| Jan022009 | PSA: Uninstall Norton |
I’ve talked before about some of the software that you should run on your computer. Now I’m going to talk about some of the stuff you should not.
Norton Anything is horrible, slow software that stops working after 12 months and forces you to upgrade. It will slow down your computer to a crawl. It’s like protecting your car from accidents by letting all the air out of the tires. Alternatives are AVG Free and Spybot Search & Destroy.
I think one of the worst experiences has to be the Norton Phishing Filter. Basically, it’s a big yellow toolbar that sits in your browser and tells you if a site you’re visiting is a fake one designed to steal your information. It’s horrifically slow and adds minutes to the time you spend waiting for each new browser window to open. It’s also completely redundant if you run the latest version of any modern browser (Internet Explorer 7+, Firefox 3.0+, Google Chrome 1.0+) because these browsers already have the feature built-in.
More importantly, people should understand the nature of the risks. A decade ago, it was geeks that tried to crash your computer for bragging rights. Now, the goal is to keep your computer up and working so that they can make it part of their network to send spam mail; quietly watch your shopping habits; or steal your financial information. Put yourself in their shoes: if you were hiding in a house full of supermodels, would you burn it down to make some sort of ideological statement or would you think about installing some hidden cameras?
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