After AVAST Antivirus announced several weeks ago that it’s license was about to run out on the Windows machine at home (which surprised me, because it was supposed to be the free edition), I raised an eyebrow. The other eyebrow was already forming plans to look for a replacement.
It’s worth pointing out at this point that we have several computers in the house - a Macbook, an EEE PC, and the Windows desktop machine. The Windows machine is the only one that requires any form of third party security software - we’re talking antivirus, antispyware, registry cleaner, and malware scanner. Yes, Windows really is that bad.
In a fit of philanthropic virtue, I downloaded and installed Kaspersky Antivirus. I’ve heard people getting sexually excited about it for years, and wondered what all the fuss was about. After about 48 hours putting up with it, I removed it.
While Kaspersky might be a very good and thorough virus scanner, it also turns beige boxes into snails. Seriously! Never has a 2.8Ghz machine crawled so spectacularly. We’re not talking about a crap laden porn surfing machine either - we’re talking about a finely tuned, SP3’d racing snake… (well, as racing a snake as 5 year old hardware can manage these days).
And so it was that I removed Kaspersky and cast it into the recycle bin, never to return. The search began for a half decent freebie antivirus solution that wouldn’t kill the machine.
Avira. I remembered my brother-in-law saying he had installed it on my in-laws computer. I can’t imagine they surf porn, or install pirated apps loaded with spyware, but I’ve not been called in for quite some time, so their machine must be doing just fine with Avira. Now our desktop machine is too.
So there you go - don’t believe everything you read on the internet. If you did, Kaspersky would be the King of the heap with a nice shiny hat - instead I have thrown it in the rubbish, and installed a passer by who is doing a far more efficient job, and I’m not even having to pay him anything (anybody who proposes the same is true of royalty anywhere is of course correct).
Now stop reading this drivel, and do something interesting. Or leave a comment. Please.