Original Message -- 
From: "Anapro" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, August 22, 2007 9:55 AM
Subject: Re: [PCSOFT] McAfee vs AVG


This argument is not correct. Consumer Reports does not take advertising. It
is entirely subscriber supported. However, their test methods are not always
what you would expect. I remember many years ago, they tested clock radios
and rated them according to sound quality. There was no consideration for
how convenient the alarm portion was! If I want a good sounding radio, I
would not get a clock radio. Enough said. Use the info as it may be
suitable.

Peter Shkabara
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760-451-1643

Original Message --

>They rated McAfee towards the top, and AVG and Avast  were at the 
>bottom.>>

  Another thing to keep in mind, the magazine likely has Norton and  McAfee
as paid advertisers, and thus has incentive to rate them above  the 'free'
AVG and Avast, for which they get no ad revenue.
 
Peter


$$$


Good Afternoon All,

I've been watching this [McAfee vs AVG] thread as my schedule's permitted since its beginning, and I guess it's time for me to throw my hat into the ring on the subject. One thing I've readily noted is that nobody seems wishy-washy on the subject , and this is good thing, otherwise the lists wouldn't be achieving their full potential which is to educate, share well known and alternative solutions to resolve list member's problems, and to introduce us all to this or that aspect of working with PCs with which we have little or no experience.

The Windows-based PC world is just big for anyone including Bill Gates to have a handle on it all.

To my way of thinking, however, the sometimes annoying quirks of Windows and plethora of readily available third-party hardware and software to complete just about any task imaginable is what makes it all interesting and fun: if I wanted easy and boring, I'd get an Apple MAC and let Steve Jobs sweat the details .. in fact, that's the way he insists it be done.

To lightly borrow from an advertising campaign Volkwagen once used here in the highly competitive North American automobile market: "there are drivers and passengers" and with Windows you get to drive and though it may occassionally be a bumpy ride, you still get to drive while with a MAC you basically along for the ride.

Even as I pen this note my made-just-for-me-by-me, highly-customized and personalized PC is analysing gravitational waves to help scientists better understand quantum mechanics and perhaps someday put together a working unified theory that eluded Einstein AND at the same time is doing climate modelling for the next 50 years to help better understand our planet's changing weather patterns that will be affecting us all .. children & grandchildren alike in the decades ahead. Try doing that on your MAC.

Okay, it may seem like I went overboard off-topic in my introduction, but the point I'm trying to make is in the world of Windows there are usually many good & reasonable solutions to the issues & problems we all face in our interconnected world.

All the above in mind, here's my two cents worth on the [McAfee vs AVG] thing:

At one time or the other I've used most all the well-known (and sometimes lesser-known) anti-virus products; and like all things in life, theses various software offerings are always a compromise with one product excelling in one area or operating environment while another vendor's solution will have a different set of strengths (and weaknesses). It's also worth noting that the price of admission isn't always indicative of the better product.

What I look for in third-party software is purposeful elegant design with the lightest, least intrusive footprint possible that can get the job done. For home and home office or even small networked office environments, out of the three vendors that have been most often mentioned I'd rank the them:

1) Grisoft's AVG Anti-Virus (#1 by a country mile);
2) One of the many McAfee Soltuions; and
3) A Norton AV solution (a very distant #3 .. in fact you'd have to threaten to break my legs with a baseball bat before I'd install their software).

FWIW, about the advertising thing, AVG Grisoft has been placing very expensive full-page ads in some of the more popular computer magazines for quite a while now and though a professional reviewer may have his or her personal preference and a particualr vendor may advertsie in their magazine, I do not think it influences their evaluations as they let the test numbers do the talking and not the marketing department.

Think about it for a minute, if a certain review were to favor a particular vendor solely based on the amount of money they spend with the magazine in any given period of time and at the same ignore or gloss-over any downside that product may have, it would eventually come back to bite the publisher because readers would soon figure out that what they read in that magazine couldn't be trusted and subscriptions and retail sales of the magazine would drop-off and wane.

When a big spending advertsier also happens to make a great product that gets laudable reviews, then that is glorius serendipity.

As Tom Hanks' Forrest Gump character says in his movie, "...and that's all I've got to say about that."

Take care my friends, and peace. I remain,


Very truly yours,
Jeffrey Ottie


eom

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