides using anti-virus software. I do not recommend that ANYONE at ANYTIME be without active anti-virus software with updated signatures).

I purchased a new computer recently that had Norton Anti-Virus pre-installed on the hard drive. I then hooked up the hard drive from my old computer in the new computer -- and proceeded to watch Norton delete the dogsnot out of several files that I did not want to delete. But since I, and not Symantec, decide what stays and what goes on my computer, Norton Anti-Virus is no longer on my computer, nor will it find it's way there again.

Combined with the way that various Norton products have behaved over the last couple of years, with erratic behaviour that did nothing to protect your computer (such as the cookie deletion stuff and the infamous banner ad deletions), I have decided that with the possible exception of Norton Ghost (a hard disk drive imaging product), no Norton product will be installed on my computer until they start behaving and giving people choices. No more dumbed-down software for me.

And in case you're wondering, I was about two minutes away from blowing away Windoze and installing Linux, too.

If you want a free anti-virus software alternative to Norton (or any othr product) for personal use, click on my link below (it is *NOT* an affiliate link). I use this on my laptop computer (which tends to get exposed to the public Internet a bit more often) and have absolutely no complaints about it. And it always lets *me* decide if something is a virus.

So please: friends don't let friends use Norton, especially when there are other alternatives available that are both user- and business-friendly. Use something else; encourage your customers to do the same (heck, give them the link below -- talk about a good way to build customer loyalty), and let's get back to providing outstanding value to our customers while we earn some money.