I have 8 days left of Norton 2009 and I would like a good freeware virus protection suite.  Does anyone have anything good to say about Avast! ?  Thanks for the recommendations and/or comments.

well, it updates regularly. And it's free.. I like it anyway. Helped me get rid of a rouge anti virus software.

It gets the job done. Not entirely reliable, but it's free, and pretty much non-intrusive.

Thanks stategy and joora I will give it a go in 8 days.

The problem with these programs is they never work 100% of the time.

I wouldn't waste your time with them at all. Instead get yourself and external back up hard drive (around $50-$100) and set up nortons ghost (shareware versions should be free) to do a back up of your entire comp every few days.

Then if you get a bug it takes no time at all to reboot your system with very little lost (you can even save anything from the last few days as a draft on g-mail or something and then reload them after the reboot- and loose nothing at all).

trust me, it's the only way to go!!!

Nothing is ever 100% when it comes to virii, certainly not Nortons.

I have been using Avast for over a year and it has never caused me any grief.  It actually found a virus that was on my computer that Norton missed, when I first installed Avast.  Avast is free to the average every day Joe, I think they only charge for Corporate Editions.  So don't let anyone fool you into thinking you should be paying for Norton or something else.  Avast gets the job done and its not a resource whore like norton antivirus is.

Norton doesnt even work 50% of the time.... Norton is a massive resource hog that is competely trashware.

ok, @ damndl0ser and @ssj12: He was talking about Norton Ghost, not Norton Antivirus. In fact, he was saying that antiviruses in general suck and are not very effective. Norton Ghost is a program that backs up information, and from what I have heard does a good job. I however, like Acronis bettor or, for free, EaseUS (which us around the shop have name "Jesus copy", after all, Jesus saves).

As for antivirus, Avast is relatively good for free. AVG tends to malfuction, so avoid that. You should also use Spybot S&D and/or super anti-spyware to complement Avast on the anti-spyware front. Also, use online scanners from professional antiviruses periodically to make sure Avast is not missing anything.
www.eset.com - activeX based
www.bitdefender.com/scan8/ie.html - activeX based
www.kaspersky.com - java based (very good, but does not remove the threats)

Honestly, I don't use an antivirus. I just browse the internet using Linux.

Another thing, if you use Ghose/Acronis/EaseUS to back up your hard drive and you accidentally back it up with a virus on it, you're screwed.

Yea, much better than AVG imo.