Feeling heat from Macs, Microsoft sells PCs sans crapware With Apple Macs in its sights, Microsoft has been quietly reselling PCs that offer customized, slimmed-down installations of Windows designed to run faster and to be easier to set up and maintain. The software company has been selling computers preloaded with the custom Windows image since at least October 2009 under the a …
I have only ever built PC's and installed vanilla copies of Windows (whatever version) and so I am used to running these "super fast" Windows boxes...
Didn't stop me replacing PC's with Mac's though!
It is impossible to remove the crapware from Windows and have it install and run, it's built in... out of the box!
"more storage space for important things like that two-hour video that your buddies made of you trying to reach the top of the climbing wall."
I checked, and yes that's a genuine quote from the site.
Where do these people get the idea that mocking your potential customer is a good business plan?
Microsoft feeling heat from MAC's? really? are you sure? aren't M$ fanbois (like me), not extremely anti-anything apple?
does a MAC provide an alternative to windows, if you're a gamer? has anything changed between MS and apple over the past 15 years?
either i'm completely missing the point, or this article is just plain stupid.
Seriously, I think some gamers are living in the cloud. PC gaming is a niche*, and the Mac has been pushing steadfastly into that niche in recent years. With Steam's release on Mac last year that situation took an huge step forward (even if not all the games came with it).
As for the last 15 years; Apple was pretty much on it's knees 15 years ago yet today it dominates many of the markets MS has been targeting for what seems like forever; mobiles, music, tablets, mobile computing. And it's doing it with pricey hardware that should by all means make entry to market more difficult for them.
* I'm a a PC gamer and I recognise that the field we're playing on is changing (Been into GAME recently?). But I also recognise that my niche is being threatened by consoles far more than Macs. Ironically, MS's own console...
Who'd a thunk it!
Place foot at end of shotgun and PULL!
MS has been slowly attempting to kill off the PC for years sometimes I think even they are sick of windoze... they are totally obsessed not with inovation, but with doing what other people do.. just look at bing, google already does it, MS are the catchup new-comers they lost the lead when they decided that inovation was not for them.
As I always build my own computers this is not a problem for me. However lots of friends and family also ask me to build computers for them, which typically I refuse unless they want something out of the ordinary. So they end up with a Dell or HP or whatever. I then either strip out all the crap or do a fresh install of of whatever flavour OS they want, these days typically W7.
I have always thought that the various OEM's should offer this as an option when ordering, just a simple tickbox - 'No freeware, No Trial Software' on the order page.
Hope this catches on! It will save me the trouble..........................
> a suite of useful Microsoft applications and services, optimized versions of certain applications
...surely these should be optimised by default anyway? And if they consider 'Live' to be a suite of useful apps, then I'll have some of what they're smoking.
>all of the appropriate drivers for the hardware type in question
Dunno about you, but I ignore all of these, and go straight for the latest versions direct from the manufacturers directly after the main install. It would be much cooler if MS would provide enough drivers to get basic internet connectivity during the build (perhaps by running as a virtual drive, ala UBUNTU, and installing a proper image in the background), so all the latest drivers for everything else (and security patches maybe?) can be downloaded during the build process. That would definitely cut down on 'driver bloat' (mainly on the install media it has to be said), and give you the best drivers available.
We have made it so that you must install all this crapware to compete selling our product. Now in our usual knife in the back of our partners, we are going to use that against you and sell our 'better' machines and you lot are so deep into your marketing and promotion contracts there is nothing you can do about it.... mwah ha ha!
This would be why all the 'small' PC OEMs (including myself) use the OEM Windows disk, latest version of the drivers, then the specific list of customer-specified software - and don't install anything else AT ALL.
And why I wanted to throttle the idiot in Marketing who bought a stack of Acer laptops.
Not only were they unsuitable for the intended usage, but they were absolutely *full* of crapware that we had to spend several hours removing before they'd even start the application they'd been bought for.
