Just wanted to say that I ordered the XPS1210 notebook from Dell a few days ago. I configured it online to get an idea of what I was looking at, and then I called to see if I could have the bloatware/craplets removed. I was specifically concerned about the 6-month subscription to AOL/Compuserve/Netzero, the included trials to some Corel imaging software (why? this is what GIMP is for:P ) as well as the included 15-months of McAfee Antivirus - I already pay a technology fee to my University for Trend MicroScan which is REQUIRED to be installed to access the network on campus, so why on earth would I want to pay for a subscription to McAfee?
Anyway, I asked rather nicely and the guy put me on hold for about 10 minutes while he spoke with his supervisor, and he came back on and said that they would remove all of the additional programs EXCEPT for the basic Microsoft Works bundle - and knock about $70 off the price! He said that the amount is basically what McAfee costs, since all of the other programs are free or trials anyway.
I didn't want Works either (OpenOffice!) but I figured that I should take what I could get.
All in all, it was a pleasant experience. Next time I will try ordering sans Windows. Unlike many of you, I've had very very few problems with XP, plus it's required for classes... though that certainly won't keep me from having a Linux partition anyway.:)
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Just wanted to say that I ordered the XPS1210 notebook from Dell a few days ago. I configured it online to get an idea of what I was looking at, and then I called to see if I could have the bloatware/craplets removed. I was specifically concerned about the 6-month subscription to AOL/Compuserve/Netzero, the included trials to some Corel imaging software (why? this is what GIMP is for :P ) as well as the included 15-months of McAfee Antivirus - I already pay a technology fee to my University for Trend MicroScan which is REQUIRED to be installed to access the network on campus, so why on earth would I want to pay for a subscription to McAfee?
Anyway, I asked rather nicely and the guy put me on hold for about 10 minutes while he spoke with his supervisor, and he came back on and said that they would remove all of the additional programs EXCEPT for the basic Microsoft Works bundle - and knock about $70 off the price! He said that the amount is basically what McAfee costs, since all of the other programs are free or trials anyway.
I didn't want Works either (OpenOffice!) but I figured that I should take what I could get.
All in all, it was a pleasant experience. Next time I will try ordering sans Windows. Unlike many of you, I've had very very few problems with XP, plus it's required for classes... though that certainly won't keep me from having a Linux partition anyway. :)