Symantec / Norton 60-day intro on Gateway & eMachines

A little bit of news in the anti virus arena showed up today at CNNMoney. Looks like Symantec has struck a deal with Gateway / eMachines for a Symantec / Norton 360 trial on Gateway & eMachines PCs. [Editor's note: since the page on CNNMoney is no longer available, the inactive link has been pulled, too.] 

All-in-all, we're always glad to see any coverage on a new computer, we're just disappointed it was a chintzy 2-month trial. Given the number of new PCs that will no doubt end up under Ye Olde Christmas trees this year, that will mean a lot of computers start going unprotected towards the end of February 2009 as no doubt some people ignore the update nags and opt to go without antivirus protection.

We have a great deal of respect--a great deal--for Symantec as a company, but we think a 60-day trial is a little lean.

If someone opts for antivirus subscription renewal, that's great; if they decide to give something else a try, just so happens we know where they can look at and compare antivirus software. ;-)