Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I have used Webroot for years as separate components on both Windows and, more recently, Mac OS (Window Washer and the anti-virus program). Up until recently, I was very happy with the product, choosing it over of Macafee, Norton and Intego, all of which I have used at some time or another. Lately, on the Macintosh, Webroot has been throwing up a dialog box asking for your email address in order to issue some type of news letter. There is no way to say "no" the dialog box. It can be dismissed but it keeps coming back with increasing frequency. I also noticed that this software recently flagged many components in the Apple Developer folder as threats. Webroot will identify threats and list them but does not give you away to copy the threat listing to a file, e.g. a text file. And of course as with anything else, if you wanted more information you have to go to their web site. I was unsuccessful trying to shut the program down ( because of the dialog box). Even Force Quit wouldn't keep it shut down permanently, it would pop right back up. Of course I could not uninstall the program either. I had to go on as a root user in order to get get the program uninstalled. Webroot, like many other software companies, has reached the stage in it's business evolution that I call creeping encroachment. The vendor takes more and more license with your machine(s), buries features in opaque bundles and is more interested in sending you messages to try and get you to go to their website. What was once a great product has becomes a liability to have on your machine. No matter how good it is in its technical performance (and Webroot ranges from good to excellent) when it issues dialog boxes that you can't rid of or anything else of that nature, it is time to find a new vendor. This is what I have done. FYI, I did not purchase the software from Amazon. I renewed an existing license and expanded the agreement to five machines for three years in the beginning of 2014, covering both Windows and Mac. (But I do buy a lot of of stuff, actually most of my stuff, on Amazon.)