Symantec buys PowerQuest for $150 M

[Adam Leinss]

Symantec buys PowerQuest for $150 M

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/24/technology/24TBRF2.html?ex=106506
7200&en=f ade93f7bf93ade8&ei=5062
http://www.symantec.com/press/2003/n030923.html

Does this mean the end of Norton Ghost? I HATE Drive Image. Ugh.

Adam

 

[Groove]

Adam Leinss said this...

Does this mean the end of Norton Ghost? I HATE Drive Image. Ugh.

Symantec will probably 'merge' ghost and DI together to produce a composite
product with the worst of each carried forward...

 

[Rod Speed]

What is there 2 merge? Both are 'imagers' based upon different technologies,
where DM is sector oriented, Ghost is file oriented. I can't see how you
could merge those 2 different techniques into one product.

I see it like this: Ghost is the 'pioneer' (for now forgetting other
'imagers') innitially so Symantec buys it. For a long time PowerQuest
followed Ghost innovations (for example multi casting, Ghost could do that
before DM). Last couple of years it's the other way around:

- DM (pro which is the most interesting market) includes Delta technology
(to distribrute program installations), Symantec buys the company that
provided PowerQuest with the delta technology

- DM was the first being able to write to NTFS, Ghost follows

- DM was the first to be able to reboot into DOS without the need of
floppies (virual diskette), Ghost follows with the virtual partition

- Now PowerQuest introduces how imaging (V2i), Symantec decides no longer to
follow but instead buys PowerQuest.

Thats a bit one eyed. Ghost has done some stuff first too,
particularly full support for USB2 and firewire external drives.

And has had some other stuff that DI never bothered
with, particularly cloning using a laplink cable etc.

The other one you didnt list was the user interface
with Ghost mostly being Johnny Come Lately there too.

Let's face it, this a strategy Symantec follows for years now already.

And they bought Ghost in in the first place too.

That sort of takeover shouldnt be allowed and wouldnt be in many other countrys.

 

[Jonathan Sachs]

What's this likely to do to PowerQuest's quality control and technical
support?

After my last experience with DriveCopy (trying to clone a failing
drive before it crashed in flames), I promised myself never again to
rely on a PowerQuest product released after about 1999. Dare I hope
that Symantec will clean things up?

My mail address is jsachs177 at earthlink dot net.

 

[Michael Cecil]

What's this likely to do to PowerQuest's quality control and technical
support?

After my last experience with DriveCopy (trying to clone a failing
drive before it crashed in flames), I promised myself never again to
rely on a PowerQuest product released after about 1999. Dare I hope
that Symantec will clean things up?

No. Symantec will just add DRM to the various PQ products. Also,
instead of taking a whopping 1.87MB for Ghost32 7.7, you will now be
required to use an entire WinPE CD to use it just like V2i. Finally,
all the other Symantec products will be renamed to come in line with
the modern techo named PQ products (V2i) - Speeddisk will become S3iq,
Disk Doctor will become 8ddW and Ghost will become Gbr1.

 

[Rod Speed]

Hmmm, I don't know about that, that being 'allowed to' or not.

Its basically a drastic reduction in real competition
and isnt allowed in many first world countrys.

 

[Joep]

Symantec buys PowerQuest for $150 M

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/24/technology/24TBRF2.html?ex=1065067200&en=f
ade93f7bf93ade8&ei=5062
http://www.symantec.com/press/2003/n030923.html

 

[Winey]

Ah, that's just "eyewash" for their existing customer base. Symantec
has always grown through acquisition, and this is just another in a
long series of purchases. Somehow I would have expected the price to
be more than $150M. Probably means that Powerquest wasn't doing so
well.

Soon enough, Ghost will be "merged" into Powerquest products, and
Ghost may survive in name only. Actually, I like the idea of
"ghosting" a drive.

What is there 2 merge? Both are 'imagers' based upon different technologies,
where DM is sector oriented, Ghost is file oriented. I can't see how you
could merge those 2 different techniques into one product.

Of course not. See above.

I see it like this: Ghost is the 'pioneer' (for now forgetting other
'imagers') innitially so Symantec buys it. For a long time PowerQuest
followed Ghost innovations (for example multi casting, Ghost could do that
before DM). Last couple of years it's the other way around:

- DM (pro which is the most interesting market) includes Delta technology
(to distribrute program installations), Symantec buys the company that
provided PowerQuest with the delta technology

- DM was the first being able to write to NTFS, Ghost follows

- DM was the first to be able to reboot into DOS without the need of
floppies (virual diskette), Ghost follows with the virtual partition

- Now PowerQuest introduces how imaging (V2i), Symantec decides no longer to
follow but instead buys PowerQuest.

Actually, I won't be surprised if Symantec buys someone like Executive
Software. They have really not invested much in Norton Utilities, and
some of those utilities are no longer leading-edge, the way they were
say 10 years ago. -

Let's face it, this a strategy Symantec follows for years now already.

Yup!

 

[Lil' Dave]

Shades of MicroS..., buy out the competition to save research money and
monopolize the market. Spread your bucks around. Is Acronis Imaging any
good?
Dave

 

[Joep]

Does this mean the end of Norton Ghost? I HATE Drive Image. Ugh.

