It should be easy . . .

It should be easy to upgrade a piece of software, yet yesterday it proved to be a challenge.

Software vendors like to think that their bit of code is special, unlike any before (or after) its sold. One of the ways they ensure that we don't forget that we bought, installed and maybe used to their product a couple of times is to place a link at the top level of our 'All Programs' folder.

While I don't mind that, I always wondered why I was not given an easy choice to put the link where I wanted it, not the manufacturer. But that was the least of my worries (take heed Symantec) when I tried to upgrade from Norton SystemWorks 2006 to the latest Norton SystemWorks Pro 2008.

My decision to stay with a known vendor (Symantec) is based in part on past experience and part on marketing. For years Norton had been the king of the hill in the anti-virus and system utility arena. The signature look and feel of the GUI, the industry reputation and dedication to eradicating the bad guys has been Symantec's mantra for decades.

The biggest issue I faced was that Symantec it seems does not like to play nice with others. Specifically mentioned is my favorite firewall, ZoneAlarm Pro (ZAP). While the installation routine did not come right out and say remove ZAP before attempting to install NSWPro, it did display a stern warning that things might not go well with ZAP installed. They even gave me an opportunity to open the 'add/delete' program dialog from inside the installation program and remove the errant program (ZAP).

I won't get into all the challenges I needed to overcome during the upgrade process, but let it suffice to say that it was an arduous adventure spanning the evening and the next morning before it was complete.

Before it was all done, I ended up having to remove all Norton programs, including ACT! (which Symantec sold years ago) and WinFax Pro. Once everything was removed, not an easy task thanks to a corrupt WinFax Pro uninstall file, I was able to run the Norton removal program. This time I installed the anti-virus first, followed by NSW, WinFax Pro and finally ACT.

What should have taken about an hour ended up taking over 6 hours to complete the task.

FYI -- I promise the next entry will have something to do with marketing, and not just a rant about the lack of consideration suppliers have when they try to 'sell us the goods.'