A good friend of mine that works for Symantec hooked me up with a few Norton Internet Security 2009 licenses, claiming that it was good.  Dubious, but trusting my friends judgment, (he knows and understands my angst toward such things) I installed it on my laptop and have been toying with it for about a half-hour.  My experience with internet security applications (both personally and in the corporate environment) have driven me to avoid them altogether to prevent me from losing my salvation in a fit of unbridled rage.

Now that you understand where I'm coming from you can see how it is not easy for me to say this:   I'm impressed.  Not only has it not driven my laptop to its knees, but it seems to actually be letting me get to my remote file shares and wireless internet seamlessly.  Presumably it's concurrently protecting me from malware and viruses.