- NEW!
by Stableboy on January 28th, 2008
I think I'm in a somewhat unique position on AB as perhaps the only person who actually worked on the Symantec source code. Day after day, I slogged through the mountains of ancient geologic code layers, trying to fathom how anything could become so convoluted and bizarre.
As a software engineer, I would say the main problem is that the code base is so old, and has been patched up so many times in an attempt to add more functionality, that it's become spaghetti -- nobody can really fix it, because any radical changes run the risk of introducing massive bug counts.
by trouble... on August 9th, 2007
In addition to the reasons stated already, All of the Norton products I have used seem to want to "take over" my 'puter and make my decisions for me. Not to mention they use a lot of hard drive space. While it may in fact be one of the top rated products on the market there are many better and most are free.
I highly recommend the AVG antivirus. Safe, simple, fast and free!
http://www.grisoft.com/
by Darkling on August 11th, 2007
I hate it because when I was working in a repair shop, it was the cause of 70% of the software incompatibilities I had to fix. It was responsible for most of the blue screens of death I saw, too.
In general, Norton products are riddled with bugs. Sometimes they are so severe that the program won't work at all. Getting technical support in a timely fashion is nearly impossible. Getting it at all is only slightly more likely.
by Meow Meow 1BadMutha TBMF on August 9th, 2007
It's a big fat memory hog!
by 8 Jan 2004-10 Dec 2009 on August 12th, 2007
First off, popular does NOT mean good. If everybody else stapled their left nostril to the ceiling, would you?
As for the ratings it receives, I've seen it in the top three of a few tests, though most have had less than ten entrants and I have yet to see it win outright.
Then we get into price, memory usage, disk space requirements, and one other fact.
Norton isn't out to keep computers safe or fast; it is out to enhance shareholder value by marketing a passable product with built-in obsolescence.
Give me something lean, mean, and free. Something with a small RAM and CPU foot-print, FREE DAILY updates, and a success rate about at least 5% higher than Norton.
by Talimze on August 9th, 2007
I don't know why Norton would be popular at all. It's caused me nothing but trouble. My second computer was KIA because of it...I actually think it gave my computer those viruses.
by mekare on August 9th, 2007
it's a nazi and it tries to decide what you are and aren't allowed to do with your computer.
by Anonymous on August 11th, 2007
I am going to have to defend Norton. i have the business edition installed and the firewalls have firewalls. i have had absolutely no problems with Norton and i highly recommend it to anyone.
This edition is a little pricey, but its worth the money. once its properly installed, you can forge viruses, popups, etc. it takes care of them all.
Every two days, you have to let Norton virus run a virus check on your computer. it constantly upgrades firewalls and eliminates invaders.
I love it.
by mrtorch on August 9th, 2007
I've used several different anti virus software programs and at the moment I use Norton.
AVG & Panda were a tad too sensitive. Since I've started using Norton I've had no probs at all and all the reviews I've read, written by experts in computer security have given it high marks.
by Rince on August 9th, 2007
The price, companys like AVG offer the same sort of product for free.
by G_tech on March 2nd, 2008
As some one who works on computers, I have seen one to many that have had Nortons as their only protection. The PC will have come to the point of a speed of a slug and the owner will tell you the only thing they do is check thier e-mail and play fantasy football.
I removed Nortons, put AVG, AVG anti spyware, SpyBot S&D and found between them over 3000 items. guess Nortons wasn't working so well and it was all up to date.
I personally have run it also, and not the cheap one either, last time I bought it I paid over $100.00 for it. The only thing the disc is good for is to run Win Dr off it for the registry repair, that part works great. any Nortons disc is good for systems works and run the registry repair part just don't install.
So I"ll keep recommening to people the above programs as they are free and work much better take up less Ram and HD space too.
But thats just my opinion
by Zack on February 29th, 2008
I never knew how bloated and over priced a piece of software could get until Norton came about.
by TheFishy on January 2nd, 2008
Well I know there are a lot of answers, That I'm not reading. So here are the reasons of most everyone I know.
