What Do You Call Software That...
...upon installation, makes multiple changes to your system without asking? Locks itself down so that those changes cannot be undone? Prevents Windows from uninstalling it using the standard Add/Remove tool? Will not allow itself to be deleted from the hard drive by the person who happens to own said hard drive? Prevents access to FTP sites containing software that will remove it from your system?
I don't know about you, but I call it malware.
Which is more than a little ironic, because the software in question is Symantec's Norton Internet Security and Norton Anti-virus.
I normally use Avast! and Ad-Aware for that sort of thing, but when I got my new (and now defunct) laptop, I foolishly launched the 60-day license for the Norton product. It immediately shut down access to all FTP sites, broke my e-mail program, and a host of other annoying things. Here's the good part: in order to make changes to the default settings, you have to have a centralized Norton "Supervisor" account. You can't get one of those without a product key. And the 60-day license--you guessed it--doesn't provide you with a product key.
In the course of trying to get this festering parasitic code off of my drive, I encountered the issues outlined in the first paragraph. Symantec does provide a removal tool, but their product locked me out of their own FTP site. So, I fired up the Mac, downloaded the tool, uploaded it to Astonished Head's server, posted a blog entry with a link to the file (the entry, in its entirety, read "Fuck Symantec"), and downloaded it onto the laptop. I ran it, and it removed the software.
This happened eleven days ago. I'm writing about it now because this morning I received a reply from Symantec tech support to my query: "So if I've got a 60-day OEM license, no product key, and no "Supervisor" level account, how do I get this thing off my computer?"
Their response? A link to the removal tool on the FTP site, which I wouldn't have been able to access.
Let's see...invasive software that is completely nonresponsive to the user, disables key system functions, and is generally a pain in the ass, coupled with tech support that takes over a week to respond with an entirely useless suggestion.
Yeah, let me install more Symantec products on my computer. Because I think it needs more SUCK.
