Been using since 1995

Nice…as expected

As a past user of Norton Internet Security (experience with NIS 2002), I feel an obligation to warn people off of this product. (1) In 2004, a Live Update apparently created a situation in which my computer’s performance slowed to a crawl, with NIS using about 99 percent of the CPU as shown by Task Manager. (2) More than a dozen E-mails to Symantec’s customer service and technical support representatives went unanswered, as did at least one fax addressed to the department’s manager.

This is based on my experience with Norton Internet Security 2002. Symantec’s products are of low quality, and technical support might as well be nonexistent. Furthermore, Symantec has a nice trick to force you to buy new versions of NIS every few years; it cuts off your ability to download virus updates for older ones. I am currently relying on Frisk F-Prot for virus protection, so I no longer need Norton Antivirus (part of the NIS package).

We get the upgrade every year, and, while the changes are not huge, the program is excellent to begin with, and they do improve it every time. This is no exception. The program seems a bit faster, and there have been some tweaks in the way things work. Nothing major by itself, but it adds up. This has always been the best genealogy program, in my opinion, and it still is.

I didn’t actually try hacking into the connection, but I assume it does what it says it will do as far as security, but I still won’t use it, because it noticeably slowed things down. Too bad.

This is a pretty good, and richly featured program for photo editing. It will do what I need to do, and the price is very reasonable. Clearly, professionals prefer that other product, but this one is fine for non-pros, costs a lot less, and is quicker to learn. I teach photography at our local college, and I recommend this one for those who find the other too pricy.

There are a lot of reviews of the Trend Micro Internet Security program, and it rates pretty well. No antivirus program stops everything, but this one isn’t bad. What I like about this is the USB delivery system. Lots of people are buying computers without CD or DVD drives these days, and I think a lot of software will soon come on the now very inexpensive memory sticks. This is a good idea!

I like AVG a lot, and this package for three computers is a good product at a very good price. You won’t be disappointed!

This software is useful mainly for video editing, and it is not as powerful or easy to use as Adobe Premiere. Perhaps that is my perception because of greater familiarity with Premiere, but I think it is more than that. As far as ripping is concerned, I know they run into legal problems. Courts have been mixed on whether it is legal to rip a movie DVD that you own, strictly for your own use, but it is certainly illegal to make software which does it, so if that’s what you are wanting to do, this software won’t do it.