In a previous post, I was critical of the way Symantec was handling their beta version of Norton 360 for Windows 7
. Since Windows 7 won’t be released till October (as of the last official pronouncement form Microsoft), it’s impressive that Symantec actually has a beta version that you can use while beta testing the OS. Kudos for that. But there seemed to be a problem with the licensing of it – it is described as a 14-day trial. That seemed to make no sense, and I said so.
I received a comment on that post from a Symantec employee that it would renew every 14 days. (Love the power of the blogosphere. It seemed to be an individual, though, so I can’t tell if “official” Symantec is actually using best practices to listen and respond.) At the time, I responded that if that were so, I would acknowledge it. And indeed, when I had one day left till renewal, I didn’t wait – I asked to renew, and the sytsem responded gracefully, allowing me to do so.
Consider this my acknowledgement of same. (Cue the sound of Merv eating his words.)
That doesn’t mean I have no criticism. I honestly don’t see why this is necessary. It isn’t THAT much of an inconvenience for me, but why not simply license it till the beta is over and Windows 7 is “official,” at which time you buy a real license or suffer whatever consequences would occur if the 14-day ran out? Seems like it would be easier for everyone. And it would be good Symantec had mentioned on the site that the license renews – along with some instruction on how to do so. Yes, people ought to be able to figure it out, but…
All that said, once again, kudos to Symantec. I’ve never had a beta OS I could protect before. Bravo.