Symantec's Genesis to Usher in a New Age of Trust?

eldavojohn writes "Symantec has announced that they will be creating a massive security package called Genesis. Semantec has set their goal to 'Security 2.0' which is proposed to be 'a new age of trust on the Internet.' From the article: 'Symantec plans a one-stop software service tying together anti-virus, anti-spam, firewall and a host of other PC optimization technologies...' This is certainly something the common computer user could buy instead of having to fork over cash for every component. I don't think I'll be purchasing it though."

Now if they can get their cpu use down...

[ChaoticLimbs]

Symantec and Norton antivirus and security packages (on machines I have experience with) use an absurd amount of memory and processor resources. Any hope that this will change someday?

Re:Now if they can get their cpu use down...

[WhiteWolf666]

I can't think of one major software package that has reduced bloat over the years.

OS X, for one.

KDE, during major versions, for two. 3.2 was faster than 3.1, 3.5 is way faster than 3.4, or 3.2

There's a school of software development that involves making your software leaner and meaner as it "ages".

New versions are more bloated. New revisions are LESS bloated.

Oh great .....

[gomaze]

I have seen more problems caused by Symantec's software then I could count. I feel that if you have to run Windows then any extra layers of protection that you would need can be provided by free applications online. For example: Ad-aware [lavasoftusa.com], Spy-Bot [safer-networking.org], AVG Anti-Virus [grisoft.com], ZoneAlarm [zonelabs.com], and the best firewall protection, SmoothWall [smoothwall.org].

Re:Genesis?

[ForumTroll]

"But seriously, I'd rather have the security problems fixed at the source, instead of having to add layers and layers of so called "security software"."

The only solution here is to use a different operating system. Preferably one that was developed by people that have some idea of what they're doing (ie. MacOS X, GNU/Linux, Solaris etc.). With Windows all you're ever going to get is a nice Fisher Price interface with layer upon layer of extra crap piled on top trying to make up for the ridiculously poor quality of the base system and its architecture. The shell alone speaks volumes about Windows.

What useless crap

[RyoShin]

I have unyielding hate for Symantec. I've spent countless hours trying to get their products to properly allow connectivity for various programs for other people, and even more hours uninstalling it after it wouldn't listen to my yelling.

Nothing Symantec has is good, or can't be replaced by a free alternative.

Anti-Virus? AntiVir [free-av.com] (If you want to pay, they have a premium version, too)
Firewall? SP2 comes with a moderate firewall that works well. There are a good deal of free firewall programs out there, not to mention that many routers now have some sort of firewall software on them.
Ad-aware and MAS have taken care of any spyware problems I've had to deal with (except for some of the really evil ones.)

Any and everything else can be taken care of by good judgement and learning some PC common sense. Don't arbitrarily accept downloads that IE pops up with. Don't open every attachment that claims to be a dancing Ronald McDonald. Don't listen to every e-mail propogated by the feces of the internet that various programs in your windows folder are viruses.

There is absolutely no need to pay $100 for Symantec's horrible piece of crap. People would be better off without it.

I just want to shout...

[Anonymous Coward]

NOD32... Believe me it just works. The day before I installed this nice little program on a pentium III 700... It just worked, and without crippling it I might add. They also update often, sometimes several times in a day. Well i don't want to sound like advertisement, but it just works.

Re:patronize-ware

[jgp]

Want a firewall? www.jetico.com - "Jetico Personal Firewall" *freeware*.
Don't be put off by the "personal" bit. It's actually rather close to iptabls et al in the Windows world--rulesets, various logging levels, lots of different protocols, etc. It *will* confuse you initially (UI in particular), but then again, I did say it was like iptables... Both are rather unpatronising.

Want a cheap (not free, but try it--I paid for it), fast, small anti-virus? www.nod32.com. Works, no fluff or animated 3D logos, un-installs without ripping out your computers nervous system. Very small memory foot-print.

That is all.

Re:Genesis?

[silverburn]

Hear, Hear.

Try installing the 2006 Internet Security edition; on a Athlon 3200+ it's so slow on startup I just standby the PC now instead of turning it off, for fear of dropping dead of old age before my PC's restarted.

And it now takes THREE TIMES LONGER to get fully operational. And opening a word document takes an eternity. And it breaks more often than the 2005 edition (twice since it was launched!).

What an utterly shite piece of flaky bloatware it's become.

Re:Genesis?

[sumdumass]

And it breaks more often than the 2005 edition (twice since it was launched!).

and isn't it interesting that with the product activation you now have to call in and have them re-authorize the activation. They insist you give them an email address, god forbid it hasn't changed since the last time you called or you will have another 20 questions on are you sure your not stealing our crapware, then you have to put up with all the spam they say they have no conection with.

Somethign has gone completley down hill with thier software. I remeber a time when I could say with confidence it was one of the best AV suites availible and had no problem recomending it to someone. After about the 20th time I had to call and re-activate clients (2005) software I told them if they didn't fix it i was taking my business elsewere. Well, i have switched almost all my clients to either AVG (pay version) which is half the price for twice as many years updating or Zone labs products. The only holdouts are my clients who have longer then 2 months left on thier AV subsciption.

Re:Genesis?

[drsmithy]

They should have been pushing much harder on this, doing things like refusing the use of trademarks to apps that are security-stupid when run on recent-enough Windows versions.

It's a requirement of the "Made for Windows" logo.