Norton 2009 Beta Review And My Opinion
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First let me say that I have not personally used any Symantec products since late 2003. But I have seen previous versions of Symantec products such as Norton anti-virus or Norton Internet Security products and have been less than impressed. In fact I have advised clients to uninstall trial ware of Norton on new systems, and immediately noticed that the computer sprang back to life. So before trying Norton 2009 anti-virus beta software, I had to deal with my own prejudices.
My prejudices included my perception, along with many others, that Norton products had become bloated. That the products were resource hogs that actually did more harm than good and would bring most systems to a crawl. That Norton technical support had become indifferent to the fact that their software was problematic and that each new version seemed worse than its predecessor.
With that being said, I have been running the beta [test] version of Norton anti-virus 2009 for about 3 weeks on my test box. The test system runs Windows XP w/sp3 installed and dual boots along with Vista. I had been using AVG 7.5 on the XP side with no issues. So I had uninstalled AVG 7.5, and installed Norton anti-virus 2009 without incident. Once I had the program installed I complted the update process and updated the protections. I should also mention that since the original installation I have also installed a new version which Symantec has released.
OK. Enough with the preliminary’s. The bottom line is this. Symantec has vastly improved upon their product. The latest release of Norton anti-virus 2009 is kind when it comes to resource use. I personally found no performance hit on my test box. It ran just as well with Norton as it did when I was using AVG 7.5.
Next is the GUI. I like it. It is simple and I found it very intuitive. Performing system maintenance is easy and Norton scanner is faster than previous versions. On a conservative estimate , it appeared to scan my system twice as fast as AVG did. This is one of the drawbacks to AVG which was slow at system scanning.
Would I recommend Norton anti-virus 2009? Yes I would. I would also recommend that you give the beta a try on your own system and see for yourself. If you do decide to try Norton anti-virus 2009 beta let us know what you think.
Comments welcome.
Symantec Norton 2009 beta’s here.
12 Comments
mike
August 1st, 2008
at 7:59am
Yeah, Symantec seems schizophrenic with their products as I use several Corporate versions at my office that work fine and are actually top-rated and not resource hogs like older Norton Home version sued to be. Go figure.
I stay away from Norton products for home use though. Just no point with the AVGs and others out there which do an adequate job in my opinion.
Peace!
Marcus Hamaker
August 1st, 2008
at 11:58am
I agree with your comments about past Symantec products. They just seemed to kill the computer making a lot of people think that something was wrong. I think that with AVG’s popularity growing and the knowledge that it is free, Symantec will have real trouble in the end user market. It’s hard to justify paying $50 or more even if it is slightly faster. It needs to be leaps and bounds better than AVG.
Noah Edwardsen
August 1st, 2008
at 12:20pm
Ron,
Thanks for sharing your opinion here. It’s extremely gratifying to see that you enjoyed using the ‘09 NAV beta.
Have a great weekend!
Best,
Noah
jim
August 6th, 2008
at 4:33am
Agree. I used Norton products for 8+ years , mostly because my parents and other relative had grown used to the Norton GUI — this was easier than teaching them another interface. Also, they have low-risk browsing habits, so Norton was probably more than they needed.
Like you , I noticed the performance hit with past versions, however beginning with NIS 2008, I was surprised by the serious improvement in performance and resource consumption.
I expect 2009 to continue this new Norton approach — I notice Symantec’s best marketing materials actually promote 2009’s light resource overhead.
Hi
August 31st, 2008
at 10:51pm
Do you have Norton Internet Security build 114 ? I know the latest build is 120. Email me at znmng@yahoo.com
Ron Schenone
September 1st, 2008
at 5:09am
Hello Hi,
I am not sure which version I had. It has since expired and has been removed.
Noah Edwardsen
September 19th, 2008
at 11:39am
Hi Ron,
As you probably know, the full versions of NIS and NAV 2009 have hit the shelves.
Since you tried and enjoyed the beta, would you be interested in receiving a full three-license copy of either or both of the final products? Let me know and I can either email you the download code or post it in a comment.
Cheers,
Noah
Forone
October 9th, 2008
at 6:15pm
Norton AV suddenly got light, fast, and completely uninstallable (much less intrusive and sticky) with the 2007 release - just as I was getting fed up with it. I’ve liked it and used ever since. Just got the free download of 2009 for the remainder of my 2008 subscription, and it looks like best yet.
Ron Schenone
October 9th, 2008
at 6:49pm
Hello Forone,
If you are enjoying 2009, sign up to win a free copy of NIS 2009 - 3 user license.
http://www.lockergnome.com/blade/2008/10/06/win-a-free-copy-of-norton-internet-security-2009/
Hamaid `
October 15th, 2008
at 3:42am
well, they have gone seriously out of the way to beat their competitors and also their previous versions.Atlast something to talk about and not to worry about.Try out Norton 2009.You’ll love it!!!
Ron Schenone
October 15th, 2008
at 4:56am
Hi Hamaid,
Thanks for the info. Stop by and enter the contest at the link I posted above. It is for a free copy of Norton NIS 2009.
KMC
January 7th, 2009
at 9:28am
Noticed this on two machines now running XP-SP3.
Both are Compaqs (Evo & Pressario). Upgrade from NIS 2008 to 2009 did not go as planned. The Evo upgrade killed NIS, and I have not gottenan answer as to why. Solution, back to 2008. Will have to consider alternatives for this machine. Customer brtought in his Presario to day. story goes that during install of 2009 it poped up a message that he needed to do a windows update to complete the install. Clicked the linke and things went down hill from there. System locked, reboot popped up several NIS windows and thenlocked again. Reboot and now all it boots to is the Compaq splash screen w/o any post codes or error messages. Have to look into that further today, but so far Norton support refered me to Compaq support who of course said $50.00….