PAY OR USE FREE SOFTWARe?

xh4n

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May 23, 2008
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Im jst wondering if getting an anti-virus that pays would be worth it.
since idk much about anti - virus and have read that most of you guys use AVG.
would paying for a software be any better?
 

ohiou_grad_06

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Dec 19, 2006
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I personally like AVG. I'm too cheap to buy antivirus. I guess I'm one of these old school guys that remembers when they didn't charge you a subscription fee every year. I felt like if I bought it, I should not have to keep rebuying once a year. To me as well, some versions of like Norton and Mcafee seem like a drag on your system. I guess I try to keep backups, and I feel if something goes wrong, I'm competent enough to handle it. I would run that along with a firewall program. For AVG and what not, they actually have a paid version. I think they are supposed to have a good detection rate. Just do your research.
 

lolitha

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May 24, 2006
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But as i figured out some paid antivirus are worse than free ones. personally i you use kaspersky in my laptop and avira in desktop. Both have impressive detection rated. But kas has the edge .
 

mikekazik1

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Nov 17, 2007
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You guys totally skipped over a very important opportunity. If xh4n can't afford antivirus software, he could easily get it at no cost using a torrent.
 

Flakes

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Dec 30, 2005
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mike we do not support pirating here, thats why no one has mentioned it.

I put my vote in for these:

AVG Free edition
AVAST home edition (its free)

i personally prefer AVAST it doesnt seem to lag my computer as much as AVG(recent update of AVG gave it a better looking interface but more memory usage).

AVAST and AVG are much better than Norton Anti virus and subjectively better than kappersky and avira. However if you do feel the need to buy a good anti-virus i recommend Norton Corporate edition which is 10x better than normal Norton anti virus, and also the others mentioned here.

i use AVAST on my computer and find it to be a brilliant piece of software and would recommend it to anyone.
 

mikekazik1

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Nov 17, 2007
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Not all of us are against piracy. Why don't you let him make the decision? He should be aware of all the possibilities (including piracy). With the money that he saves in a year or two, he could get a hardware upgrade of some sort. Plus, the customer service that a lot of those companies provide is lousy. You can't even talk to a person whose first language was english.
 

Ghosteck

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There are allot of FREE AV's out there, Antivir /ClamWin /PCTools/ and
Bitdefender... Just make sure you also use a Firewall, Free ones.,ghostwall,
sygate,Webroot desktop firewall is real good..
 

mikekazik1

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Nov 17, 2007
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But those still aren't the very best. The VERY BEST AVs cost a lot of money. Why should you settle when you can have it all for free. It doesn't take very long to find the one you want and then get it through a torrent.
 

mikekazik1

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They are the best for you, because you would buy norton if you wanted it. If you strictly look at performance, norton is better. Plus, what about other software? As far as I know, there is no free game that is better than crysis!
 

Flakes

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not to get in an argument...

norton is a resource hog, gets taken over by every virus it encounters and tends to break legimate programs, even if it was free i wouldnt have it.

this, http://www.handdrawngames.com/DesktopTD/Game.asp is better than crysis. finding a free game better than crysis is very easy because the gameplay in crysis isnt very good.
 

techguy911

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Best deal out there for pay is spyware doctor +antivirus you are covered for both spyware and viruses according to cnet and a few other computer sites it does the job better than anything thing else.

It catches most if not all keyloggers compared to other products and does not hog system resources.
 

mikekazik1

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Nov 17, 2007
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Now this is becoming kind of ridiculous. You want to tell me that a free puzzle game is better than a next-generation DX10 game. I'm not trying to instigate anything. I'm just saying that there is so much that you can obtain from torrents. Did you ever think about people who GENUINELY cannot afford software? Such was the case with me and that's how I got office 2003. Had it not been for those torrents, I would have been royally screwed when it came time to type up a research paper. People who download because they can't afford it have little impact on the market since they would otherwise not be able to buy it. I just think it's foolish to rule out piracy simply because it's not legal.
 

surrealdeal

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Oct 3, 2007
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" I guess I'm one of these old school guys that remembers when they didn't charge you a subscription fee every year."

what like central point antivirus?
 

mikekazik1

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Nov 17, 2007
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This is such nonsense. I still say that piracy is a great way to get software. You are getting something for nothing. That's all I have to say.