“Also, less trialware and sampleware means more storage space for important things like that two-hour video that your buddies made of you trying to reach the top of the climbing wall.”
Insulting the customer again, I see. Jerks.
Any price differential? I would not expect a deviation from the trusted
"more usability by removing crud == it will cost ya"
And will you get an install DVD? I doubt it.
> Surely the first thing to get rid of if you want
> a fast machine is the *animated wallpaper*.
Pretty much.
When I got another ION to replace my nv9400 Mini that appears to be on
death's door, I had to turn off all of the desktop effects in Win7 before XBMC
would start with anything but a "blank screen of death". It was one of those
"bare" machines. So I was already using an OEM version of Win7 to begin
with.
Credit to MS (at least a bit) for doing something sensible for their customers. Only a bit, though : if they were to publish a full set of instructions, covering what they've done to slick the OS up, then I'd give them a bit more.
Oh, and "take the corporate cock from their mouth" (AC - 00:57) - very good.
"Signature PCs, which are available only to people in the US..."
Well thank you Microsoft. The rest of the world has to just deal with crapware infested machines.
I'll just have to 'make do' with Ubuntu / OS X and pirated versions of Win7 until they can be bothered to step across the pond.
So, Microsoft are selling PCs now are they? That will please the OEMs.
The OEMs now need to start offering Linux across ALL their line and ignore Microsofts threats of upping their Windows price because now Microsoft are a competitor to them. If Microsoft threaten to up the price the OEMs can just regard it as anti-competitive and complain to the authorities!
Microsoft has just painted themselves into a corner!
Heaven forbid you should follow any of the links to actually do your own research, as opposed to expecting all the detail to be spoon fed to you.
Okay, here comes the airplare zooooom...
MS are offering laptops from Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Samsung, Sony & Toshiba... happy now, or do you need your diaper changed from all that spoon feeding?
> Heaven forbid you should follow any of the
> links to actually do your own research, as
> opposed to expecting all the detail to be
> spoon fed to you.
Of course that's what we expect.
Journalism: Perhaps you've heard of it. This is exactly what it is for... what you call "spoon feeding".
Journalism, yes I heard of that. That is generally where a view-point is given and relevant facts are laid out in a concise and well written manner to back up that view.
If it's good journalism then sources are cited to enable readers to continue reading about various aspects that can't be included in detail in the original article; like listing what manufacturers are being sold from the Microsoft store in an article about Microsoft operating systems without crapware.
Now please, don't become a journalist.
Half of all pre installed bloat never gets used and is not wanted. I suspect this will still be the case with a narrow selection of apps... afterall people uses pcs for different purposes..
What MS should have done was just include a shortcut (only a shortcut!) to a webpage where the user can 'click to download' the packages they want.. amazing concept isn't it...
if only microsoft would have sorted out web search a long time ago then they might have found cnet.
In an article about microsoft releasing 'Signature' you question if it's microsofts choice?
Well done! that takes todays biscuit.
Put it this way if microsoft said NO it would not happen. If the oem recieves income from a third party that is sanctioned by microsoft then as far as i am concerned MS put it thier and are using the income from the third party to the OEM as an inducement for the OEM to put MS on the box...
It's part of the 'use microsoft' incentive, the OEM gets paid by the Crapware provider, so the OEM is likely to use MS over A.N. other.
Microsoft sanction and support the deals, and do not pay the OEM at all, cos that's just wrong. (see intel)
Something I can certainly agree on, though I doubt there'd be much difference?
All I know is it is like breathing fresh country air once usplash disappears and I log into a nice clean Ubuntu environment; ready for me to clunk up with proper productivity applications :)
Wow! Did the entire Apple marketing department just login at once? MS release a more slimmed down install of Windows, tweaked to boot fast and lacking all the McAffee and other crap that vendors cram in for a few extra pennies, and we get a wall of bile and hatred.
Bias much?
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