Why might I want to dump Norton?

I've not had any problems with Norton antivirus and firewall, but lately I鈥檝e been seeing people talking about how it slows your system way down. So I'm wondering what I should replace them with that are just as good. I know about AVG, but is it popular simply because it's free? What firewall should I pair it up with? Is Zone Alarm any good or is its popularity only stemmed from the fact that it's free too. What are some others you've used and recommend?

Also if you can't tell me in 10 lines of text you will get a thumbs down. Unless your explaining your experiences with that product. I don't want an answer of a list of 100 products like I've seen that girl "Cutie" do. I want an honest review.

Why might I want to dump Norton?download

I use Avira and AVG Avast! for home and haven't had a problem with either yet. Had Norton for a while and it was ok, but surprise, surprise when I installed Avira, it found 5 potential risks that came up as high security risks. Norton missed them. Why would you pay for Norton when there's free programs that are better and FREE?

Why might I want to dump Norton?hijackthis

Hi, I had nortons 2006. It was too big for my puter but I do have an old system. Pentium 3. And it bogged me down bad. So I just reinstalled Nortons 2003. It works great. I think Nortons is overdoing it a bit with all the added features. But zone alarm works quite well and is free. But if you don't have a problem with Nortons slowing you down. I'd keep it.
Norton can slow down your system. But that is the price you pay for protection. I usually find as long as your not downloading a lot of stuff You won't get any viruses. I have NO protection on my system and have never had a problem.