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Who Installs the Most Crapware?

Barence writes "PC Pro has done a thorough test of the software bundled by nine of the leading laptop manufacturers to find out who installs the most crapware on their PCs. Manufacturers such as Acer add as much as two minutes to their boot times by stuffing their machines full of bundled software, with own-brand proprietary software being the worst offender. HP's bundled apps, meanwhile, have a memory footprint of more than 1GB. PC Pro has also reviewed three pieces of software which promise to remove rubbish from your PC — with mixed results."

24 of 583 comments (clear)

  1. no wonder people are switching to Mac by postmortem · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Personally, I build my own and install vanilla Windows, but sh** has hit the fan long time ago.

    This plus anti virus software resource hogs makes windows experience horrible on a brand new computer.

    Not a single manufacturer offers option "windows and drivers only".

    In other words, you need 4 core CPU and 2GB of RAM to open internet explorer.

  2. Re:2 Simple solutions by megamerican · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why yes, I am an apple fanboy. How did you guess?

    You're a self-described bum.

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  3. Re:Lenovo by Gerafix · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Probably because he spelled "responsible" wrong.

    Oh who am I kidding, it's because he flamed iApple iSoftware or whatever and the mods are furious.

  4. Re:2 Simple solutions by oldspewey · · Score: 5, Insightful

    1. Install Linux and never worry about crapware again.

    I dunno ... I installed Linux and ended up with two desktop environments, three word processors, four web browsers, and a whole bunch of image editors, system utilities, file managers, and other stuff.

    ;-)

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  5. Re:PC Decrapifier by Ceiynt · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It speaks volumes about the OEM Vendor that people need to download something deCRAPifier, which is quite popular, to make the computer not suck out of the box.

  6. installed versus auto-start by Neil+Watson · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's not the installation that bothers me but the assumption by software vendors that their software is so important that it should auto-start.

  7. Re:Lenovo by sukotto · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why the hate for Chrome?

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  8. Define "Crapware." by Crash+Culligan · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It can be said that Apples are among the smoothest running out of the box, but does that really mean there's no crap? This line of reasoning begs the definition of "crapware," and the #1 response would be "stuff you don't need on your computer." It doesn't have to slow it down, it doesn't have to have an enormous memory footprint when it's running or a huge disk footprint when it isn't, it just has to be stuff you don't need. And depending who you are, that can be quite a lot.

    Have you ever used iWeb? iDVD? Some would consider the whole iLife to be crapware because they plan to get higher-end, more professional applications through which to vent their creativity. And if they're thinking about office use, they're likely to go the route of Microsoft Office / OpenOffice, so bang goes Pages, Numbers, and Keynote. Do you ever plan to serve web pages up from your laptop? (Well, I do, but then again, look where I'm posting.) You probably don't need that install of Apache or PHP. Not planning on doing any software development? Yes, XCode is an optional install and not part of the standard kit, but you've still got perl, ruby, python, pico, vi, emacs, and more shells, libraries, and frameworks than you'll ever need nestled down in /usr/local. Have a digital music library already? Then you might also have a preferred player, and probably won't want iTunes to re-rip it into that silly AAC format. A lot of people despise Quicktime on general principle. And a lot of people still eschew Safari for Firefox despite its HTML5 support.

    It all depends on your definition of "crapware." It's all assembled and designed by the mother company, so it's integrated so perfectly that you're never bothered by it if you never use it, but if you dig, you'll find something that'll fit the description.

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  9. Re:2 Simple solutions by jellomizer · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You fail to understand how cheap some businesses are.

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    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
  10. Re:Apple crapware? by John+Hasler · · Score: 4, Insightful

    > And how exactly does iWork fail to compete with Microsoft Works?

    By not being bug-for-bug identical (and if it was it would be dismissed as "a mere clone"). To these people to "compete" is do exactly the same thing in the same way. They'd claim Ford and Chevrolet don't compete because their cars have gas caps on opposite sides.

    And the fact that there is a vast amount of software available for Linux and the Mac that is not available for Windows is irrelevant to them because they can't imagine anyone ever wanting to run any software not available for Windows.

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  11. Re:Link to the latest crapware cleaner by jim_v2000 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Ubuntu comes with all kinds of shit that you don't want, but there's no other shit available, so you just use it.

