Best/worst software purchases

It's easy to name freeware apps as good or bad, because they're easy to try (they're free!). But dishing out cash makes the decision to go with some software much more meaningful. Either it pleases us greatly, or frustrates the #!@% out of us.

I'm curious what software apps others consider to be both their best and their worst purchase. Price plays a major factor for many, just like performance. For me, Norton/Symantec Internet Security 2005 ($69 through Best Buy) is most definitely my worst. McAfee Internet Security 2005 ($13.99 through softwareoutlet.com on a weekend special) is most definitely my best.

 

Worst purchase: TrendMicro PC-cillin (purchased at about USD 39)
Best purchase: NOD32 two year license at USD 39

 

Well price isn't my biggest concern. I tend to value support and speed of response a lot more. Based on my experiences I prefer smaller companies where you aren't treated as another number. With that said ...

My Best: DiamondCS, Ghost Security, Acronis, Greatis (RegRun), and Eset (plus my NOD reseller )

My Worst: Symantec - Not a bad product, but absolutely the worst support I've ever experienced

Steve

 

A question like this is very subjective. Similar products will work differently on different computers. I could tell you what to me was the best purchase of software I ever made, and very likely the next poster might have tried the same product and have gotten completely different results than I saw. So in all fairness I will refrain from posting my favorite software purchases to possibly prevent a software flame war.

bigc

 

I've been lucky. Haven't purchased a dog yet.


snowbound

 

I agree with that, Steve....but price can often times play a determining factor in whether or not a purchase is either good or bad in the long run. Customer service is also very important to me as well, and that is one of the reasons that I can feel good about recommending a product like PC Tools Spyware Doctor....because I've found their customer service to be top notch. Likewise, I agree about Norton. I had ONE encounter with Norton's customer service that went like this: I purchased the product, had it for two weeks and encountered a problem (after a 30-40 minute AV "update" riddled with error messages finally completed, Outlook Express completely froze up). I called Norton, waited on hold listening to music and pre-recorded messages about how great Norton is and how they "care" about me - the customer, for 55 minutes before anyone answered. Then, once I finally got a rep on the line, I was told I would have to pay $30 to resolve the issue. I told him I could buy a competitor's product for that amount, that I had just purchased Norton for $70 only two weeks earlier, and that I wasn't go to pay anymore. The guy spoke to his supervisor (again, placing me on hold for another 5 to 10 minutes) and then said they would waive the fee "this time". He then proceeded to walk me through a process that basically rigged my PC....so that I would have to click "OK" to two registry errors upon each and every shut-down and reboot....as well as leaving two unwanted icons on my desktop. I also couldn't use my Instant Messenger because of Norton as well. Needless to say, I didn't have the product on my computer for another two weeks.....

 

Windows XP! ofcourse!!!

 

Worst:- Alura Spyware Eliminator---gits!!!! --- saw some comparison chart that said they were the out and out best you can get. Did not relize at the time of handing over my money that the chart was constructed by Alura themselves.

Second Worst: Symentec Antivirus 8. Paid a fortune for that little swine then got a premium rate international calling dialler on my machine that notched up a phone bill of £380. But every scan i made with Symentic did not find it. Then got Mcafee Enterprise 8 free from uni. Which found the little bugger in 10 minutes.

Third Worst: AOL. There software is like a virus that causes system instabiliy.

Best: Linux havent a clue how to use it but am glad i bought it anyway.

 

Most Linux Distro's are free, while there are some pay versions of some (ie. SuSE and Mandrake (now called Mandriva)) ... they also provide free versions. The commercial versions, come with a little better package (hardware support, a slightly wider range/more complete application set, and online support/user club). But really the free distro is more than sufficient, it can be flushed out almost the same, and with the knowledgeable Linux user community free support/trouble shooting isn't hard to find. I would learn the ropes with a free distro before investing in a commercial package, then upgrade only if a need or desire is present. But the nice thing about purchasing a commercial distro is the price isn't much of an impediment at half the cost of Windows.

