Rory Reid
Rory's earliest memory is of taking the back off his radio to see what was inside. His mum wasn't happy. Nowadays he breaks other people's stuff for a living: the latest laptops and even high-tech automobiles crumble and die at his hands.
Monday 29 September 2008, 11:31am
Head of Norton AntiVirus uses a Mac?!
I'm making a habit of seeing things I'm not supposed to. I once went to South Korea and Samsung's marketing guys accidentally told me they were considering quitting the laptop market. Another time, an Asus rep told me the company had built a prototype tablet PC for Apple.
This trend continued last week when 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.
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.
You've got to wonder why. Is it because he doesn't trust Norton enough to keep a Windows PC safe? Or is he so tired of anti-virus applications intruding on his daily computing activities that he's switched to a platform where he doesn't need AV software? What's wrong with a Dell?
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.
It does make you wonder -- if the guy responsible for pimping AV software prefers Macs, maybe we should too.
Comments on this post
So does this mean that Rory is unaware that Norton makes antivirus products for Macs, and has for years?
Posted by surfbN on Mon 29 September, 2008 4:25 PM
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@surfbn All Norton for Mac does is remove "windows only" vira from emails. There are no Mac vira, yet.
Posted by Anonymous on Mon 29 September, 2008 4:51 PM
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@Anonymous: "Vira" is not a word. The plural form of "virus" is "viruses."
Posted by Scott on Mon 29 September, 2008 5:09 PM
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The plural form of viruses is "virii."
Posted by Anonymous on Mon 29 September, 2008 6:26 PM
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Ha! What a joke! I run NO virus software on my Macs and WHY OH WHY should Mac users have to buy virus software to protect PC using doofuses!? They chose to use wincrap, let them suffer and buy their own virus protection. And yes Rory, you should use a Mac! You have every OS you would ever need and probably find that you only need OS X. Awesome, works from A to B without getting in your way like XP/Vista, virus free, and NOT a really bad copying job like Vista and XP did of OSX. It's the real deal that others strive to be like!
Posted by Anonymous on Mon 29 September, 2008 6:39 PM
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The real question is does he run his own software on his Mac?
Posted by Cubert on Mon 29 September, 2008 7:02 PM
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A MacBook is actually the perfect choice, since it can run either/both Mac OS X and Windows (via Parallels, BootCamp, or VMWare Fusion). Thus, he can use/demonstrate Norton for both platforms while carrying one laptop with elegant hardware and he can use the OS he prefers. Seems like a logical and cost effective solution to me.
Posted by ectomort on Mon 29 September, 2008 7:28 PM
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On my Mac, I use the free AV ClamXAV. Once or twice a year, if I'm feeling charitable and have hothing better to spend the CPU cycles on, I run it to remove any Windoze viruses I may have picked up, lest I pass them on. I do not run it routinely -again, I have better use for those CPU cycles. BTW, according to the Oxford American dictionary that ships with OS X (at least here in the colonies), "viruses" is the proper plural form of "virus".
Posted by Qka on Tue 30 September, 2008 2:44 AM
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The CTO for TrendMicro uses a MacBook Air. I'm sure it's running Windows, as well, so he can test their products.
Posted by Anonymous on Tue 30 September, 2008 4:21 PM
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This is a lame article. What does it possibly matter what he uses? Stop politicising every single action as if they're deep insight
Posted by Brad on Tue 30 September, 2008 9:57 PM
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I was removing virus infections from Macs in the 80s...a lot more often than from PCs. Though there were more PC viruses out there, they weren't as virulent.
Posted by A Reader on Wed 1 October, 2008 1:10 AM
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The thing is, there ARE viruses for Mac. However not many, and not widely distributed. Reason is if someone wants to effect as many people as possible, they're not going to through it onto a smaller platform (like Linux, or Macintosh) they're going to put it on the OS that's used the most! Which happens to be Windows right now. However I think a Mac Virus would be devastating for it's users at the moment. Either way cool article.
Posted by lockerhaxor on Wed 1 October, 2008 2:05 AM
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Seriously. I can't belive some of you are such suckups. Neither Windows nor Mac is better, it's all preference. Windows: The person who needs to do everything at any given time; Game, Graphics, Web Design, the rest of it all Mac: The person who needs to look better with a 20% extra price tag slapped on. Primarily Graphics and Internet browsing. Linux: The person that'll take a month to tweak their box so it works like a charm; They can do whatever the hell they want, if they have the know-how and determination.
