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Who Installs the Most Crapware?

Posted by timothy on from the phrase-your-answer-in-klingon dept.

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."

22 of 583 comments (clear)

  1. Lenovo by El+Lobo · · Score: 5, Informative
    As a responsable IT person at my university, I buy a lot of different hardware (laptops, stationary, servers)...

    I ALWAYS format the computer before giving it to the final user, but as a rule I can tell you that any "big" name out there installs a lot of crapware, but the winner is: LENOVO.

    The last Dells I've got have:

    1. Adobe reader
    2. Google toolbar
    3. Google Desktop (!!!! ahhhggg the pain)
    4. Adobe Flash player
    5. Lots of Dell crapware like Support center and so on..

    Lenovo: 1. Adobe reader
    2. MS Office 30 days trial (yes, trials ARE crapware in my book)
    3. McAffee antivirus + Firewall + anything (60 days trial)
    4. Google toolbar
    5. Google Desktop
    6. Google Chrome (AHHHHHHH MORE PAIN)
    7. Adobe flash player
    8. Skype (!!!)
    10. Lots and I mean LOOOOTS of Lenovo panels, gadgets and stuff
    HP 1. Adobe reader
    2. Norton antivirus + Firewall + anything (60 days trial)
    4. Google toolbar
    5. Google Desktop
    6. Lots of gadgets and added HP value"

    On the bright side, Dell always gives you a new brand Windows CD and a CD with drivers so the re-installation is easy.

    Lenovo? They give you a Restore CD that installs the system with all the crap from the beginning.

    Oh well... At lest nobody else (that I know) is installing Abble crapware by default. The day some big name intalls iTunes, QuickTime, Safary or other Abble Supercrap, as default, that's the last day I buy such a brand for us.

    --
    It's time to realise that Abble's products are the biggest abomination these days. Just say NO to the dumb iAbble way!!
    1. Re:Lenovo by BumbaCLot · · Score: 5, Informative

      I can speak from experience that some of the Thinkpad software is not crap, but actually improves the operating of the computer.

      Under IBM the battery and power scheme setups were a lot better at maintaining battery life. Some of these hardware manufacturers actually know what their hardware does and the best way to manage it!

    2. Re:Lenovo by jellomizer · · Score: 5, Funny

      Adobe Reader, and Adobe FlashPlayer isn't crap where. It makes sure you can actually do things that for some reason windows doesn't do nativly. Such as Read PDF files and open Flash WebSites. Relatively common things.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    3. Re:Lenovo by Afforess · · Score: 5, Funny

      Please, turn in your geek card on the way out.

      Adobe software = Defective by Design. Just ask anyone who has to use CS3 or CS4 for any length of time.

      --
      If our elected representatives no longer represent us, do we still live in a Democracy?
    4. Re:Lenovo by Sperbels · · Score: 5, Informative

      It's not crapware in the sense that it's extraneous crap you don't need. But it's crapware in the sense that you don't need to have all those EXEs in memory at startup. Windows is perfectly capable of loading the appropriate items into memory as they are needed.

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

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

      --
      On the Oregon Cost born and raised, On the beach is where I spent most of my days
    6. Re:Lenovo by negRo_slim · · Score: 5, Interesting

      So you are saying the GIMP is superior to Photoshop.

      I don't know what he's saying, but I'm saying PSP9 is superior to Photoshop.

      --
      On the Oregon Cost born and raised, On the beach is where I spent most of my days
    7. 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.

    8. Re:Lenovo by buswolley · · Score: 5, Funny
      Well if we are doing that, then let me say,

      You know who installs the most crapware?"

      Teenagers.

      --

      A Good Troll is better than a Bad Human.