There is a definite learning curve to Linux, but that's half the fun.

Have fun Anthony

Regards,

Steve

 

This one's easy.

Best: Raxco's FirstDefense-ISR. My all time favorite program and pretty good tech support to boot.

Worst: KAV 5.0. ADS hosed my system, took a couple of weeks to recover. Never did hear back from tech support.

Acadia

 

Best: (not a purchase) - totally switching to Linux at home. First alt linux, then a month ago - Ubuntu.
Best for Windows: Dekart Private Disk - disk encryption program - reasonably priced, very good support, stable and trustworthy. http://www.private-disk.net/
Worst: all "raw" software

 

worst: giant as, and some others I refuse to name here...

best is personal based and of no importance cause it's just too much lol

 

worst product that i have paid out good money for is macafee 9.0 and thier fire wall 39.00 i had to uninstall the programs for some reason i can not recall why and now i go to thier webb site to download again and can not get in program says that i need to allow the site to set a cookie i have done everything i can to allow this with no joy i do not understand why you have to jump over hoops to install thier damm products.

 

That happened to me too. After two days of trying...I gave up.

Now NOD32 is my best program.

 

Worst:

Norton 2004 (great AV, just became too big),
McAfee security suite (same problem),
AOL (impossible to completely remove from system...Haven't used it for 3 years and crap still shows up in the registry from time to time)


Best:

NOD32 ('nuff said)
ERD Commander (saved my butt several times)
RegTuneUp
Visual Studio 6.0
HDDRegenerator (Repaired a bad sector on my HD and prevented me from having to re-format and install)

 

Best bang for the buck: TDS3 - purchased too many years ago to recall exact cost-per-year now but it works out to be a terrific bargain.

Worst (money wasted): McAfee PS/FW/VS - uninstalled each app one by one in the order shown over a period of time before subscription ended just to rid myself of the aggravation.

 

LOL....I guess I should be VERY thankful then! I've NEVER had any problems with McAfee (knock on wood), and if you read my post above ripping Norton, you'd know I have no problem providing details and blasting a company or a product if it is deserving.

I'm sure that McAfee has it's share of errors and problems with several users (after all, they're an extremely large company whose products are widely used, world wide), but this is almost twighlight zone stuff (3 or 4 blasts of McAfee in a row!). I realize that a very strong competitor to McAfee has a presense in these foums (NOD), so.....hey, you guys aren't NOD employees by any chance, are you?

Just kidding, I know you're just satisfied users.....

 

Best: Acronis True Image (and all of the software whose support is at Wilders, for that matter)
Worst: StyleXP

 

Best:
Acronis suite (disk eraser, true image, partition expert)
Ewido
NOD32
System Mechanic (but don't have it right now anymore )
PCtools (had it some 15 years ago )

Worst:
Can't remember the name but has something to do with Webdesign

That's for the paid apps.

 

Best - Regrun Gold. Unbelievable suite of utilities for the price.

Worst - Anonymizer Toolbar - Slowed my 1mb cable down to 33k dial-up speed. The pits!

muf

 

They say Security comes with a price - you can't have it all

 

Tbh, I could have accepted the speed at say 50%. But it was horrendously slow. Webpages that used to open within 5 seconds were still populating after 3 minutes. And others just sat there and died. As soon as i bypassed the toolbar and accessed the net directly everything worked quickly again. IMHO, I think it definitely qualifies as a "worse".

muf

 

I seem to kave a "knack" for buying a license to a program only to have MS buy the program,usually within a month...

My Worst;
RAV
Giant

 

Not sure if I can make up my mind between PrevX Pro and Process Guard for the best software I've bought...Then again, I don't know that I'd say they were the 'best' by themselves, but rather as a combo.

I haven't bought any duds yet, so I don't suppose I can give a 'worst'