No offense intended either but .. Everytime I hear these stories about Norton missing a virus that some other AV {PC-Cillin, AVG, etc.} caught, I have to chuckle. I take these stories with a grain of salt.
On various forums on the Net, everytime someone has posted a {bogus??} story like this, I have PM-ed them and ask them to send me the sample they claim Norton missed. So far, almost no takers. It is always some lame excuse: they don't have time; they deleted the virus; it got stuck in virus vault and can't be retrieved; etc.
The few times someone has actually sent me a sample they thought Norton missed, when I tested it on my PC, Norton was detecting it !! I have to conclude that:
1. Norton AV may be disabled or misconfigured on the PC in question where the poster *claims* a virus was missed; or
2. The original poster is being deliberately deceitful and "spinning a tale" that he/she cannot back up with fact; or
3. The "missed" sample may have been a non-viral sample, e.g. adware or spyware or joke/hoax, that only the latest versions {2004 & 2005} of Norton are designed to detect as expanded threats; or
4. Some other unexplained anomaly.
Folks, Norton AV has every bit as good a testing record as these other AVs. It beats the socks off of PC-Cillin at Virus Bulletin, for example. I don't know where y'all are getting your facts, or if you are simply speculating wildly based on one lone anomalous sample or two, or what.
As for me, I have tested Norton on about a Gigabyte's worth of samples, I know full-well that the detection rate is excellent, and until someone can be on the up-and-up, cooperate, and actually send me a sample that Norton actually does miss, I won't be convinced by such stories as this .. no offense.
Each to his own, there are several good products on the market today. All the respectable AVs do a good job at detecting in-the-wild {ITW} viruses that the average user is likely to encounter on his internet journeys. Have a nice day.