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What Software Bundles Should Come With a Laptop?
Posted by gabriel torres in Notebook PC | Jan. 02, 2009 11:00 AM
This is an excellent question that notebook manufacturers are apparently not asking consumers. I don’t know about you, but whenever I buy a new portable the first thing I have to do is to uninstall all the crappy programs that come with it (90% of the programs) and then install the ones I really need.
Most of the manufacturers will install programs that nobody needs just because they are getting some money from some software developer nobody has ever heard about!
How about adding a welcome screen when you first turn on the laptop asking which programs you want to be installed with a brief explanation of each one of them? Thus we would have a “cleaner” computer with only the programs we will really use, saving us disk space and time.
There are some categories that are must-haves: antivirus, office-style suites, photo editor, DVD/Blu-Ray player (so you can watch movies) and a decent DVD/CD burner program (in theory Windows supports CD/DVD burning but let’s face it: it simply doesn’t work).
For antivirus what really annoys me is that instead of adding a good free antivirus like Avast or AVG, most manufacturers add a commercial product that expires after 60 or 90 days… Not to mention my personal annoyance with Symantec products, in particular Norton Antivirus, which are a far cry of what they used to be 12-15 years ago. Some antivirus programs are so annoying that I wonder if they aren’t THE virus themselves.
In a perfect world, I think all laptops should come with a good office suite like Microsoft Office or with a decent competitor like StarOffice. Many people don’t like Microsoft products, but in the case of Office let’s face it: it is the industry’s standard.
A decent photo editor like Photoshop is always nice to have. But since Photoshop is overkill (and expensive, i.e. the laptop would cost more) for the average user, most laptops should come with some sort of photo editor. Even the simplest ones are enough for the regular user, which only wants a photo editor to reduce the size of digital pictures to send to their friends.
And, most importantly: an option to have a different operating system besides Windows Vista. I personally think all manufacturers should give users at least an option to have Windows XP installed. If you buy an entry-level laptop you will cry and yell when running Vista, as it takes lots of memory and machine resources, making your computer slow compared to the same system running XP (even having at least 2 GB RAM does not entirely solve the slowness sensation). You can install XP by yourself, but then this is an added cost (as the cost of Vista was embedded in the price of your computer) and requires you to have the time available to perform this installation. Honestly an option to have a laptop with no operating system installed but with an unbeatable price doesn’t sound bad at all.
And as a final remark, I hate when manufacturers (and this goes for both software and hardware companies) make products obsolete just so they can sell new products. The Vista vs. XP battle is an excellent example. One could have a simpler (and cheaper) computer running XP, but since most companies are not offering XP pre-installed anymore, you have to stick with Vista, which requires a more powerful (and more expensive) system.
How about you? Which programs do you think should come pre-installed on laptops? Any particular program that comes pre-installed that you really hate? Why?
i agree 100% my girlfriend baught a laptop from argos a couple of days ago and i spent an hour removing all the crap it came with
they should come with windows only, and defo none of the stuff that expries...what a waste of time that is lol if i wanted office i would buy it or download it from piratebay, 60 days is pointless.
also why the hell dont you recieve a windows CD since uv purchased a copy of it with your laptop, hence your key. if anything go's wrong the cheeky ******* just want you to spend more money paying a shop to install it or buying it again even though you have a copy installed and payd for...not that this causes a major prob for me because theres plenty of plaes to find a copy online, it annoys me for the people who have no clue :)
Bloatware pre-installed on any computer is extremely frustrating for anyone trying to configure a machine for use. It's even more problematic if the person doing the setup is a computer novice or neophyte. If the computer manufacturers really wanted to service their customers they would forgo this crap and instead install worthwhile "free" programs such as OpenOffice, Avast/AVG, Picasa, etc.
I spend hours "de-crapifying" computers prior to assigning them to my company's staff. We are too small to have a dedicated IT staff and I am the "unofficial" IT guy. It is truly amazing how many computer users are ignorant regarding the basic "care and feeding" of their computer. I think the manufacturers are totally out of touch with this reality. I'd estimate that 75% to 80% of the people in our company don't even know basic Windows conventions and keystrokes like "Ctrl+C", etc. These are people who rely on their computers to perform their required work. So, why not make things easier by eliminating the crap entirely. Supply a CD with a selection of decent "free" programs that can be selectively installed. Include a "quickstart/dummies" guide to the software so users can understand what the various programs are designed to do. Finally, Asus does a decent job in minimizing the crap but could do even better. When in doubt, download PC Decrapifier and run it on a new machine before adding additional software.
To my mind, the most inportant thing is to let the the consumer decide what he needs and what he doesn't. I hate when the manufacturers sell their laptops preinstalled with windows & other loads of crap which makes the price higher. Why should I pay for a product which I do not need? THe best way is to let the cosumer choose if he/she needs an OS, and the other preinstalled sutff. If the consumer does not need this let him/her buy that laptop without that crap for a lesser price.
No bloatware. I hate those useless apps that come with most packages nowadays.
just put Firefox and nothing else
Nothing.
A laptop should ship with no added software preinstalled, other than drivers required to make everything work. If the manufacturer so wishes, they can provide a DVD or folder on the hard drive where the user can choose to install additional software.
I would say that the "must have" applications would be:
FreeOTFE - disk encryption system for security (www.FreeOTFE.org)
Firefox - WWW browser (www.mozilla.org)
WinAmp - mp3 player (www.winamp.com)
VLCPlayer - video player (www. VideoLAN.org)
OpenOffice - Office suite (www.OpenOffice.org)
7Zip - archiver
ClamWin - antivirus
GPG - Email security
I would prefer laptop companies to offer WinXP SP3 as an option and a user friendly Linux distribution as another option.
For Windows, the essential freeware programs that should be preloaded imo are:
1) 7zip
2) VLC player or KMPlayer (cos both can play most media formats by default, excluding real player videos)
3) OpenOffice
4) Acrobat Reader
5) Firefox
6) Thunderbird email client
7) Paint.Net
Browser plugins
1) JRE (Java)
2) Flash
For antivirus & firewall, I would rather install those of my own choice rather than having the manufacturer pre-load them for me.
Hello all,
According to my knowledge it is better to have both Win XP & win vista.Some user prefer to use win xp beacause they daily interact with the same OS.For advanced user they prefer both becuase they some times they need to work on high end softwares which only supports in vista.So it is better that both OS should be installed.Forgive if i am wrong.
Thanks,
I only want the OS installed. I will install the programs I want, that is one reason why I had my last computer custom built. It came with the OS installed and nothing else and that is exactly the way I want it.
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