Adam

Well, I don't really hate Ghost, but I'm a DriveImage / V2i Protector fan
.... I'd rather see Ghost disappear ...

 

[Joep]

Symantec will probably 'merge' ghost and DI together to produce a composite
product with the worst of each carried forward...

What is there 2 merge? Both are 'imagers' based upon different technologies,
where DM is sector oriented, Ghost is file oriented. I can't see how you
could merge those 2 different techniques into one product.

I see it like this: Ghost is the 'pioneer' (for now forgetting other
'imagers') innitially so Symantec buys it. For a long time PowerQuest
followed Ghost innovations (for example multi casting, Ghost could do that
before DM). Last couple of years it's the other way around:

- DM (pro which is the most interesting market) includes Delta technology
(to distribrute program installations), Symantec buys the company that
provided PowerQuest with the delta technology

- DM was the first being able to write to NTFS, Ghost follows

- DM was the first to be able to reboot into DOS without the need of
floppies (virual diskette), Ghost follows with the virtual partition

- Now PowerQuest introduces how imaging (V2i), Symantec decides no longer to
follow but instead buys PowerQuest.

Let's face it, this a strategy Symantec follows for years now already.

 

[Farouk Dindar]

Shades of MicroS..., buy out the competition to save research money and
monopolize the market. Spread your bucks around. Is Acronis Imaging any
good?
Dave

Acronis True Image 6 is simple does the job of imaging very elegantly

I love it.

There is no scheduling.

Farouk

 

[Joep]

Thats a bit one eyed. Ghost has done some stuff first too,
particularly full support for USB2 and firewire external drives.

And has had some other stuff that DI never bothered
with, particularly cloning using a laplink cable etc.

The other one you didnt list was the user interface
with Ghost mostly being Johnny Come Lately there too.

Absolutly right, I 'forgot' those.

And they bought Ghost in in the first place too.

Yep, they did. It seems they pretty much bought lots of what they do.

That sort of takeover shouldnt be allowed and wouldnt be in many other countrys.

Hmmm, I don't know about that, that being 'allowed to' or not.

 

[Joep]

Its basically a drastic reduction in real competition

Oh so true. Maybe, as you pointed out I missed some stronger points of
Ghost. However, for a long time it wasn't hard to see that those 2 were
indeed competing. Where one added a feature, the other would as well (or
just but it sometimes - like Symantec did with the PQ Delta feature (pro
versions)) with the next version.

It is very likely that we wouldn't have seen some improvements if the
competition would not have been there, possibly we would have been waiting
longer.

and isnt allowed in many first world countrys.

Yes, I see, here in the Netherlands we have institutions watching if large
companies aren't monopolizing (did I get that right?) markets or is becoming
too dominant.

Personally I always do like the competition between 2 main players in a
market and the competiton between the fans of both parties, it's always a
shame when that no longer exists (OS/2 vs. Win95, Linux vs. Windows, AMD vs.
Intel etc.). It spices up matters a little.

 

[Winey]

Acronis True Image 6 is simple does the job of imaging very elegantly

Yes, but a recent PC Magazine (or was it Maximum PC - I get both)
favored other utilities over the Acronis versions for partition
management, boot management, imaging, etc. You could look it up, as
they (used to) say.

--W--

 

[Farouk Dindar]

Yes, but a recent PC Magazine (or was it Maximum PC - I get both)
favored other utilities over the Acronis versions for partition
management, boot management, imaging, etc. You could look it up, as
they (used to) say.

I am using these 3 for myself (win 2k, ME and Mandrake on my system)

1) Partition Magic version 6

2) Acronis True Image 6

3) Boot -US

http://www.boot-us.com/


There are problems with version 6 of PM and Windows XP NTFS partition


Farouk Dindar

 

[Aloke Prasad]

news:[email protected]...

It is very likely that we wouldn't have seen some improvements if the
competition would not have been there, possibly we would have been waiting
longer.


Yes, I see, here in the Netherlands we have institutions watching if large
companies aren't monopolizing (did I get that right?) markets or is becoming
too dominant.

FTC is supposed to do that in US too. Remember they stopped MS from buying
Intuit and many other mergers.

More often than not, they allow the mergers. I doubt that they'll worry
about a small software segment like disk cloning..

 

[Guest]

Its basically a drastic reduction in real competition
and isnt allowed in many first world countrys.

Hopefully, someone got rich selling yesterday's technology which will
probably be obsolete in two years.

 

[anonymous]

FTC is supposed to do that in US too. Remember they stopped MS from buying
Intuit and many other mergers.

More often than not, they allow the mergers. I doubt that they'll worry
about a small software segment like disk cloning..

I'd say they were just messing with MS because of the big gov't case
they had going. MS must have really dipped into the money reserves
cuz they were really looking at it for awhile there

 

[bc_acadia]

Yes, but a recent PC Magazine (or was it Maximum PC - I get both)

favored other utilities over the Acronis versions for partition
management, boot management, imaging, etc.

Wrong.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,1094490,00.asp

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