One: Resource hog (it takes a lot of ram and cpu to run)
Two: Mainline anti-virus is usually the first to target, meaning viruses are developed to hide from these things and so its a main target to hide from.
Three: It wants to control every, I hate those. U wanna delete this file? yes. You sure? yes. Norton pops up... Possitive? YES!
Four: Usually conflicts with software... Gamers hate it for this because it usually screws up xfire, games and other software by going psyco and killing all ports and processes.
Five: The start up on it is long and stressful on the start up programs selection in the registry.
by Starmaster on August 11th, 2007
According to some experts, Norton will slow down you computer speed almost 20%. Norton Anti Virus is too bloated, it is like adding molasses to your PC.
by Firebrand on August 9th, 2007
I have used Norton and McAfee for years as well as other products and I certainly have never had any problems with Norton.
by busle2 on August 9th, 2007
well, I can't tell you why everyone else hates it, but I can tell you why I do...
I had the entire Norton protection suite installed on my PC last summer, and still got a bunch of viruses that made me have to reformat my hard-drive. it was a total waste of money for me.
I bought a Mac shortly after that happened, and couldn't be happier. I don't have any kind of antivirus or firewall installed, and I've never had any problems since the switch...
by Mister IT is trying to Liahona outta here on August 10th, 2009
It turns a 3.0Ghz PC with 4GB of RAM into an IBM PC-XT (circa 1985)
Norton Antivirus over scans everything degrading the performance of the computer.
It's the Borg man, it's the Borg!
by FairLady on February 8th, 2009
I don't hate Norton. Many times Norton prevented hacking my computer. It blocked the intruder.
I think it's a good program.
by Outta here on September 6th, 2008
Norton "antivirus"? Your mean the Norton virus? I'd rather get a virus than to have Norton in my system!
by Karl Plesz on March 15th, 2008
I don't hate Norton Anti-Virus. This product is pretty good, but still not as 'lean' as other offerings. The product I have the most trouble with is Norton Internet Security - which isn't just an anti-virus program. It also includes a firewall, pop-up blocker, spam filter and parental web filtering controls.
In my experience, these all encompassing suites are overkill. They do their job fairly well for the user who wants set-and-forget security, but because these suites intertwine themselves so deeply with your OS and software, they tend to get too intrusive. What I mean is that when things start to go wrong, the suite is often the culprit.
Norton Anti-virus - just the anti-virus part of the suite, which can be bought separately, is a good product. You pay for a very good virus detector and remover. The only issue I have with this product is that they keep wanting more money even after you bought it (in the form of subscription renewal fees)
Some people have discovered that they can get anti-virus protection for free, a-la AVG or Avast, etc. Why would you spend money on Norton AV? For me, the answer is simple - if you are an experienced user who practise safe computing, the free products are all you really need. You don't care that they don't remove as many viruses as the paid programs, because you know where to go to find manual removal instructions. You are less likely to become infected, because you use the computer in a manner that reduces your risk to almost zero. So your product is being used more like insurance, not as pure defence.
Just like anything else, you have to weigh your priorities. If you just want basic protection because you have the means to reduce your risk, free products like AVG are all you need.
by KirkSimons on February 29th, 2008
A few years back, I used Norton antivirus and it worked really well. It would do automated scans and had options for more in depth actions if you knew what you were doing. I got McAfee free from my internet service for a while, and when I switched to a new provider I bought Norton 360 to replace it.
I hated how the program would not let me modify anything other than the most puerile settings that had little or no affect on how the overall product ran. It basically said "Don't worry, I am protecting your computer" without giving me any information on what it was actually doing.
