Yoggie CEO Blog

I recently received an IdeaPad S10 – An outstanding netbook from Lenovo. It is relatively small, has great connectivity, and everything I need to take with me on flights and trips.

It smoothly switches from hibernation to power on and vise versa, ready to serve me when I am looking for a nearby Japanese restaurant, business address, or my Gmail account.
I also installed a copy of MobileMe client (by Apple) on it, keeping my business folders in sync on my S10, 3 Windows PCs  and my MacBook.

So far, all is great. The S10 comes with Norton Internet Security Suite 2009 ready to be enabled/installed.  When I did that, I ran into some major challenges (I do not like the words “issue”, “problem” and “risk” :-)). The Atom processor on my S10 is great for running Windows XP and my applications, but it was never designed to run these additional multiple security applications included in the Symantec security suite (to be accurate, nor any other vendor’s security suite) such as: Anti Virus, Anti Spyware, Web and email proxies, intrusion detection and prevention, Anti Spam, Anti Phishing, etc.

I immediately noticed a significant performance hit on my second reboot after getting all the recent Security Suite updates. At that point, I learned how I can really enjoy my S10.

The secret is to completely remove the Security Suite and disable Windows XP updates. Yes, this sounds like preparing my S10 to be shot dead on my next Internet connection, but this is the only way to really enjoy both performance and the great mobility of the handy S10.

I am not preaching to practice “unsafe surfing” by not using  a security tool at all, but as you know, I don’t have to pay for a Yoggie Gatekeeper that perfectly fills the security gap that I created.  The S10 has a 34mm ExpressCard slot which is perfect for the Gatekeeper Card. The only drawback is that Lenovo saved some space and made the 34 mm slot shorter than the PCI standard, causing my Gatekeeper to stick out about 10 mm of its form factor, but this is something I am ready to trade with no need to run the Internet Security Suite that makes my S10 almost non usable.

The Windows XP updates are still missing, but I am trying to be selective and cherry pick only these that I find very critical that the firewall and 13 other security applications in Gatekeeper may miss.

So as the CEO of the hair growth company said in the TV commercial: “I am not just the company president, but I am also a user” 

Cheers,
Shlomo.