Posted by OH LAWDY MAC FANBOYS on Wed 1 October, 2008 2:08 AM
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Wow, I cannot believe how utterly idiotic the premise of this article is. I know someone who works for apple and they use windows both at work and at home. Clearly this means that everyone at apple knows that windows is superior. You see what I did there? You see how idiotic it is?
Posted by mockindignant on Wed 1 October, 2008 2:17 AM
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@Anonymous Dictionary: virus (vī'rəs) pronunciation n., pl. -rus·es.
Posted by Anonymous on Wed 1 October, 2008 2:17 AM
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Is anyone really surprised by this revelation? Im not. www.privacy.es.tc
Posted by Tim MAson on Wed 1 October, 2008 2:18 AM
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Norton Antivirus is worse than any virus.
Posted by Victor Trac on Wed 1 October, 2008 2:49 AM
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I have a mac and use norton antivirus, I don't see a problem.
Posted by Anonymous on Wed 1 October, 2008 3:09 AM
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Anyone here who thinks that Macs are immune to viruses are idiots, because they're not. Just sayin'.
Posted by Pokeh on Thu 2 October, 2008 11:34 AM
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Macs, Windows and Linux are all susceptable to malware, mostly of the new socially engineered variety. I run both Windows and OS X on my MacBook, use antivirus on both platforms, not to protect other Windows users, but to protect my own network. Anyone who thinks Windows is only for losers obviously never worked in an industry requiring compatibility. As an attorney, I deal with courts that still use WordPerfect, and as such, I must also have WordPerfect. That means Windows as the last Mac Version is no longer fully compatible. Import/Export converters for other Word Processing programs just don't cut it, as legal pleadings are full of complex formatting that breaks whenever the file is opened in a different program than it was created in, sometimes even in a different version. For that reason, I have the following and will continue to for the foreseeable future. Mac: Word 2008 (opens ever Word version reliably except for 6.0 and older) Windows: Word 6.0 WordPerfect 12 WordPerfect 6.0 WordPerfect 5.1 (Windows version, opens DOS files)
Posted by Andrew on Fri 3 October, 2008 4:57 PM
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"the Mac's innate ability to dodge malware" Ignoring security issues is no way to deal with the problem. Microsoft ignored security issues when it released windows without a firewall, and look how that turned out! Instead of spewing hubris from your soapbox, why don't you take a good long look at the soapbox itself - you just might learn something. B.
Posted by Anonymous on Mon 6 October, 2008 2:34 AM
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You know... if you set up a user account on a Windows system, it's pretty secure. I'm actually a Linux user, but I recently looked into the security of a properly setup Windows system... and it's really not that bad. The problem is that people always run their Windows machines as administrator....equivalent to running X as root. It's just stupid, and of course you have problems. Anyway... Rory, you suck. You write terrible articles and taint them even further with ignorant opinions. How did you get a job with CNET, seriously? Write an article about that... it might actually be useful to somebody.
Posted by TyphoidHippo on Thu 23 October, 2008 3:37 AM
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Posted by Anonymous on Mon 29 September, 2008 6:39 PM Actually, the plural form of doofus is doofii. Duh! :P
Posted by Mac tart on Fri 31 October, 2008 5:25 AM
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<i>Actually, the plural form of doofus is doofii.</i> ROFLOL!! :-D
Posted by MacSmiley on Mon 3 November, 2008 4:01 PM
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Noodles. I think it funny actually. He probably doesnt trust his own stuff. So much for good marketing!
Posted by Anonymous on Wed 5 November, 2008 2:12 PM
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Lets put it like this if the head of Norton had the choice to drive to work in a Aston Martin or a Ford Focus what do you think he would do ? Is it really surprising the guy uses a Mac ..I see people opening their PC laptops on planes these days with a look of Shame and rightfully so....bring on the MAC.....
Posted by Anonymous on Sat 22 November, 2008 7:49 PM
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Excellent, I see this is the latest artcile by Rory. I guess he lost his job due to lack of competences. Thank God for that!!
Posted by TTcircus on Wed 10 December, 2008 11:13 AM
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Articles by Rory Reid
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