I don't generally give people a free if they don't want it. However, in regards to the theory that 'Paid is better then free'. I would counter that every time. I've absolutely recommended Avast to numerous people, including having them pay for the thing if they feel like it.
Why? There are a lot of reasons, but the biggest are: * I've never seen more junky, bulky programs then the current versions of Norton & McAfee. I don't care about AVS Bulletin reports that show how well they perform.. because they live in a kind of dream world in which everyone is always 100% updated and nothing wrong happens. Updating either of those programs is a BITCH. Out of the box, installing Norton 2008, your first download (as of today) is 56MB(!) For the love of pete, this is ridiculous. While people don't like to think this way, we have a ton of people either still on dialup or on life-line DSL (AT&T's 128k plan) so a download of that size means they are taking tons of time... and how many do it? Not as many as we'd like to think. Meanwhile, general updates for the free versions are smaller; hell, I can download the whole program for less. * Many of the 'features' in Norton/McAfee have an incredible propensity to go wrong. You know how many times I've had to use NRT (Norton Removal Tool, available at their website) to get Norton off because it wouldn't uninstall correctly or left Winsock broken? The reason we even had to uninstall is because of things like.. password lost on parental control features, in one case a virus (which it didn't detect) immediately banged Norton's firewall so the user was hosed. * McAfee's annoying pop-ups. Please, if I want a program to continuously pop up and tell me shit or offer me to buy other programs all the time, I might as well be spyware infected. McAfee's incessant offers and other BS totally inert any reason to buy it. * Both programs create a significant performance drop that doesn't equate to the performance they do. Of the paid AVs, ESET is the one that I would recommend most.. after Symantec's embarrassing heuristic issues this year with Yahoo! Webmail and Google (detecting as Feebs?) as well as their continued bloat.... Look, I have two offices that are small offices I see often. One is setup with 6 computers, everyone running Avast and a ClarkConnect Firewall with AV. I've not had a single issue there in two years (virus wise). The other went all Symantec, with a Symantec Firewall w/AV and Small Business Pack (which isn't corporate edition, damnit, but like a 5 pack of standard Norton AV) .... Guess who I've seen at least a dozen times with issues? Now part of it is that I believe the ClarkConnect Firewall is infinitely better then Symantec's, but still, the proof for me is right there in the pudding. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Thane Sherrington Sent: Friday, January 11, 2008 7:40 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [H] Free AV ? At 09:28 AM 11/01/2008, FORC5 wrote: >Procrastination is king, some do. Most are just too stupid or just >plain lazy. I often wonder if they ever change their oil or check >their tire pressures. >Good money on fresh installs when needed 8-) I never give a free AV if they don't want one. I'm not going to take responsibility and listen to them complain "But YOU told me to use the free one." T
