“I sat down with Rowan Trollope, senior vice president of consumer products at Symantec. He spoke very eloquently about the merits of Norton AntiVirus 2009 and how Symantec was trying desperately to change the negative image of Norton as a resource-hogging, user-bothering nuisance,” Rory Reid reports for CNET UK.
“I’ve tried his new software, and — for the most part — I agree it’s pretty good. But during our meeting, I couldn’t ignore the fact he was using an Apple MacBook Pro. For all his hyperbole about how incredibly safe Norton keeps Windows PCs, it appeared Trollope was ducking the virus threat completely — by using a Mac,” Reid reports.
“Trollope politely explained that he’d chosen a Mac because he prefers the platform’s “ease of use” and “elegance”. I’m assuming he’s referring to OS X’s spangly graphical user interface, and not the Mac’s innate ability to dodge malware,” Reid reports.
“It does make you wonder — if the guy responsible for pimping AV software prefers Macs, maybe we should too,” Reid reports.
Full article, with photo of a smiling Trollope with his Apple MacBook Pro, here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Bill ‘Sarasota’ R.” for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Take: There’s no “maybe” about it, Rory. Get a Mac. You can even slum it with Windows until you quickly figure out that you’d rather not boot into that mess — your father’s OS — ever again.
Best way to not get a virus!!
well for starters, it’s a macbook pro, not a macbook
He’s a PC (Preventive Cure).
Wasn’t it Norton that made Mac OS X less safe? (Opened holes, that sort of thing?) Or am I thinking of some other AV app?
“Or am I thinking of some other AV app?”
MakeAfee has had problems.
“McAfee Virex for Mac Insecure File Permissions Local Privilege Escalation Vulnerability”
“An exploitable vulnerability exists in McAfee Virex that can be used to gain root privileges on an affected system. This vulnerability exists within the feature that enables users to define files for scan exclusion. The configuration file used to store scan exclusion files has insecure permissions of “rw-rw-rw” and as such can be modified or removed by any user.”
classic
not surprised in the least
That is just so amazingly ironic. And I’m pretty sure he has no AV software on that MacBook Pro; not even his own Norton for Mac (he could at least have it installed).
If there ever was a worse unspoken PR message for a company I have yet to see one.
Do as I say.
Not as I do.
Norton is not recommended by Microsoft for use with Vista. I had problems with it and replaced it with Windows One Care which I have doubts about. Norton still works on an older machine that runs XP.
Of course, I don’t have to worry about any of this on my Mac.
A firewall is important on any computer, but viruses are mainly avoided by being smart about what you do, e.g. don’t open email attachments from sources you don’t know, etc.
Next, you’ll see the a senior vice president of Ford driving a Porsche for style and safety reasons only.
The Ford analogy would work better if you said the senior VP of a company that made safety products for Ford vehicles drove a Volvo because they are safer.
I don’t find this article ironic in the least. Rowan Trollope is clearly interested in having a safe computing experience. He uses a Mac for that reason and does what he can for Windows Sufferers.
Seems like a pragmatism to me.
So… all the Mac fanboys agree that the only reason anyone would choose a mac is to avoid viruses? Really?
In my house, their father’s OS is Mac OS X.
Who’s your Daddy?
@ Noraa Haras
Ford owns Volvo. Nice try though.
@ (Un)Rationalist
” …the only reason anyone would choose a mac is to avoid viruses? Really?”
You deduce that … how?
Geez, you MS fanboys are reeeeally grasping.
No, that’s just one of many reasons. Wow, you are pathetic.
Dear Missy Pants:
Maybe you do not quite understand? You say: “Geez, you MS fanboys are reeeeally grasping.”
To me it looks more like: “Geez, you MS fanboys are really gasping.”
He’s using a MB Air’s adapter (or more unlikely, it’s auto/air adapter) and it won’t charge the batteries as fast. He must like waiting a long time for it to charge and put unneeded stress on the poor adapter…
“Ford owns Volvo. Nice try though.”
(And I knew that! Hence my choice.)
Hoo boy now the cheering squad’s in a wee tizzy../
@Missy Pants: By virtue of the fact that nobody seems able to believe that an exec at a security company would choose a Mac for any reason other than security, like for example ease of use, or any of the other numerous reasons that lead anybody to use a Mac. Also, as a side note, I’m pretty damn far from an MS fanboy, nice assumption though.
@@Rationalist:
Is it at all possible, in the most remote parts of your imagination, that it’s not one of the reasons at all?
Fact is, there are vulnerabilities in Apple products (anyone wanna go count security advisories so far this year?) and there are plenty of non-security related reasons to use them anyways. The only reason Mac users aren’t getting owned up left and right just like MS users is that until very recently, there weren’t enough of us for it to be profitable. Anyone who doesn’t see that is either uneducated on the matter or is willfully deluding themselves (ie fanboys).
Dude.
Scoreboard…….
Seriously though, I spent my week cleaning Antivirus XP malware off of several windoze boxes. my iMac and my MacBook have not yet contracted a virus or malware. I am not saying it’s never gonna happen, but I am saying, it hasn’t happened yet. I have heard DOOM AND GLOOM since Apple went to intel about how the virus floodgates are coming….we will deal with it if and when it happens.. in the meantime
STFU