Most computer technicians I work with, loath Symantec/Norton products and as much as I’d hate to single out a single company as a poor one, it’s hard to find something to like if you look at them from my point of view, I suppose. As a programmer, because my code is rather hard to find (in other words, none of it’s online to download), their anti-virus decries my program as malware, which I may assure you, it is not. Then comes the cost of Symantec Ghost and Partition Magic, which while I won’t declare useless… is just far too pricey for a student/poor user such as myself. I’ll be honest and admit to using Norton Antivirus in 2003, but at that time, it didn’t detect Eicar, the test virus and other viruses, although these days, it certainly can catch them now. Then again, any anti-virus can. My other issue with their antivirus, was that up until recently, was highly bloated and heavy on the operating systems that people run.
However, I’d like to tell you something. As good as it seems at times to be using Symantec products, there are usually better products out there, and today I’m going to introduce you to the basic programs I use to replace the Symantec products that I might need from time to time. Keep in mind, you might have heard of them before, if you have, congratulations. If not, this might be a good time to jot them down so you won’t have to worry about paying for products that have great freeware alternatives.
In the case of Norton Antivirus or Security Suite, as we all should know by now, my protection is a good anti-virus with a good firewall, mixed with good common sense and all patches updated when the need arises. If you need to step up that common sense a little bit, Web of Truth (WoT) or McAfee’s SiteAdvisor are more then competent solutions that shouldn’t slow down your browsing at all. If you’re looking into covering that Parental Guard too, you might want to lean more towards WoT.
Partition Magic and Ghost are rather easy to fix, one can use the built-in tools into Windows (Disk Manager and Windows Backup, respectively, both included in Windows Vista and higher, though Backup can be installed to XP without problems) or in my case, use a live CD of Linux specialized to do such a thing. My personal choice for a backup live CD is CloneZilla which requires a second hard disk to back up to, but can also back up and restore over the network. This can be of great advantage if you’re backing up to a Network Access Storage box, and it is also pretty simple to use too. As for partitioning, Parted Image does the best job I’ve seen, however, it’s partitioning tool, GParted, is often included in many Linux live CDs.
Finally, for the true geeks among us, nothing was better then Norton Commander. These days, it’s been discontinued but for those that still loved using the classic interface, Nexus File and FreeCommander are some of the more powerful freeware clones on the market today. Those that are truly left wondering how to replace PCAnywhere, I’d recommend TeamViewer or CrossLoop, both highly capable at helping people out.
So there you have it. If you like Symantec, no doubt reading over this list, it won’t make you change. But for those of us strapped for cash or just don’t like Symantec, these tools might be worth your while to look at. I didn’t write this list to bash them, as much as it might seem, but rather to recommend some tools to help you save money if you are coming up for renewal soon.
