Review by Buzz Stephens

I’ve used Norton products since long before they were acquired by Symantec. I wept when that happened…having had nothing but problems with Symantec’s software previously. Over the years, I saw my worst fears realized as each successive version of Norton Utilities and Norton Antivirus degraded under Symantec’s stewardship. That changed in May after my subscription to NIS 2008 expired, and I decided (aided by two rebate programs)to install NIS 2009. It appears they finally got it right. Installation was easy (a first for NIS in several years), the program has added new and welcome security features seemingly without increasing system overhead, and nothing has crashed…yet! The program seems lean and mean, and more important, very effective.

It does have one nasty nasty feature…and that is Symantec’s insistence in forcing a subscription renewal at the end of one year. The cost of renewal is ridiculously high, and the sudden loss of protection if action is not taken is unconscionable. Personally, I solved that problem when my subscription to NIS 2008 expired in March. I simply switched to the McAfee program offered free by my Internet provider UNTIL Symantec offered one of its frequent rebate programs, which allowed me to purchase NIS 2009 in May for a net cost of $[…].

It ticks me off that the scum prowling the Internet ruin it for the rest of us by making it absolutely essential to purchase protection. I blame Microsoft for not writing secure code to begin with, but until a competitive vermin-proof operating system is available, I guess we just have to live with the expense and inconvenience of Norton Security and its ilk.