Bloatware Should Be Treated As A Virus

Has anyone out there recently purchased a new computer? If you haven’t purchased a new system yet you are missing out on the whole bloatware ordeal - trust me, it’s a good thing! Bloatware is described as the software that the major manufacturers cram onto your brand new computer. Bloatware hogs crucial system resources that could be used for other applications that you install, or even the actual operating system for that matter. I refer to bloatware as “junkware”, as I believe that this additional software is truly useless and interferes with the consumer’s choice as to what they want installed on their computer. The unfortunate part of this whole thing is that some consumers (the less computer savvy ones) are clueless as to the harm this bloatware creates. The below scenario gives you an example of what I am talking about:

You are shopping for a computer – let’s say a Laptop. You look at all the ones on display in your local store and try one out. It has the latest features and as you fiddle with it notice that it is quite fast and sports the newest version of Windows Vista. You also take notice of the loads of software installed on the computer; however it doesn’t seem to affect the performance of it. You decide to purchase this Laptop and take it home. You are using it and over the course of two weeks start loading your favorite applications on your new laptop. After loading your new applications you start to notice that your new Laptop is slower than what it used to be (at least, what you remember it to be). In fact, it is so slow that your browser takes a while to load and your programs also take their own sweet time to load (enough time to get up and get a cup of coffee). When you attempt to switch between applications in your window you sit and wait, “for what seems like forever”, for the hourglass to go away. Your browser won’t let you close it – the windows states “not responding” – until your computer catches up with the tasks and finally closes the browser window. Everything seems like it is in slow motion. These are just a few of the problems that arise as your resources are so consumed that you might as well be working with a old 486 computer.

Well, as you can see I am quite disgusted with all this bloatware that the manufacturers are putting on these systems. You could take a considerably loaded up system with a fairly good amount of ram and cpu speed, etc. and once you load more applications in addition to the bloatware you’re screwed. Some computer manufacturers are now selling “clean” systems so a consumer doesn’t have to deal with the bloatware. Dell sells such systems. Sony is now offering “clean” systems with no bloatware for a charge of around 50 bucks. Either way, I would suggest reinstalling Windows and uninstalling this useless software before loading your own stuff.

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March 22, 2008 | Filed Under Laptops, Software