03/21/2008, 9:25am, EDT
Friday, March 21stSony charging extra to remove PC trial apps
Sony has begun offering Fresh Start, a controversial practice to clean its systems of unnecessary software. Initially available only with the VAIO TZ ultraportable, the option removes both VAIO-specific programs as well as games and other trial software. The practice is meant to "free up valuable hard drive space and conserve memory and processing power" before the system ever leaves the factory, according to Sony.
However, the offer has already received criticism for its $50 cost, which lifts the price of the system despite restoring the performance that would be present with a default installation of Windows. The practice has often led to unusually long boot times and slower systems and, in 2007, saw Wall Street Journal columnist Walt Mossberg referring to preloaded trial applications as "craplets" for their tendency to ruin a user's experience.
Sony has historically responded by noting that the inclusion of trial software helps subsidize the cost of the system, which would normally climb upwards with a clean system. The PC builder has also claimed that roughly one third of its buyers use at least some of the bundled trial software. However, rivals such as Dell have in recent months offered higher-end systems without such software by default, instead rolling any costs for a clean install into the normal system price.
Apple as well as a handful of other PC vendors have touted clean systems as a performance and feature advantage over more common challengers.
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Did you buy it from Apple directly, or a third party reseller? My Macs have never come with all those things (except iLife, of course - are you complaining about getting that for free?).
Even so, the programs you mentioned wouldn't lead to "unusually long boot times and slower systems" on a Mac, and they can easily be gotten rid of, more easily then Windows.
My clients have the worst time with the anti-virus software. They install the AVG software over the 30 day trial of whatever, and the DLLs get all screwed up when they try to uninstall the first one. Many end up not being able to boot, some just can't get online anymore. It is a real challenge to get them back on.
The MBP software is also listed on the tech sheet, doesn't come on unless you ask it too, and is easy to uninstall if you don't want it.
Apples and oranges. The demoware that is the bane of Windows users is, in fact, advertisements that the developers paid your OEM to include on the machine. And, yes, it is annoying because it kills performance. The demo titles included with your Mac, Microsoft Office Test Drive and Apple's iWork are demos, but have no effect on performance. GraphicConverter, OmniGraffle, and Quickbooks PE are not demos. They are fully-functional respected software titles with licenses paid by Apple. Certainly in the case of GraphicConverter and OmniGraffle, these titles can be updated free of charge for up to years in the future.
The Mac have issues, but demoware is not one of them. Try again.
Finally, most included software is not software that other companies are paying Apple to install, but software that Apple is paying others to install.