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The bundled crapware has nothing to do with where you buy your PC. Best Buy doesn’t install anything on the PCs they sell. Dell does, HP does, Lenovo does. You
by dpark 8y ago
The bundled crapware has nothing to do with where you buy your PC. Best Buy doesn’t install anything on the PCs they sell. Dell does, HP does, Lenovo does. You get the same crap if you buy direct or from a retailer.
If you buy a “Microsoft Signature” device, you pay a small premium essentially for the manufacturer to agree not to install crap. You might (or might not) get the same from the manufacturer if you buy a “business” laptop. But it all cases, it’s the manufacturer installing whatever crap comes on your PC.
- scarface74 8y agoI bought a desktop Gateway from BestBuy awhile back. It had Best Buy specific crapware and the "special edition" Dell was the same price from the MS store as it was from Dell's website. Buying the business line from Dell gets you better local support and no crapware.
- dpark 8y agoThat’s interesting. I’ve never seen that. That means Best Buy has some deal to get a special Best Buy Crapware SKU from the manufacturer. P.S. Gateway still exists? P.P.S. Wikipedia says Gateway is defunct. How long ago was this experience?
- scarface74 8y agoIt was 2013. Gateway was bought by Acer and stop selling online and sells (sold?) exclusively through third party retailers. Support was decent though. The hard drive crashed and I had to ship the entire computer back to them.
- FireBeyond 8y agoNot so much, but as recently as five years ago. They don't pre-image, but they open up the computer, and Geek Squad "optimizes" and "preps" it for you, including installing a bunch of crapware. And then when you ask for one that hasn't been "prepared" they look at you like "why would you ever want that?" and when you insist, they'll apologize that they have none of that model in stock that haven't been prepared.
- dpark 8y agoSeriously? That’s not a new machine at that point.
- metiscus 8y agoSometimes Best Buy has exclusive models that have specific software put on there by the manufacturer. You can usually verify if you are getting one of those models by googling the full model number to see if there are other sellers than Best Buy out there.
- emodendroket 8y agoWalmart is famous for doing this with all manner of goods (usually their version has some sacrifices to achieve a lower price).
- 3rdAccount 8y agoChromebooks from anywhere including Walmart are of course free of any crap.
- emodendroket 8y agoThey probably have slightly different hardware to keep a price edge. But anyway, to anyone on HN I'd think bundled software is pretty much a non-issue; I've always installed Windows fresh and I feel like doing that isn't a big deal if you are technical.
- scarface74 8y agoWhere do you get a free non OEM install of Windows if you aren’t an MSDN subscriber?
- emodendroket 8y agoWell, I am an MSDN subscriber. But if you aren't, can't you get a "recovery disc" from Microsoft somewhere and then use the serial on the label? I can recall doing something like this in the past.
- metiscus 8y agoIf it is Windows 10, you can do so here https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10 https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10 Otherwise https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows8ISO https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows8IS... https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows7 https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows7
- LinuxBender 8y agoIn some cases it does matter. There is a local PC store that is very overpriced, but they will build custom machines to your spec. I used to build my own machines as a hobby, but I just really don't have time for that any more. Not every city has one of these PC shops, mind you. I prefer local stores for computers as well, since I know where they work and they know that I know where they work.
- maxsilver 8y ago> Best Buy doesn’t install anything on the PCs they sell. This isn't necessarily true. Some PCs are Best Buy specific models, with extra bloatware from Best Buy (in addition to the OEM bloatware from Dell / HP / Lenovo). This also affects physical components sometimes. I remember from laptop shopping a few months ago, that the MSI GS63 Stealth laptop ships with a crappier screen specifically for the Best Buy model, where as most other models had a decent screen. This was done so that the Best Buy model would have an artificially-low price in comparison to online retailers.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- AlexandrB 8y agoReading something like this I have two thoughts: 1. Why would PC manufacturers de-value their own brand like this!? 2. It almost makes sense why Apple can get away with charging a premium. No mystery meat hardware/crapware regardless of retailer.
- emodendroket 8y agoYour two observations are connected. They do it because they are paid by the software maker, allowing them to sell the product for less.
- scarface74 8y agoPeople use to always talk about the “Windows tax” and say that computers would cost less if they didn’t come with Windows. Actually the opposite is true. With all of the deals they can make preinstalling bloat on their computers, OEMs could make more than enough to offset the cost of a Windows license. They couldn’t do that with alternative OS’s.
- emodendroket 8y agoThey probably could -- if there were a large demand for Linux laptops, there's no particular reason they couldn't come pre-installed with Linux-based adware.