    9. Re:Lenovo by AmiMoJo · · Score: 5, Informative

      iTunes for Windows is by far the most bloated bit of software I have ever seen. The shear amount of crap it installs in unbeliveable:

              * iTunes itself
              * Quicktime
              * Apple Mobile Device service
              * Bonjour Service
              * iPod Service
              * iTunesHelper startup task
              * QTTask startup task
              * Firefox plugin
              * iPod Classic drivers
              * iPhone drivers
              * Apple Software Update

      Grand Total: 276MB

      Actually, they removed the DNS Resolver service from iTunes 8 (wtf - Windows can already resolve DNS).

      On top of all that, iTunes itself contains half of MacOS. OSX font rendering and associated fonts, graphic rendering elements etc.

      You also have every supported language installed, and support for every Apple device (iPod Classic, iPod Touch, iPhone, AppleTV), network sharing and streaming... The list goes on.

      I could just about forgive all this if there was an alternative, but if you own an iPhone or an iPod Touch there isn't. Apple decided to encrypt the iTunes database and make it impossible for 3rd party software to work with their hardware.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    10. Re:Lenovo by flahwho · · Score: 5, Funny

      and boobies become poopies!!!

    11. Re:Lenovo by not-my-real-name · · Score: 5, Funny

      On top of all that, iTunes itself contains half of MacOS. OSX font rendering and associated fonts, graphic rendering elements etc.

      So why is everyone so excited about installing Mac OS X on non-Mac computers? Just install iTunes and you're half way there.

      --
      un-ALTERED reproduction and dissimination of this IMPORTANT information is ENCOURAGED
    12. Re:Lenovo by Hognoxious · · Score: 5, Informative

      You need to know which registry entries to delete. Generally crapware doesn't exactly volunteer that information.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  2. Re:no wonder people are switching to Mac by Machtyn · · Score: 5, Informative

    Dell's business computers can be ordered plain vanilla or without the OS loaded, if you wish. I always recommend their business line, whether the person asking is a business or home user.

  3. Good recent experience with Asus by elrous0 · · Score: 5, Informative

    I bought an Asus EEE netbook a few months back and was surprised to see that Skype was basically the only app that was installed by default. It was otherwise a pretty clean install of XP. Considering the experience I've had with other notebooks in recent years, I was pleasantly surprised. Kudos to them.

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  4. Re:2 Simple solutions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

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

    By the way that you pretended to defer to Linux first.

  5. Even better by MrEricSir · · Score: 5, Funny

    You can remove *all* your crapware just by installing Snow Leopard and logging in as guest!

    --
    There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
    1. Re:Even better by DigitalSorceress · · Score: 5, Informative

      Well played sir, well played.

      I'm not a Mac, I'm not a PC... I own both, and I use Linux and Solaris for servers. I see my computers are tools, but I am not.

      As for the crapware, I tend to agree with TFA: My Macbook Pro had little (though, I'm an amateur photographer so I kind of think of iPhoto as a crapware version of LightRoom and PhotoShop). Dells that I've ordered through Small Business division (both for work and personal) have been free of it. Sony Vaios, HP Pavillions have been kind of loaded with it, and my Samsung netbook really wasn't too bad.

      Wow, I've got way too many computers.

      What.. have... I ... said? That's just the crazy talk right there!

      --

      The Digital Sorceress
  6. 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.

    ;-)

    --
    If libertarians are so opposed to effective government, why don't they all move to Somalia?
  7. 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.

    --
    UNIX/Linux Consulting
  8. Re:2 Simple solutions by jgtg32a · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Sounds like you opted for the minimal install version

  9. Re:I'll tell you who by that+IT+girl · · Score: 5, Funny

    But she needs three different Emoticon Buddy programs, software for a dozen spyware-riddled, kitschy games websites, and four different antivirus trials! And dammit, if you delete them off, she's going to put them right back on as soon as you leave, because what good is this computer thingy without dancing smiley faces in emails??

    *cough* Er, sorry. I'm putting the chainsaw down now.

    --
    10 FILL MUG WITH COFFEE
    20 DRINK COFFEE
    30 GOTO 10