It is a fine piece of software if you just want your computer to be protected and you don't need any special settings, but it did not suit my needs. I now have McAfee Total Protection and I am much happier with the way it works.
by Johnny Rebel on January 28th, 2008
Many people don't know or are to lazy to set up Nortan the right way. i don't get clearance from Nortan it gets clearance from me. Nortan if confusing to alot of people, i recommend it to everyone who knows how to read. (Im sorry but it's true) Its not too difficult to set it up correctly. Only thing i don't like about it is the cost!
by edgy57 on January 5th, 2008
norton is a popular program so its a hackers dream to corrupt it knowing alot of people use it.........dont use it.
by Sean Maguire on August 13th, 2007
I used to use Norton a longggggggg time ago, and its crap!! I did a test with Norton scan a couple of files with really bad viruses and it didn't detect nothing! I use AVG and Clamwin dected all the viruses! I recommend you getting AVG or Clamwin as your anti-virus scanner. Also it isn't a memory hog either!
by Anonymous too on August 12th, 2007
I had Norton antivirus for three years and was unsatisfied with the large hard drive space taken and the high price. A friend told me about AVG, which is just as good and free. I've used AVG ever since.
by sparkie2448 on August 11th, 2007
I don't know. I have Norton and its fine in my book!
by SalientAlien on August 10th, 2009
Every time I have seen it installed it had slowed the computer way down, perhaps tenfold. It may stop some viruses, but what's the point with that kind of performance degredation?
by The Extortionist on August 10th, 2009
It is hated because it lags your pc.
by SomeOne1199 on August 10th, 2009
I still prefer NOD32.
by jshm22 on August 31st, 2009
Yes becasue they have a corporate monopoly. Independantly it's crap as it uses too much resources is too bulky has poor response and is too pricey. It was the best at one time but the bigger you get the more fat you put on.
by Master Selwood on August 10th, 2009
It is YES, in-fact it is a very very good Anti-Virus but it slows down your computer, i only recommend it to people who have a lot of memory, Norton actually has very good protection, its just one little problem that Norton has, Memory.
by i like cows on November 16th, 2009
If you've used AVG for 2,5 years and i'm using it now . there is nothing wrong with it.
by Riding the last galaxy on October 12th, 2009
I tried Norton and although it seemed to protect well, it slowed my computer to a crawl so I switched to something else.
by 08Busa on August 31st, 2009
I love it, never have any problems and I go to sites you wouldnt believe, and this thing has never crashed and is fast as hell.
by Nightwatchdog on July 29th, 2009
It's buggy, it has holes you could sail a hundred viruses through, it eats up system resources, and it's virtually impossible to remove from your computer once your tired of putting up with it's uselessness.
by bagman123 on February 12th, 2008
I do'nt know where you got the idea that Norton tops the polls.
It's rubbish, apart from the reasons stated above, they only upgrade the database weekly not much use when there are numerous new viruses hourly.They recently were hit by a virus themselves, AND knocked out thousands of computers around the world by posting a wrong solution to a virus problem.Some security. as above popular DOES'NT mean good,
Check out Kaspersky Labs and Bit Defender,two of the best on the market.
by mebeer on January 22nd, 2008
Did I mention I just put all my faith in Norton.
by Masterman on January 18th, 2008
Norton is hated because these days people want speed in their computers. In some cases of old computers Norton added about half a minute to the booting time. It doesnt seem like much but when we pay so much for something that we think suits us best we dont want any hindrances. Also even though norton is one of the top rating softwares does not mean its the best. It simply means that it was regarded to be around the area of such other antivirus systems like AVG, NOD32, Karpersky (I think thats how you spell it...).
In my personal experience Norton seems to take a little too much HDD space for me. So i use Nod32 which hasn't given me any problems to date.
by suMit on February 21st, 2008
These r heavy software and slow down the processing speed of computer.Most of them look for updates from the internet and takes a lot of bandwidth
Suppose u hava dog in ur house to get safetly but most of the times its ur relatives r coming in house..and dogs r barking seeing everyone......
Same is with Norton...they r making u threat and warnings for small small things
The biggest virus is Antivirus
by Anonymous on March 2nd, 2008
Avira out detects, outperforms, and uses less system resources than Norton. Avira has one of the highest detection rates of all AV scanners on the market, it even bests AVG and Kaspersky in the majority tests.
