Norton and McAfee Anti-virus Complaint

Mon 15 Jun 2009

Filed Under: *Hayabusa BLOG, Anti-virus software, Computers | Comments Off on Norton and McAfee Anti-virus Complaint

My concerns have been justified on the large Anti-virus software companies.  (See the last post!)  Both Symantec aka Norton and McAfee are guilty of unauthorized charging of its users.  A few years ago it was Norton who tried to stop users from uninstalling the software and now trying to secretly charge renewal fees. Symantec (Norton) and Mcafee fined over renewal process

I didn’t realize McAfee was trying to do the same thing but now that I do they have completely lost my trust as well.   I was considering renewing but now a definite NO.

Added to that ever since the renewal notices started being emailed and ‘warning messages’ that my anti-virus subscription was due I reread the emails and found out that there is significant price difference to what they are going to charge me!  One week it is about $129 then its $90.95, then its $96.85, then $83.95 and another one for $64.95 then get this.  They want to charge $181.95 for 2 years!  I’ve also been to the shops and they are discounted to $49 or even free with another purchase.

Hence never get anything automatically renewed since they charge you much more!

The conclusion? I do not trust either company’s anti-virus now – sack the CEO and boards  for bringing these supposed  security companies images down the drain and now acting like spam and insecurity organisations.  I just do not know what they are going to try next to get money off me.

The best computer – Introduction

Fri 5 Jun 2009

Filed Under: Anti-virus software, Apple Computers, Computers, VMware Fusion, Windows Vista | Comments Off on The best computer – Introduction

It’s that time of the year in certain parts of the world that have a end of financial year of 30 June.  From May onwards you’ll start to see retailers offering a variety of specials.  Fortunately I have managed to synchronize all my hardware purchases and software licenses to expire at the start of the new financial and as a result can par take in annual ritual of updating or changing various pieces of software.  Yes tend to buy any new computer hardware at this time of the year!

I current have two Apple Mac computers a Vista PC and a bits and pieces PC accumulated over the years which I regularly use.  The bits and pieces PC is the main PC I use for trialling out new software like freebies and operating systems like Linux basically anything that comes on a magazine’s free DVD or something I found on the internet.

However if you’ve been keeping up with this section of the BLOG you’ll know that I now run VMWare Fusion on the Apple Mac’s to create virtual PCs running windows – or any other OS that I need.  The setup has proven it’s self reliable and flexible.  All the software I’ve installed on the virtual PCs work perfectly or specifically as well as they did on a standard box PC.  So I’ve finally decided that the Vista PC, bits and pieces machine, the the very old Mac Mini will be decommissioned.  That’s a job for Ebay…

The caveat is that games don’t run very well or not at all on the virtual PCs purely because my particular Macbook I have does not have a dedicated Graphics card.  Of course this will be fixed when I get a new Mac with a dedicated graphics card.

So I’m  in the market for a new Apple Mac of decent specification so I can run multiple virtual Windows PCs when required. I figure that a 5 year life span and using free and paid software including anti-virus software I can actually save money?  Apple does not offer real discounts on their computers but retailers often have packages but often not compelling enough – nonetheless I shall see.

I’m a supporter of free software – afterall I make free stuff as well but I also support paying for legitimate software.  Basically if you don’t pay for it the companies go broke and you won’t get new stuff.  So I buy software if its better than free offerings.  I always install the trail version first to make sure it will work so should you.

Norton Anti-virus Complaint

Wed 28 May 2008

Filed Under: *Hayabusa BLOG, Anti-virus software, Computers | Comments Off on Norton Anti-virus Complaint

Cannot believe this! mynortonaccount.com behavior is suspect.

If you sign up with them (Symantec) and pay for a subscription online they assume you will use them forever by not allowing you to delete your details!

When I found out I stopped using them completely.