I might have made the title "Computer Security Suites Boringly, Exhaustively, and Excessively Reviewed," but the box ain't that big.
The article is rather large, so I'll attempt to include a few "principal links" for those who might not be inclined to try to read the whole thing, but I don't intend to preview/check all of them. If some don't go where expected (or don't go anywhere at all) you can go to the article and find them for youselves.
ARTICLE DATE: 10.29.08 thru last update 02.02.09 – (29 Oct 2008 thru 02 Feb 2009) By Neil J. Rubenking (PC Magazine)
"The list of available 2009-model security suites is now essentially complete. A running theme in this year's suites is the promise that these new versions will do more for your security while tying up fewer system resources. It's about time: Users have had it with suites that offer security but bog down the computer. Several vendors have introduced new "in the cloud" technologies to keep up with the accelerating growth of new malware. And many have redesigned their user interfaces to be more attractive and look lighter and faster. Some are new, innovative, and speedy. Others haven't kept pace. Which are which? I put them all through grueling tests to find out."
This article links together a series of individual reviews published in the tree-killer version of the magazine between October 2008 and February 2009. Although the article was "finished" a couple of months ago, I'll assume that the web version was deferred to allow those who ate-the-paper to relax from moving their lips so much.
If you just "step through" all of the web pages assembled into the article, you'll load and see at least 138 web pages.
The first 5 web pages (linked by "Next" buttons") are a summary of how the series was put together and how the AV Suites were tested, with some "gossip" about the suites that the editor found most interesting. I'd recommend scanning through them, just to get the "context of the discussion" before jumping to "selected bits."
At the bottom of the first page (and most others) there's a "Printable" button that assembles the whole article in one swell foop; but the assembled thing is about 110 pages (pasted into Word). You can, of course, scan through it on-screen fairly quickly to pick out the high points, but I'd suggest NOT SENDING IT to a paper-eater unless you're really interested.
The printable version also "drops out" a few bits and pieces, so the original web pages give some info (and links) that aren't in the print version, or that aren't in quite the same places.
Part of the reason that the print version has so many pages is that each web page contains, and "prints," the same "index" to the bits and pieces of the opus, and the index alone is a couple of pages. If you ignore the index, there isn't a lot of text in the "summary pages."
In the detail pages that follow, there is an "editors' rating" for each suite tested, and there is an additional "users rating" for some. The ratings shouldn't be given excessive weight, as these are all "pretty good" suites. None of the suites gets a perfect score, but knowing what the foibles of your own defensive systems are should allow you to decide whether you need some "added protection;" but more importantly, knowing your vulnerabilities may help you to adjust your own behavio(u)r to help keep you safe. Of course if you see something in the stuff you're using that really concerns you, you can look at one or more of the others reviewed here to see if you want to consider something different.
The article only reviews "full-commercial-bought-and-paid-for-suites," but most suites are "associated" with the cheaper-to-free versions many here use, and family characterisitics may (carefully) be extrapolated to some extent. It's probably unlikely that a "free version" will do better than the purchased one, or that the free version will lack a "weakness" present in the big brother one.
The "details" of each suite reviewed begins with a "quickie" summary, but when you step to the "next" page you generally get the "full review," which expands the index on the left to about a dozen web pages for each suite. The main ones reviewed are:
Note that the NIS2009 full review links out of the series shown in the page index, but appears to return to the article using the "next buttons" there. The "front page" of the article also links into a brief review of the separate Norton 360, that gets dropped out of the index in later segments of the article, so if you're interested in it you may need to "go in from the front end."