WISHFUL THINKING
(Update below)
In a post last April, I railed against a common practice by PC vendors like Sony, Dell, HP et al, to pre-install lots of trial software on new PCs and laptops that are nothing more than sales come-on for online software upgrades. The PC companies obviously make extra money through these offers.
The common industry term for this kind of software is "crapware" or "craplets".
It's a practice that most personal computer companies engage in, except Apple. In that post, I made a wish:
"Some customers may actually pay an extra $50 or a $100 per computer for a "craplet" or "crapware" free machine.
I know I would, if the option were offered."
Well, it looks like I'll get my wish soon, at least from Sony as this post from Engadget explains:
" Sony has quite the history of crippling excellent, beautiful hardware with horrible, useless software...
Lucky for us, it appears Sony is finally seeing the error of its ways, but instead of removing the crapware altogether, Sony has the nerve to offer a $50 "Fresh Start" option, which "scrubs" the machine clean before shipping it your way.
At the moment you can only configure the TZ2000 crapware-free, but hopefully Sony will rolling out the choice to the rest of its laptops soon. Or here's an idea, Sony: stop trying to milk profits and start giving consumers laptops that actually work out of the box."
Although it'd be nice if PC companies offered a crapware option for free, that's about as likely as airlines offering free meal service and no surcharges to check in an extra bag again.
Or one could always just get a Mac.
Update: Wired reports that:
"Responding to a tidal wave of outrage, Sony has reversed a plan to charge $50 to remove all the pre-installed applications — often derided as "bloatware" or "craplets" — from its high-end TZ-series notebooks."
Well, maybe some airlines will offer free meal service after all. It doesn't help me though, having bought two Sony TZ notebooks late last year and paid the good tech folk at the SonyStyle store over $100 to remove the trialware. Ahh, the costs of being an early adopter.
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