p2pnet - rss feed: Sony yanks $50 bloatware charge
p2pnet news | Products:- “Here’s an idea,” p2pnet posted yesterday. Load a system with junk, “and then charge users a fat fee to wipe if off”.
The innovation was Sony’s.
It has, however, responded with extreme alacrity to protests.
It’s decided it won’t, after all, try to rip users off by charging them 50 bucks to use the ridiculously named FreshStart to remove bloatware it put on its UX UMPC in the first place.
But only if they buy the Windows Vista Business Edition $100 upgrade, says Wired.
“Like many notebook manufacturers, Sony preloads its notebooks with anti-virus, anti-spyware and other useful software,” writes Rob Beschizza.
“Problems arise when such applications swiftly expire, offer limited functionality, or result in poor system performance - or when there is simply so much of it that it cannot be easily removed.”
That’s “useful”?
Also See:
p2pnet - Sony hates us …., March 21, 2008
Wired - Sony Won’t Charge $50 To Remove Bloatware March 21, 2008
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March 22nd, 2008 at 11:16 am
Any way I don’t buy anything Sony. I don’t want rootkit in my stuff or CD or DVD that are designed to fail after a year or so!
March 22nd, 2008 at 11:27 am
They probably get paid for every piece of bloatware, so it isn’t strange that they’d want to charge for “removal” (ie. not installing it). It is however somewhat unfair and unethical.
March 22nd, 2008 at 11:55 am
That’s why I build my own PCs. No crap software.
March 22nd, 2008 at 12:46 pm
the two worst programs i’ve seen preloaded into vista are:
Norton Internet Security (causes long boot times and slows the computer down to a crawl)
Roxio Easy DVD Creator Basic (drives you nuts with popups recommending you upgrade to the full edition)
PC Manufactures should give an option to choose what extra crap comes with your computer
Also the manufactures should be giving you a real copy of windows, drivers, and a separate cd containing the bundled programs.
March 22nd, 2008 at 12:59 pm
“Also the manufactures should be giving you a real copy of windows, drivers, and a separate cd containing the bundled programs.”
They should, but then they loose control!
March 22nd, 2008 at 1:01 pm
If they really cared, they’d load it with proper FREE software such as openoffice.
March 22nd, 2008 at 2:24 pm
Their idea is sell you something. Problem is after the month or two is over, for the life of your pc, whenever you reinstall you got to take the crapware out. Otherwise you are just eating up memory with nothing to show for it but spyware. I’ve found more often than not, either building your own pc or having it custom build gives you a far better pc. You don’t really save a lot of money doing this but you get far better components as well as better life on the unit.
OEMs are notorious for putting in cheapy componets and charging you for the best stuff. They are also well known to cut corners. Neither of these are for your benefit but you are charged as if you got the best of the best.
I’ve about had it with the OEM computer. Between the spyware, the trash components, and let us sell you something, you don’t even get the OS anymore for install as a restore disc. Their masterplan idea is that you will return your pc for hd reimaging and of course if it is out of warranty, you will pay for that service as well. I got some news for them. When the OS restore side gets hacked, once it is out of warranty they can kiss my rosy. Pirated at that point will work just fine. With an OEM you have already paid for the OS. Trying to hook you out of more bucks to get the install disc isn’t going to work for this one, no matter how greedy they are. All they have done is ensure customer dissatisfaction, inability to cure the computer by reinstall on your own, and turned me to other means for both a computer as well as an OS, ensuring they lose even the sale of the computer. Making buying the disc for restore has made sure I will no longer do business with them. Now that is an idea that whoever thought up should be shot because what they would have made off the restore disc certainly isn’t going to equal what they would have made off computer sales that I refuse to buy for that reason. Corporate mentality doesn’t make a whole lot of sense sometimes and this is one of those glaring ones.
March 22nd, 2008 at 2:29 pm
BOYCOTT ALL SONY PRODUCTS!!!
SONY=WRETCHED KNAVE
March 23rd, 2008 at 3:47 am
Sony ? just say no !
oops is than sanyo
March 23rd, 2008 at 4:46 pm
Of course they did, it became widely known, so it wasn’t something they could sneak in on us, this sorta thing only works if the waters remain unstirred. What these morons (corporate execs all over) haven’t realized yet is that today’s main communication system isn’t the telephone anymore, it’s the internet, it’s youtube, it’s metacafe, it’s p2pnet, it’s the consumerist, and any other resource established with the sole purpose of cutting the crap, so to speak.
March 23rd, 2008 at 9:25 pm
If you ask me, computers, for 90% of the work that 90% of the users are doing, where good enough at or around the Pentium 3 mark. Why does my mother need a duel-core with 2 gigabytes of ram, a monster video card and a 120 gigabyte hard-drive? its not because she sends a *lot* of emails, or because her collection of pirate recipes downloaded from the internet is growing out of hand…its because she likes vista, and there’s nothing i can do to talk her out of it. And because she got a craputer loaded with bullshit software. Garbage software needs more hardware thrown at it, and the more hardware you have to throw at it, the crappier the software can afford to be. Riddle me this: Why is all the software for her new digital camera programmed in FLASH?! Meanwhile, my p3 IBM thinkpad lappy flys along at blinding speed with Ubuntu on it. We don’t need faster chips. we need tighter software.
March 24th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
Andy- “If they really cared….”
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA !!!!!