Recomended Antivirus software for a PC

[Anonymous]

Does anyone recommend a virus protection software for a PC? I am tending to steer away from Norton because of some slow down issues I had seen on an older machine. Spending most of my time on Macs has kept me out of the loop. Thanks for any advice

[henrypootel]

In some ways it's quite good in that it is the only reason i actually use the mac in my office. The Mac is the jukebox and the PC is for work.
Its hard to pin down the reason that i don't like it, but seeing as it is pretty much all there is for the Mac, i have to stick with it for the moment. I just don't like the way that it takes all the controll away from me. It guess its in keeping with the whole mac philosophy of making stuff user-friendly and pretty at the cost of features/control. plus i don't like giving so much money to steve jobs and sony to buy music(http://www.downhillbattle.org/itunes/).
Once Songbird(www.songbirdnest.com) is ready for Mac, i will switch to that though.

[TomWaltz]

henrypootel wrote:
I just don't like the way that it takes all the controll away from me. It guess its in keeping with the whole mac philosophy of making stuff user-friendly and pretty at the cost of features/control. .

I know we're WAY off topic now, but what features/controls do you feel like iTunes doesn't have? I've always been really happy with it.

I feel like the Apple software I use (like Remote Desktop, Keynote, Pages, Final Cut Pro) is the most feature-rich and controllable software I've seen. What do you feel they are lacking?

The websites you reference are interesting, Is there any evidence to back up the claims? They seem to contradict some of the statements from Apple's accounting reports (since they are publicly traded, they are legally required to submit a lot of stuff). Once report stated that Apple earned 0.5 cents for each song sold, not the 35 cents claimed on downhillbattle (trying to find the report on that. I thought it was in an SEC filing referenced in one of their quarterly earning reports).

Is downhillbattle's page a real and a solid argument against Apple? Or is it just well-designed libel from a group who does not seem to care about copyright and IP laws or even have evidence for its statements?

[henrypootel]

I porbably shouldn't go on anymore or this will turn into a Mac vs PC debate, which this is not the place for. Suffice to say that i greatly dislike windows, but i like OSX a lot less. Deep down, i really love the registry. My most commonly used program is notepad(never crashes), and i love my start menu, which is a perfect compliment to the dock(but if i could only have 1 i would go with the start menu).

[TomWaltz]

henrypootel wrote:
I porbably shouldn't go on anymore or this will turn into a Mac vs PC debate, which this is not the place for. Suffice to say that i greatly dislike windows, but i like OSX a lot less. Deep down, i really love the registry. My most commonly used program is notepad(never crashes), and i love my start menu, which is a perfect compliment to the dock(but if i could only have 1 i would go with the start menu).

That's funny. My most-used are probably TextEdit (more like WordPad) and OmniOutliner (which I totally live on!!)

I recently started using Oxygen a lot more for all the freaking XML files that are popping up all over, since raw XML is SO hard to read in a text editor.

[henrypootel]

Yes, I'm starting to have to get into using XML file on the Mac now, and i'm struggling.
There are just so many of them, and there isn't really a central repository for them(like the registry). Most seem to be in the users library folder or the system folders, but there doesn't really seem to be a rule for this. Some even go into the folder of the program itself which is very annoying after searching everywhere else for 5 minutes.
Oh well. i used some sort of Omni software to edit them a while back, but our trial version ran out, and i wasn't using them much at that stage so i didn't buy it. Might have to check it out again.

[Anonymous]

We are very happy AVAST-users...

[Jefferson]

Henry,

You wrote:

(dont go near windows defender with a long pole)

I'm real curious why.

I've been very diligent about keeping all antivirus and scanning [AVG] software updated and scanning weekly. I've got a father + friends who insist on poor internet/email protocol, continuously sending crap as well forwarding non blind copied mass emails. You cna't just auto-delete your family.........so self protection is incumbent. I've used Norton internet security, with AVG Ad-Aware - Spybot - Windows Defender -CW Shredder combo. Norton only because I like the anti-spam email filter which ultimately saves me time. The others because they've been trouble free, seem to work together OK and free.

I'll be looking into NOD32 soon. Thanks -

[Aussie John]

The leap ooompa thing was blown out of proportion. It wasnt possible to spread with out user intervention. It required an administrator passsword. Once installed it could spread in the system though. The only viruses we get in out office are ones in office files from a PC client or consultant.

[Anonymous]

Aussie wrote:
The leap ooompa thing was blown out of proportion. It wasnt possible to spread with out user intervention. It required an administrator passsword. Once installed it could spread in the system though. The only viruses we get in out office are ones in office files from a PC client or consultant.

The PC press seems to really exaggerate any apparent virus or exploit on OSX. CNET in particular is prone to this. There is of course the tendency to report on the exceptional. (I would rather live in a city where murder makes headlines than one where it is relegated to the back pages or goes unreported.) But there does seem to be an eagerness to report viruses that aren't there or user reports of infections that weren't.

I'm sure that as Macs become more widely used (assuming the strong sales continue) the likelihood of actual viruses will increase. In the meantime I am quite happy not having to worry about it. Of course I am installing virus protection on my WinXP partition before I connect it to the internet and do find it annoying that I have to spend precious time doing it.