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Symantec release 2010 Norton security products
Little in the Windows world seems to polarize opinion like a Symantec product, and in particular one from the Norton range. Seemingly equally loved and hated by users, Norton products in recent times have grown in both functionality and size, leading many to categorize the applications as 'bloated'.
Fanboys and haters sit up and take notice, Symantec have announced the release of their 2010 range of security products, including Norton Antivirus 2010 and Norton Internet Security 2010!
In the list of new features in the 2010 range, it does seem that Symantec have taken note of the concerns of users around the size and performance of the applications, as they state:
"Symantec has made an ongoing commitment to delivering security products that are fast and light. The Norton 2010 products have maintained an eye on performance, in spite of adding significant new protection technology to the release. Independent 3rd party test lab, PassMark Software was commissioned to benchmark Symantec and top security software competitors' performance impact on key metric."
Long story short: NIS 2010 is faster than previous versions and it's less resource-intense (idling at a reported 10Mb). The once painful install has been addressed as well -- NIS installs in about a minute. Test scans under NIS turned out solid results as well: 61 seconds on an HDD and 31 on an SSD.
Features such as heuristics and rapid online sharing of threat information are key features in many antivirus solutions today and Norton Antivirus 2010 does of course include such features with a cloud-based intelligence system named 'Insight'. In addition, a new reputation based system named 'Quorum' allows the application to analyse files based on a unique 'fingerprint' against a rapidly updated database to determine whether files are trustworthy. This is claimed to significantly improve the speed of a full scan.
Norton Antivirus 2010 is priced at $39.99 for a 1 year download licence and $74.99 for a 2 year download licence while Norton Internet Security 2010 (which adds anti-spam, parental controls, a firewall, and identity theft protection) will set you back $69.99 for a 1 year licence or $114.99 for 2 years of updates.
With Microsoft's Security Essentials (codenamed Morro) expected to become available for free in the next few months, applications like Norton have their work cut out convincing users to stump up their hard-earned on something they could arguably get for free elsewhere. While the likes of AVG and Avast have been available in free versions for a while, Microsoft putting their name to a free antivirus solution certainly gives the option additional credibility.
So, do tell - what's your current product of choice? I currently use the MSSE Beta on my PC, but I have used NAV in the past as well as AVG, Avast and even NOD32.
Comments
12
Subscribe to commentsWillSep 14th 2009 12:26PM
I've never heard of any Symantec product polarising opinion. Everyone I know hates Norton just as much as the next person. And everyone who has it only has it because it was bundled with their PC...
jimmyOct 15th 2009 6:53PM
It's funny that so many people talk trash about Symantec's products. Why is it then that they are the most popular brand for antivirus and security products? Maybe because they are actually good? No, that couldn't be it. They must be fictitious supporters who just say good things about it.
blogwardSep 14th 2009 12:38PM
lol@ Will. They do it by averages. There's one person in Fargo, North Dakota who thinks Norton AV is the best application he's ever used.
Drew GreenSep 14th 2009 12:52PM
What would you recommend using? At work we have CA Enterprise protection and it's garbage. At home I use NIS on 4 machines and NOD32 on 1. NIS and NOD both perform equally well as far as I can tell.
Drew GreenSep 14th 2009 12:49PM
This exact article could have been cut and pasted from hundreds of blogs last year around this time when Norton 2009 was released. Norton got back in the game as far as I (and most others) are concerned when they released the slimmed down Norton 2K9 last year. I've been a loyal Norton customer for years, but 2009 and now 2010 are the great products regardless of what you've thought of Symantec in the past. I'm not really sure the differences between 2009 and 2010, except for full Windows 7 support, but bottom line is it's a good product.
@Will: Have you used Norton since 2009 came out?
MysteriusSep 14th 2009 1:29PM
My experiences with major consumer antivirus solutions (Norton and McAfee) have been lackluster in the past, but I have been modestly impressed by what I've seen of Norton most recently. They do seem to have heeded their criticisms concerning performance and resource use.
That said, I don't have any recent personal experience with Norton on my own machines, and as long as there are free robust security solutions (such as Avira, MSE, and Avast), I don't see myself paying for AV anytime soon.
Dave ForsterSep 14th 2009 2:24PM
Install in about a minute... impressive. How long to uninstall ? ... less impressive I suspect.
blogwardSep 14th 2009 4:03PM
Hey, Drew - you live in Fargo by any chance?:)
MMSep 14th 2009 4:10PM
I am using microsoft antivirus beta. So far so good. No noticable impact on system performance
Omar M.Sep 14th 2009 10:19PM
I don't get why would anyone use a paid AV while there are great free ones, like Avira for instance..
i've been using it for about a year now, and i think its pretty sufficient..
on the other hand, the last time i used Norton was 4 years ago!
mxxconSep 14th 2009 11:24PM
If you are using NAV/NIS2009, go to http://updatecenter.norton.com click on "Choose My Product Manually" and you can upgrade to NAV/NIS2010 for free.
jakeSep 16th 2009 2:44PM
The 2009 version was announced as the fastest thing ever. I just recently read that a big portion of this speed is due to the lack of boot time protection. Its an option that turned off by default, the antivirus waits till the cpu activity falls under 40%, so basically till the system is up and running with all the softwares that start at boot. Leaving the pc unprotected...