Norton lives on the reputation Peter Norton made for his products in the 1980's but after Symantec bough him out, just like other companies they canabalize (Sygate, powerquest, etc) the software tends to not work as well as it did before.
Norton AV has a poor detection rate, Norton Internet Security is full of holes, Norton AV sucks the life out of your computer even when it's at idle. As an added bonus, my packet sniffer (ethereal) found Norton was sending packets to known advertising servers. Stay away.
http://www.virusbtn.com/index
http://www.av-comparatives.org/
I have also done a lot of my own personal independent testing using real virus' and have found Avira to be the most bullet proof AV scanner on the market as of this post.
Products Tested:
A-Squared
AntiVir
ArcaVir
Avast
AVG Antivirus
BitDefender
ClamAV
CPsecure
Dr.Web
F-Prot Antivirus
F-Secure Anti-Virus
Fortinet
Ikarus
Kaspersky Anti-Virus
NOD32
Norman Virus Control
Norton Antivirus
Panda Antivirus
Rising Antivirus
Sophos Antivirus
VirusBuster
VBA32
by ahref on April 13th, 2008
it wants you to pay for it every year. it makes up viruses that dont exist :D
by G_tech on March 9th, 2008
in the last 2 1/2 yrs mos of the PC's I have worked on that ran Nortons or MacAFee's had major issues, and to top it off the both take up so much space, cost alot, and many people with out realizeing it will let their copy expire and then think they are being protected when in fact they are not.
one of the last ones I wrked on the people were good friends of mine, and the only check e-mails and use camera to put pic on it, and he plays fanasty football, and it had reach the speed of a snail. they are not computer smart, this PC was so loaded down with virus that I had to break out the heavy duty programs to clean in safemode called XoFtSpy SE, its a paid program I keep on disc. then when into reg mode and use AVG and AVG anti spyware, spybot for the rest.
Just because some thing cost alot does make it better and as for rateing they sometimes go on what virus they clean, but not the total amount they clean.
by ShawnPatrick on January 5th, 2008
I have used Norton in the past.. from what I have read here from others that they have good reason not to like it or use it, I can't add another comment except that they are correct.... I say this with my own experience with Symantec/Norton.
I read an article from PC magazine regarding performance of several antivirus programs.... seems that AVG didn't rank all that high along with a few other brand name antivirus programs... BUT!!!! NOW READ THIS.... PC Mag. rated Kaspersky quite high... I'd suggest that the people that are reading this start reading about Kaspersky Anti Virus Program.
I am now using Kaspersky... and have found a big difference!
If you are willing to do some reading... "reviews on Anti Virus Programs"... click on the links I have provided. ---->
http://www.firewallguide.com/anti-virus.htm
http://www.consumersearch.com/www/software/antivirus-software/index.html
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2135514,00.asp
Said n Done!
by larryboy on January 4th, 2008
The reason I hate it is that the programs get virus updates from the server very seldom. I have one computer (work computer) on which I have to manually check for new definitions from time to time (despite the automatic setting). It also requires quite a lot of processor capacity. I prefer F-Secure. It requires very little cpu capacity, updates very frequently and the Finns running the company are very fast in updating with new virus definitions. I guess the reason so many people are using Norton is that comes is bundled with many computer offers (including Dell, HP etc).
by SusieQ on August 11th, 2007
I have norton and all I hear from people is that it is garbage. Last week I did something stupid and opened something in my junk e-mail that I shouldn't have. IMMEDIATELY Norton informed me it was a virus. I ran a scan and it took care of it for me.
by drrhein on November 26th, 2010
Norton has been a resource hog from the beginning and I've stayed away because of that. I did a speed check with and without Norton and there was a 35% difference. Recently I failed to uncheck a Divx update box and ended up with Norton security and it was awful.
