4 ms·
Suprise that no market their computers as "crapware free".
by wehadfun 11y ago
Suprise that no market their computers as "crapware free".
- greenjellybean 11y agoI don't buy Apple computers but isn't that a main selling point with osx?
- rdsnsca 11y agoIt is one of the selling points. It has been over 5 years since Apple has sold a computer with any third party software on it.
- mahouse 11y agoOut of curiosity, what 3rd-party sw did Apple bundle over 5 years ago?
- drak0n1c 11y agoJava
- dagw 11y agoApple used to bundle demo apps and games with their computers. I for example remember getting a demo of a Tony Hawk skating game and a couple of other apps with an iBook.
- wiredfool 11y agoOddly enough, I have a fresh install of Os9.2 here, from 2001. It's got IE5, Stuffit Expander, Netscape Communicator 4.7.7, and Outlook Express 5.0.2, and Java.
- NelsonMinar 11y agoDepends on whether you consider iTunes crapware :-)
- Watabou 11y agoiTunes isn't crapware on OS X. It is on Windows though, I think mostly because Apple doesn't want to put too many resources into iTunes on Windows. iTunes on OS X runs better than any other music apps (that are not command line music clients like ncmpcpp) I've used, and I've used a lot. On OS X, I can't see why people would call it bloatware/crapware.
- danielweber 11y agoMicrosoft Store.
- nfoz 11y agoYou used to be able to pay $50 extra on Sony laptops for it to come clean. While that's technically better than no option at all, it doesn't make me miss them too much.
- a3n 11y agoYou also used to be able to buy a Sharpie marker at the same time as a CD purchase to defeat their rootkit installed from music CDs. I don't miss them too much either. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy_protection_rootkit_scandal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy_protection_rootk...
- acdha 11y agoMicrosoft's trying to create a premium “Signature Edition” category with that as the selling point: http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/cat/Signature-Edition-Computers/categoryID.69916600 http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/cat/Signatur...
- kabdib 11y agoI've bought a couple of these. They're sure nicer than the crapware-ridden vanilla consumer machines (where it takes me an hour or two to remove the crapware . . . and even then I'm not sure).
- abetaha 11y agoThanks for the link, I did not know that cleaner/pristine Windows install are available out of the box. Out of curiosity, if these laptops are the same price as the one laden with "crapware", why are'nt consumers buying these instead? Is it awareness that they are available?
- acdha 11y agoMy guess is that it's a combination of limited selection and higher prices. The OEMs seem to be treating this as a premium feature so it's simply not on the radar for the people looking to buy the cheapest (i.e. ad-ware subsidized) PC.
- Animats 11y agoThat's funny. Take a look at that link. Microsoft, itself, is talking about how crappy their own product is in its normally delivered form.
- Jun8 11y agoI don't think one should be surprised. At least two reasons can be given: 1) "crapware" is not well-defined for all users, some utility that absolutely is annoying and unnecessary to medium to advanced users may be found useful by complete novices, e.g. the prototypical "your grandma". 2) The bigger cause is, of course, affiliate money. Companies have little backlash to crapware other than perhaps some lost sales due to disgruntled users. That's hard to quantify. The money you get from an affiliate whose crapware you preinstall is absolutely easy to quantify, though. This is definitely the mode of operation for cell phone companies. My Verizon phone comes with NFL apps and other crap that I can't even uninstall. 3) In lost cases, though, it's the companies own additional software that is the crapware. Again, the cause is money, the tracking and/or usage data is worth a lot of money. Unless there is a big punishment, large enough to really hurt these huge companies, the status quo will continue. That's why this particular lawsuit is so important.
- mikeash 11y agoRegarding (1), has any computer manufacturer ever installed anything we might call "crapware" that anyone ever found to actually be useful? Not something that grandma thinks is useful, but something that is actually useful to grandma (not quite the same thing!). The rest is totally right, though. For any behavior by a company that seems to do more harm than good, you can usually trace it back to some decision-maker who is rewarded for the good parts but is not responsible for the bad parts. If your decisions cause $1 in gain for your department and $2 in loss for another department, many companies aren't smart enough to do anything but reward you and punish the other department.
- dysfunction 11y agoI find the Lenovo battery manager mildly useful; not amazing, but enough that I installed it on a fresh Windows install on my work Carbon. It just gives me more granular control than the Windows power options.
- zurn 11y agoMicrosoft uses licensing discounts to bribe PC manufacturers into force-bundling Windows in jurisdictions with weak consumer protection laws. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundling_of_Microsoft_Windows#The_.22Windows_tax.22 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundling_of_Microsoft_Windows#...
- karmakaze 11y agoThough never conscious to me before, Macs are crapware free. I wonder how more often PCs would 'just work' if it only came with the OS and core drivers.