I bet you you're right, that it is ahead of McAffee, they aren't doing so hot right now.
The newer Norton isn't as fast as some, but pretty decent protection. Thats great that you haven't had issues with Avast, but it technically doesn't have as a high a detection rate as the higher rated ones.
Not degrading you at all Altair, you obviously know what you are doing, but I've tried most of the free ones, and tested them thoroughly, including Avast. They all failed me, the only one that didn't so far is Kaspersky.
To each their own. As long as you know what you're doing, I guess thats what really matters.
