Radiate has also posted a warning at its site that using utilities like OptOut may result in system instability. Gibson, however, said he's had no reports of system problems from the use of OptOut, although a similar adware cleaning program in circulation, AntiSpy, may erroneously delete some necessary system files, according to Gibson. Since a beta version was posted last week, OptOut has been downloaded more than 18,000 times. Its popularity may raise serious questions about the viability of the ad-supported software business model. But Ready says it's too soon to tell whether the furor over Radiate's technology will hurt its business.
Software developers are entirely capable of taking a look at it and seeing what is going on.
Gibson expects to update OptOut to detect and clean programs from Conducent and Comet Cursor, as well as any new adware programs that are released. Copyright 2001 INT Media Group, Incorporated All Rights Reserved.