Softpedia Exclusive Interview: Symantec

JonM33 said:

Sorry, I won't believe some average Bob's personal "review". I would need results from a trusted source. Those results are already messed up because the reviewer would uninstall one AV program and install another. Anyone doing a software review would use an image.

Raymond is usually considered a trusted source.


System Image Recovery was used.

malexous said:

Raymond is usually considered a trusted source.

System Image Recovery was used.

Hey, I don't know the guy nor the website. I don't randomly trust websites. It's like Tom's Hardware who people keep referencing but that website has shown bias, nonobjectivity and unprofessional attitude for the past 10 years.

If you want, let's look at the details of that review then. I'd rather look at it than just toss it aside.

Application launch? So MSE adds 0.063 seconds to launch time compared to NOT having an AV program. That's what most people do all day, and that seems to be a very intrusive number.

Boot time? MSE supposedly adds 10 seconds to boot time. That's debatable. I'd like to test it out in a VM and get back to you.

   Note

I tested this out in a VM running a fully patched Windows XP SP3. It is set to use 512MB memory and uses 2 virtual processors from my 3.2GHz Core 2 Quad. Boot time with MSE is 23.506 seconds. Boot time without any AV is 22.105 seconds. Raymond is quite wrong on his results.

Install 3rd party software? He used .NET Framework 4.0 as this 3rd party software. My question? WHY? Nobody installs that separately. It's installed through Windows Update. No normal person really cares about it. Bad example of software to use IMO.

Most people install software off of a CD/DVD. So it would be better to grab something off of that instead. Of course installation would be so slow it wouldn't matter anyway. But that's the most common type of application installation method.

Compress/extract file? 7-Zip, amazing program and I use it myself. I find these results debatable. He claims a number of folders but doesn't indicate their file size or whether they contain large or small files. It takes longer to compress high numbers of small files as opposed to a smaller number of large files. Some files also compress better and some files aren't even scanned by an AV program by nature of their file format.

Load website? People sure do browse the web but nobody loads 50 websites at a time. Unrealistic test really.

Game score? An AV program will not effect framerates. He used a synthetic benchmark of a 3D engine that no game uses. Bad testing example.

So what in there, other than boot time, shows proves that MSE is an intrusive AV program?

I have never once HEARD of ANYONE saying that MSE is slowing their computer down.

Tepid said:

Actually, they can intrude on and cause problems with games.
If they scan files as they start being used, you will notice a performance hit on the game.

Some games have you exclude their folders from virus scan to eliminate the problem.

However, I have not had this problem, nor any others with MSE or when it was Live OneCare.

Perhaps ping times and connectivity to servers, but they will not effect framerates.

Tepid said:

It is not a direct framerate affect. It is a performance affect that does affect framerate.
There is only a slight difference between these. It's the difference between wheat and white bread, they are both breads and you get the same results. A Sandwich.

Also, this does not affect every game, just some games.
And it is not every AV program, but a combination of the 2.

Unless you initiate a full system scan when you are in the middle of a game, an AV program will have zero effect on framerate EVER.

Petey7 said:

And thats the issue isn't it. I have my MSE to run a full system scan everyday and to do the scan whether the computer is in use or not. Its fine for me because at 2 am the most I'm doing is being on this website and watching videos. I would imagine that while playing WoW or a similar game, I would definitely notice something. I would imagine quit a few others use similar settings.

You would with any AV program on a full scan. But MSE is smart. It won't start the scheduled scan if the computer is in use.

I'm just dying to find someone that is actually complaining about how MSE slows their computer down. I have already proven apparently "benchmarks" wrong.