Posted by Mikel Gómez Urkijo, April 20th, 2010
I don’t work in the computer world and my technical knowledge of these machines is close to zero. Yes, I’ve been working with computers my whole life, I even had a Sinclair Spectrum and then those 286, 386,etc… dinosaurs, but how they work is a mystery to me (as a telephone or a TV, for instance). I just like to turn it on and do its job, which is mainly navigating on the Internet. And I want to do it on a safe way, even if, surely by mistake, one of those web sites with barely dressed humans appears on screen. Now that I have kids, it’s also of utter importance to prevent them to navigate on the many menacing web pages that have invaded the Internet. So I’ve always had an antivirus installed (yes, the one with the little bear face on the bottom right).
I have to admit that the first ones were not that easy to install and I had a number of problems, mainly due to:
* My firewalls and their mutual hate.
* Having other previous versions installed and not totally uninstalled
* My love for deletion of basic files in the registry for the correct working of a computer
* The fact that some programmers may have thought that I was a computer geek when developing their AV.
Well, I have learnt to keep my hands off the computer registry and programmers have developed user friendly versions. I feel now at ease installing my antivirus and forgetting about everything. I wanted a smiling bear face at the bottom right, telling me that everything was fine and under close control, that the computer speed would not be affected and that pop-up messages would not interfere in my navigation. It took some versions to get used to and understand each other, but what I have now is just what I was expecting. And coming for a computer illiterate as myself, as most of average users are, it’s the best that can be said about a product.
Mikel Gómez Urkijo introduces himself “I like (and not in order) reading, iberian ham, biking, visiting new places, surfing on the net and playing with my kids. I also have a couple of blogs in English, www.mugalari.wordpress.com and www.blogseitb.us/basquetourism, on the off the beaten path places in the Basque Country that I like. And I sometimes tweet on http://twitter.com/mugalari
Panda Security specializes in the development of endpoint security products and is part of the WatchGuard portfolio of IT security solutions. Initially focused on the development of antivirus software, the company has since expanded its line of business to advanced cyber-security services with technology for preventing cyber-crime.
