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Symantec Software Proves a Trial

By Ed Foster, Section Gripes
Posted on Sat Sep 06, 2003 at 02:04:19 PM PDT

A reader recently wrote:

I bought an Intel motherboard which came with a CD offering a trial of Symantec Internet Protection (SIP) firewall & antivirus package. After installing SIP, every reboot brought 10-20 error messages to the effect that so-and-so file was corrupted and I should "check it against the distribution CD." I went to Add/Remove Programs and I was told that removal was not allowed unless I logged into SIP first. This was impossible, so I had to reformat the hard drive!! Why does Symantec think that 1) I have the time or inclination to muck around debugging their installation software; and 2) They have some right to tell me what software I may or may not remove on my own machine! Last time I looked it was my machine, not Symantec's!

< Polling For a Winner | Reader Voices: Activation Reaction >


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Symantec Software Proves a Trial | 5 comments (5 topical) | Post A Comment
New Software Conflict Blues[ Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#1)
by Tourette on Mon Sep 08, 2003 at 08:02:34 AM PDT

Ah, every time I'm lamenting about just how difficult and confusing installing/removing software in Linux can be, I just need to be reminded that it's no day at the beach in Windows either. (And Linux distros have only recently begun considering "friendliness" to non-geek users; the Windows world supposedly makes non-geeks their specialty, and has had two decades to perfect the art form.)

The other day I was doping out some Win98 issue and was reminded of another famous "When all else fails" Windows solution, if not part of regular maintenance when "the system becomes slow or unstable": re-install the OS. The software companies latched onto that one too - whenever a Bad Thing happens during or as a result of installation, reinstall the app. Why? What makes them think it's gonna be - and why *should* it be - any better the second time?

You're right - these software companies (including Microsoft) think we have nothing better to do with our time than dope out problems with their stuff. Installing non-MS wares or updating existing apps in Windows was always a crap shoot (what's this gonna break?), not to mention the constant badgering from MS-wares looking to regain default status (God forbid you dare to use Eudora instead of  Lookout Distress, or Opera instead of Internet Exploiter), but inexcusable is how much of the time Microsoft's *own* stuff - including updates - breaks something else.

As for Symantec (and McAfee, for that matter), in my Windows life I ditched their virus offerings for Panda instead, and have used Tiny Software's Tiny Personal Firewall for what a software firewall is worth.


[ Reply to This ]



This takes me back...[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#3)
by Bryan Bytehead on Tue Sep 09, 2003 at 11:53:42 AM PDT

I used to do Training and Support for Radio Shack 13+ years ago. The standard answer to anything that anybody was running under TRS-Xenix 16 on the TRS-80 Model 16 was to backup the data (it always fit on one 8" floppy), then wipe the hard drive and reinstall TRS-Xenix 16 (2 floppies IIRC) and the application 2 floppies at most), restore the data, and whatever weirdness was going on would disappear. It didn't take that long to format the 8meg (yes, meg) hard drive. Which was usually the problem, the HD had just run into a failing sector, so this "fixed" the problem! And we charged people $45 for that, and THEY PAID.

[ Parent | Reply to This ]


I've had a similar issue with Symantec Products...[ Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#2)
by Anonymous User on Mon Sep 08, 2003 at 09:26:40 AM PDT

However, rather than posting whiney rants about Symantec (not that they would be undeserved - it should be possible to install any product through "Add/Remove Programs"), I checked the knowledgebase on their website and found manual removal instructions...

Don't get me wrong - I used to be a big fan of Symantec back in the good old Norton Utilities days, but lately they've really started to suck rhino ass.

[ Reply to This ]


SYMANTEC[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#4)
by jsjohnson1 on Wed Sep 24, 2003 at 07:43:03 PM PDT

Great, I buy an upgrade for norton internet and the system tells me that it can't remove components of the earlier norton install automatically. They have me run a few diagnostic programs and guess what, my new norton upgrade is worthless because norton can't remove all the components of its own previous installation. Nice job!
! !
[ Parent | Reply to This ]


Really useless software, in fact, these days[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#5)
by Jace on Fri Oct 31, 2003 at 01:20:26 AM PDT

Remember the days when Norton Utilities was a life saver and could recover data from all kinds of disk screwups? These days, with the protectedness of the OS, Norton Utilities does ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to restore, recover or fix disk problems. I don't know if there's a "boot from the CD" mode, but where I work, our students get no help from the Help Desk when they have bad disks unless the Win98 laptop is available. Everyone else runs W2K or XP and the disk tools built in or on Norton are 100% TOTALLY USELESS.
-Jace
[ Parent | Reply to This ]


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