It took over, hijacked, my machine. I couldn't do simple searches, which were redirected to their (Nortons) web site. Couldn't run in safe mode or DOS mode, couldn't do a windows repair or registry edit. It wouldn't let me delete or uninstall it, Nortons uninstall tool didn't work. It wouldn't let my use control panel to uninstall anything. AGGGGHHHHH!
I finally had to boot up a DOS disk and erase the hard drive then Install windows clean. Then over a hundred applications.
I will never use Divx again because they allowed Norton to piggyback on their updates, I shouldn't have to uncheck that box for EVERY update.
I HATE Norton!!!
by luc on August 11th, 2007
I had many problems with Norton, so I went to McAfee and I do not have any problems like I did with Norton. I am sure they are both good products, I just prefer McAfee.
by Amanda Stephen on August 12th, 2007
Norton does take up a lot of system resources. I have currently uninstalled Norton and am using NOD32 (heard a lot of great reviews) 'cause I am finding Norton slows down my computer.
by Joey Espinosa on August 13th, 2007
All anti-virus software uses system resources (CPU time, memory, etc.). The ability of anti-virus software to limit this usage is what makes the software bearable or not. Norton is just not good at limiting system usage. Kaspersky is well-known throughout the underground world as being an excellent anti-virus tool, and it uses MUCH less resources than Norton does.
On the other hand, viruses themselves will eat your memory and CPU usage, and they will slow down your computer significantly (amongst other nasty effects). An anti-virus program will do just about the same thing (slow down your computer and eat a dedicated chunk of memory). So, in essence, you are actually asking this anti-virus software to perform many of the same tasks that a virus will do on your own computer, just so you can keep away a virus that will do what your anti-virus is already doing. Whoa. That's a funny thought.
Alternatively, you can run Linux instead of Windows and forget about viruses and anti-virus software altogether. I do, and I'll never look back. I don't remember the last time I rebooted my computer because I installed or changed something.
by GuitarPlayer92 on August 12th, 2007
Because Norton is for noobs.
How do I remove Norton AntiVirus without a password?
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Comments
So what do we do? Just toss it? :-(
by Galeanda on January 28th, 2008
That's what I did.
by Stableboy on January 28th, 2008
And what do you use in it's place? I quit getting the updates in 2005 so I don't even know how good it is anyway.
by Galeanda on January 28th, 2008
I don't use antivirus software at all on my own machines -- being a fairly sophisticated computer user, I just keep the bad guys out at the firewall and inbox. But AVG seems decent, I've put it on a few machines for other people.
by Stableboy on January 28th, 2008
Is that something I get online or buy it at a store?
by Galeanda on January 28th, 2008
You can buy it online or from most computer stores: http://www.avg-hq.com/
by Stableboy on January 28th, 2008
Thanks. I'll give it a try, oh master:-)
by Galeanda on January 28th, 2008
Wow, a promotion! I'm going to expect a raise too, of course.
by Stableboy on January 28th, 2008
Done, I'll ship you a box of cookies:-)
by Galeanda on January 28th, 2008
Avast is not bad either :)
by Tinkerbell on February 12th, 2008
AVG is the best one ive used, i couple it with Zone alarm which is a firewall, i download a lot of music with limewire and used to get loads of viruses when i had norton, now with AVG and Zone Alarm i haven't had a single problem. i think stable boy should be promoted to GOD lol
by Seraphim Shinobi on February 21st, 2008
Always use structured programming and there won't be any spaghetti!
by Anonymous on September 6th, 2008
i'm using avast home edition . The new version has been released on their website. It s a freeware. You can register yourself on the avast website to recive the registration key . They provide timely updates (small in size, ie. In kb's. Which s usefull for people with limited internet plans ). It s fully legal n it generates a virus recovery database to report avast about the new viruses .
To detect n delete malwares on your comp use malware bytes . Another free software . N a powerfull tool to clean your comp of malwares. I use these softwares myself .
http://malware-virus-spyware-remover-tools.blogspot.com/
by phamornmi on August 13th, 2009