Sony nukes notebook crapware

It’s the bane of PC buyers everywhere. What should be a shiny new system, ready for your touch and your touch alone, has been despoiled by a pack of programs you didn’t ask for and probably don’t want. As assortment of trialware and cut-down SE or Lite editions. Security software, digital photo tools, multimedia players, CD/DVD authoring, ISP sign-up clients, even personal finance programs, all pre-installed on the hard drive.

Sony is one of the few manufacturers to address the issue, last week adding a ‘Fresh Start’ option to the online order system on its US Web site. 

The deal is currently restricted to the configure-to-order TZ family of slim subnotebooks. Tick the box and your VAIO comes pretty much as fresh as the driven snow.

The company initially planned to charge US$50 for the privilege of a pristine PC, but quickly backed down after a wave of online outrage. But rather than forego the pocket money that software companies pay for having their wares pre-loaded, Sony now makes the “free” Fresh Start option dependent on choosing Vista Business Edition as your OS, an upgrade option from the default Visa Home Premium that costs US$100.

Sony would argue for a degree of logic in that, because business users would have even less use for the consumer-oriented crapware than Joe Average. Then again, businesses also tend to have their own SOE (standard operating environment) image to bulk-load onto all systems, and few businesses are running Vista in the first place. So by shifting customers to a more expensive Vista Business license, which few businesses and no consumer would want in the first place, Sony makes a buck (one hundred of them, in fact) even without the bloatware.

Dell, often accused of being a leader in the crapware stakes, not only dropped such software from its Vostro range of small business systems but made it a selling point. “No unwanted trialware” boasts the Web site and brochures: “fitted only with the software you want”.

Microsoft itself has not only voiced concern about the preponderance of these pre-loaded applications (and the manufacturers increasing reliance upon them as retail margins contract), it has an internal name for them: ‘craplets’.

In an interview shortly before the launch of Vista and speaking under the condition of anonymity, an un-named Microsoft executive told Canada’s CBC News “we call them craplets.” The exec revealed serious concerns within Microsoft that these programs, many of which would not be certified to run under Vista, could hurt the consumer launch of the OS. 

“They could work fine, or they could cause huge problems. The problem is that we just don't know. And if someone buys a Vista PC and has a problem, they're going to blame Windows.”

While testing machines at APC we’re noticed many pre-loaded but uncertified programs on a new Vista PC which launch straight into one of Vista’s warning screens: it’s certainly not the best introduction to your straight-out-of-the-box system. Ironically, several of these misbehaving apps were Sony’s own programs running on VAIO machines.

While an obvious solution might be to ban OEMs from pre-loading software that wasn’t certified, he said that the the litany of anti-trust charges meant the company “can't do anything about it because it would be illegal”.