How much bloatware is ok

Would you prefer to have no bloatware and pay a premium for a computer or of have it loaded with bloatware to bring down the price?

 

It think it is pretty stupid to even have bloatware. Sure, it saves the OEM a little bit of money but not much I'd think.

If you ask me, companies should start offering no bloatware installs for free. Advertising that "you care" about your customers, and having less RMAs because consumers open up their shiny new notebook to find it is slow and they are clueless about that, will more than make up the lost funding from bloatware providers.

 

No offence to anyone but I would think those people would have a virus before it gets really slow if they can't remove the bloatware or don't remove it.

 

Makes no difference, I do a quick clean up (general problem programs, like Norton) to run some tests if the computer is worth keeping (no defects or the likes) and then I clean install with the most up to date drivers I can find.

Go ahead, load on as much bloat as you need to make sure I pay less. I was actually very surprised that there was hardly any bloat on my P-7811 when I got it, but I still did a clean install after did every I had to to ensure I didn't have a lemon.

 

I haven't bought a pre-built machine in about 7 years now... so I'm not sure what to expect when my Dell XPS 435MT arrives in :gulp: 3 weeks time. Most likely I'll just uninstall the one's I don't need. You never know if one of them is a diamond in a rough (although very unlikely).

 

I hope the manufacture load as much bloatware or even viruses, bots..etc as possible on their computers. E.g. 250GB worth of bloatware. I like the computer's price to be kept very low. I do a clean install anyways so bloatware wouldn't matter.

 

Two thoughts...

1. Bloatware (supposedly) Lowers prices for the consumers. Fine by me.

2. If NO extra software was installed on computers, many people would not end up downloading or purchasing anti-virus/spyware, DVD player, PDF reader, etc software. Most people are computer illiterate, so it would make the whole thing more difficult/confusing for them. For the people that know what they're doing, a clean install isn't too much work.

 

I was going to post this too, I don't care how much bloatware is piled onto the machine, just as long as it drives the cost down (I hope it does)

Just clean install when you receive the laptop

 

If it brings the price down by a nice amount, then hell, fill the whole hdd with crap, it only takes 30 minutes to fresh install!!!

 

I think a lot of people who buy pre-built systems don't have the resources to get a Vista disk; all they're left with is a restore disk that loads all the crap back on.

Right now, every OEM piles on the bloatware pretty heavy. I think the first OEM to offer clean windows install for free and advertise it as such would have a hit with consumers.

I think MSFT should be pushing OEMs to at least offer that as an option. In the end it really benefits them.

 

Sony does this with it's Fresh Start program. Too bad it's only available when you buy direct and not from a store configuration.

Dell also does this, only a bit differently-You have to go through all of the configurator steps online to make sure you deselect the software you don't want. If you skip a few steps and jump to the end, you'll miss some software options.

If you stepped through all the categories along the bottom of the configurator, and within all of the tabs at the top and deselected stuff, you should be fine. You might still get Adobe Reader-but that's for the manual which is in .PDF format. You might also get Windows Live Essentials if their partnership with Microsoft's Windows Live team has begun (I've haven't run through the configurator in a while so i'm not sure if you can deselect it like all of the rest, and I thought this would start with Windows 7 since the OS gets rid of several components that WL attempts to replace.)

Also, don't forget about going business-you'll always get a clean install that way.


I do think that it's important for the computer makers to strike a balance between waaay too much fluff/junk and leaving computer neophytes exposed to online dangers, and not having software to get up and running right away. I think that giving people the option to "opt-out" is smart. The people who really care about this sort of thing will opt-out while the average person who doesn't think about AV or expects an office suite to just "be there" can have their cake too.

 

Nice, they didn't have this option when I purchased my lappy. I enjoyed doing my clean install though, and making my lappy *my own*

Cin

 

Too bad Dell Canada doesn't give us the option to opt-out through the config but I know in the US they do. I have no idea why that is (maybe they were legally forced to do it down there but I'm not sure - I just wish it was like that up here).

I'll look through Dell's Small Business configuration, that’s a good idea.

 

NO bloatware is fine, but I'll just reinstall anyways, so I guess it technically doesn't make a difference.... but it's a matter of principle! :GEEK:

Thankfully, I've only had to deal with Dell Small Business, and they're really good about it.

 

I could never quite understand why the mainstream consumer notebooks always had so much bloatware, while the business line of practically all OEMs are bloatware free. It is also interesting to note that the price for said business line notebooks in most cases is comparable to the bloatware packed mainstream consumer models.

If adding the bloatware keeps the price down then how are the OEMs selling the business notebooks with no bloat at all and managing to keep the prices so reasonable?

 

I agree; I think that if an OEM ships a computer with bloatware that they at least provide a Vista re-install disk so one can do a clean install.

 

'Bloatware' is okay when it's well-written software that doesn't just run in the background.
The worst of it's kind can really screw with a powerful computer.

 

Not so simple, when all you get with the new laptop is a restoration disk that already has all the bloatware loaded on.
I usually uninstall whatever I can, and delete the rest from the Program Files.

 

I see that there are 28 votes for the clean install option. How do you do it, considering that most of today's laptops are shipped without a clean OS installation disk, but with a System Recovery disk?

 

I wouldn't consider my Roxio Creator DE software that came preinstalled Bloatware. It's a fantastic program. So I say it's all fine, as long as it is removable.

 

While I can do a clean install (standard procedure when getting a Dell computer), I prefer Alienware: they ship with the OS, the drivers and utilities that came with the hardware you selected (DVD player/burner), and anything you ordered with the system. That's it. No adds, shortcuts, 15-month subscriptions to online backup/antivirus software.

 

I don't really want any. But if it has to be there, just install it and let it go at that. I don't want popups or nag screens, and I don't want things installed that cannot be easily and directly uninstalled.

I bought my wife a laptop and it came with a trial version of Microsoft Office installed. Before I knew what was happening she sent in her credit card number and activated it. I could have bought the Home and Student edition for a lot less. I should have uninstalled everything before I gave it to her.

 

To the 32 people who voted Load it on, I clean install anyway, how do you do a clean install with a System Recovery disk?

 

vLite, no?

 

Give me an OS disc with the laptop, and they can put whatever they want on.

 

No matter what when I always buy a computer I just go straight to a reformat I don't use the computer of what it has all full of bloatware I won't even bother to clean it up just reformat. Also to save me some money is good so I rather do the clean up and the tweaks myself (remembering when best buy told me you can buy the optimize for a little more).

 

It depends on what you get with the computer. If they don't give you a clean OS disc with it, you're stuck with all the crap!