Antivirus needs to go on a diet
24 August 2006
Antivirus scanners are often bloated and self-serving. Programs like McAfee and Norton Antivirus seem not to have the will or good sense to shed unnecessary code.
I have used both applications I mentioned above, each for more than a year. At one time I remember them being sleek and nimble, but with each update they got more features that I didn’t need. Scanning took longer, but didn’t get any better. At which point, I had to ask, “why do I own these products?”
Lighter is better
You are far more likely to use a program that is simple and fast, so you will be making yourself more secure by finding an antivirus program that fits this description.
Now that there are so many free and good alternatives to overweight applications, don’t hesitate to junk what you’ve used in the past. Try something new. If that sucks, try something else.
You don’t need to put up with programs that think they should dictate the use of your computer’s resources. Reclaim your memory and hard drive space. You will be glad your computer still has some zip the next time you’re working on five spreadsheets, watching a movie, listening to music, and surfing the net all at the same time.
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Comment by Augusto — 28 August 2006 @ 4:02 pm
You are so right, Ian. I am so tired of programs that just want to pimp my computer around. Every program I install want to go all alpha male and mark the territory, in my computer. Slim and trim is the way to go. Any reason why you did not suggest a few antivirus programs that fit the bill?
Comment by Ian Saxon — 30 August 2006 @ 5:24 am
Hi Augusto,
Thanks for your comment. In a previous post I recommended Avast antivirus, which is free, lightweight, and (I’ve found) effective.
Ian
Pingback by Fat man | Defending The Kingdom: Security and Privacy in Your Digital Life — 15 October 2007 @ 2:29 pm
[…] I was rifling through the statistics for this blog recently, and noticed that this site ranks highly for Google Images searches of “fat man“. The image responsible (credit: Yuri Tand), which I posted adjacent to a story about how some big-name antivirus products are bloated and unruly, is currently ranked fourth on Google: […]