[Evildave]

anonymousr46j, on 18 May 2012 - 06:06 AM, said:

What wasn't mentioned in the article is how much MORE PCs would cost if there wasn't bloatware on them. The manufacturer gets paid to put the junk on there by 3rd parties and that usually helps bring the price down.

What the article ALSO didn't mention is that besides the "signature upgrade" is the "Signature" computers you can get from the Microsoft Stores contain no junk. Just pure Windows.

What you don't mention is HOW MUCH MORE the licensed version of that bundleware costs when they have to pass the cost of that 'advertising' (sufficient quantities of cash to reduce the cost of ALL PCs) on to consumers.

[RyanE512]

I agree!

[Evildave]

'Bloatware' used to have a more specific meaning, having to do with 'software bloat', or the tendency for software to keep gobbling up ever more resources as a 'requirement' to run at all. What used to run on a PC that had 64MB of RAM can no longer run on a PC with 2GB of RAM.
http://en.wikipedia..../Software_bloat

Other words, more appropriate and specific: 'bundleware' or 'shovelware' or 'crapware' or 'trialware'.

All that stuff that's 'free' but crippled, nerfed or timed to self destruct.

Sort of like 'Windows Home Starter', or 'Basic'. Since Windoze 8 is sure to have similar 'editions', a lot of PCs will be sold with the ultra-gimped version, and therefore, windoze its self will be the worthless trialware, needing to be 'upgraded' to something actually functional.

http://en.wikipedia....dows_7_editions
http://en.wikipedia....dows_8_editions

Though Adobe actually has a subscription service for their CS6 stuff. At $50/month (annual; $75/month for month-to-month), it's approximately worth it, compared to buying and routinely updating, if you use a large enough subset of the tools. I imagine the stub of this will be installed on a lot of PCs. I mean, the ones that don't suck so bad that the Adobe software can't run at all.
http://www.adobe.com...ativecloud.html
http://www.adobe.com...bscription.html

[LemonSaucy]

OK, perhaps I'm a little geeky, but I go ahead and download the drivers from the manufacturer's website then flatten the harddrive and reinstall from scratch using an vanilla Microsoft Windows DVD: nothing goes on I don't put on.

Funnily enough, the price of a retail copy of Windows is about $99, same as the removal service, yet I get a clean install, not a removal mess.

[DylanBenfield]

my computer doesn't even have the right specs to run windows 8

[DylanBenfield]

my computer doesn't even have the specs to run windows 8

[LiveBrianD]

DylanBenfield, on 25 May 2012 - 05:44 PM, said:

my computer doesn't even have the right specs to run windows 8

What are the specs? Windows 8 is a lot lighter than previous versions, though I suppose you might have driver issues if you have hardware that's old enough that it doesn't have drivers for Vista or newer.

[waldojim]

LiveBrianD, on 25 May 2012 - 09:18 PM, said:

DylanBenfield, on 25 May 2012 - 05:44 PM, said:

my computer doesn't even have the right specs to run windows 8

What are the specs? Windows 8 is a lot lighter than previous versions, though I suppose you might have driver issues if you have hardware that's old enough that it doesn't have drivers for Vista or newer.

Most of my older hardware "just worked" except for video cards. I did have to find Vista drivers for my 5700LE

[W8Mac]

I guess it takes a Mac user to inform a PC site that rather than buy a computer full of bloatware and take it to a store to get it de-bloated, you can simply goto Microsofts signature site and buy a PC directly from MS that is 100% bloatware Free.
Advanced users will of course just wipe the drive and install an oem 99$ W8 copy and have a fast PC.
For users not comfortable with that should just google MS Sig site and order from there. Skip Bad Buy and all the bloatware stores.

[LiveBrianD]

waldojim, on 25 May 2012 - 09:20 PM, said:

Most of my older hardware "just worked" except for video cards. I did have to find Vista drivers for my 5700LE

When I ran Vista 32-bit on my P4 machine (Pentium 4 2.8GHz HT Northwood, Geforce 6200, Intel D875PBZ motherboard, 2GB DDR 400MHz), the networking (intel gigabit ethernet) was constantly having issues, refusing to work, etc. I had to replace it with a PCI card to get things to work properly. I had to manually load the audio driver to get any functionality btw. (Creative Sound Blaster Live) The video card worked just fine with the drivers though. Also, my Canon Imageclass D680 printer didn't work all that well (it worked, but the stupid driver utility forced Windows into the secure desktop).

[waldojim]

LiveBrianD, on 06 June 2012 - 05:23 PM, said:

waldojim, on 25 May 2012 - 09:20 PM, said:

Most of my older hardware "just worked" except for video cards. I did have to find Vista drivers for my 5700LE

When I ran Vista 32-bit on my P4 machine (Pentium 4 2.8GHz HT Northwood, Geforce 6200, Intel D875PBZ motherboard, 2GB DDR 400MHz), the networking (intel gigabit ethernet) was constantly having issues, refusing to work, etc. I had to replace it with a PCI card to get things to work properly. I had to manually load the audio driver to get any functionality btw. (Creative Sound Blaster Live) The video card worked just fine with the drivers though. Also, my Canon Imageclass D680 printer didn't work all that well (it worked, but the stupid driver utility forced Windows into the secure desktop).

I have no problems with network cards working (of course, I used only Nforce boards in those days, and have excellent driver support), and Creative caught a LOT of flack for refusing to support the Live cards in Vista. That changed quickly - now Vista/7 automatically download working drivers.

[LiveBrianD]

Fyi, that was in (I think) 2008 or 2009. (I recall that while I had Vista, SP2 came out, but at that point I was about to downgrade to XP anyway.)

[opiniator]

Bloatware is the number one reason to purchase installation media with a new computer, and to make a clean re-install job number one after the purchase.

[opiniator]

When it comes to a desktop computer, the only way to go anyway, is to purchase premium parts, assemble everything from scratch, and then install the OS from a clean installation DVD.