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  12. Re:Lenovo by spinkham · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Or anyone in the security community. MS used to be the industries' vulnerable software whipping boy, but they've cleaned that up to a large degree and outsourced the job to Adobe...

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    Blessed are the pessimists, for they have made backups.
  13. I'll tell you who by snarfies · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Who installs the most crapware?

    My mother does.

  14. Re:Lenovo by negRo_slim · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No, I'd say iTunes/Quicktime and Acrobat are, in fact, crap.

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  15. Re:2 Simple solutions by jgtg32a · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Sounds like you opted for the minimal install version

  16. Try to remember by symbolset · · Score: 3, Insightful

    A bare Windows install isn't like Ubuntu or a Mac. It comes with only one browser, no way to play DVD's, no audio editor, no productivity applications. It doesn't even have an antivirus that we need Windows users to have from the start so as to delay their inevitable pwndom. It doesn't have shared repositories with thousands of free applications for every need. The poor users need some help bootstrapping from that to a useful platform, and the OEMs are driven to serve that need.

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  17. Re:Lenovo by RobDude · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The reason is mostly because the law says they can't.

    Trust me, Microsoft wants nothing more than to bundle it's own version of just about every application you can think of. But, the legal system says they can't. They were declared a monopoly and part of that has limited their ability to include things you want into the OS.

    I'm not 'Pro MS' or 'Pro Linux' or anything, I just don't care. But I do think that it's funny that, essentially, the same people who used to complain that Microsoft is an evil monopoly and is destroying small companies by bundling their own XYZ into the operating system are now the same people who still say MS is an evil monopoly but advocate Linux because it includes far more stuff you'll need than Windows.

    But yeah, it's really not that MS doesn't want it - it's that it's hands are tied. At least, that's been my understanding of it.

  18. Re:Lenovo by Coren22 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It is possible he is a native Arabic speaker. In Arabic, the b and p are the same thing, in many of these countries, you buy a bebsi instead of a Pepsi.

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  19. Re:Lenovo by morgauxo · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Umm, if it were pre-installed (I've never seen that) isn't that exactly what iTunes would be? Unless it's installed by Apple on a Mac. Then it fails the third party test though all the rest is still there.

  20. Re:Anonymous Coward by revengebomber · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Then why is a Dell Mini 9 (or Vostro A90 is the new branding I think) with Windows XP and (presumably) a bunch of crapware $50 MORE than the one with Ubuntu? Wouldn't they be the same price if the crapware flattened out the windows license?

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  21. Re:Lenovo by Runaway1956 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    But, RobDude - several other people have pointed out that there are alternatives to Adobe reader, that are lighter to download, lighter to install, and lighter on system resources, not to mention being faster AND better. Let's suppose that Adobe really is the end-all, be-all, ultimate shitzls for reading a PDF. Why does it autostart at system startup? Joe Sixpack might look at two PDF files a MONTH, but Adobe is loaded on his box at each startup and/or logon. Why? All he wants to do is play a game of Doom, drink his sixpack, and pat the wife on the ass, but he's forced to sit there watching the startup screen for 2/3 of eternity. By definition, crapware. Adobe can get in line, and wait for the user to call it.

    The OEM's need to install fewer of these apps, they need to find the fastes, lightest weight app to do the job, and they need to configure those apps properly. And, DO NOT add things in that EVER "phone home" - even for updates - without the owner's explicit permission.

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    "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
  22. Re:Lenovo by vertinox · · Score: 4, Insightful

    No, I'd say iTunes/Quicktime and Acrobat are, in fact, crap.

    Depends.

    iTunes and Quicktime are crap on Windows as Microsoft Office is crap on OS X.

    Reverse the two and not so bad.

    Of course Acrobat is crap on any OS.

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  23. iTunes for windows by Radical+Moderate · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I don't mind the installs, disk space is cheap, but it wants to start a bunch of crap processes on boot up, and good luck killing them without mucking about in the registry. Slower boot times and a performance hit, thanks a lot, Apple!

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  24. Re:Lenovo by AmiMoJo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I think it's actually a secret plan to make people think Windows is slow. Look how much faster iTunes runs on MacOS!

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