Some people are easily pleased
Just found Ed Bott's report of the "crapware" free laptop that Sony have given him to review (thanks to John Gruber/Daring Fireball).
I'm glad for Ed that he's so happy, and this is certainly a big improvement over the last time he got down deep with a Sony laptop, but I've got to ask: Doesn't Ed seem absurdly grateful when you consider that what he's basically doing is thanking Sony for deigning to stop being quite so obvious about violating customers?
Don't get me wrong, I'm glad they did it, I'm glad Ed raised awareness of the original problem and this response from Sony, but isn't this really just the absolute minimum you should expect after laying down a fair amount of money for a new computer?
Here's my suggestion:
If your new computer arrives from the supplier so larded down with "crapware" that it can hardly run then my suggestion is that you simply return it as faulty. If it doesn't work correctly as delivered then it is faulty, regardless of whatever spin the supplier tries to put on the situation, and don't let them tell you different. I'd say this goes double for "premium" branded hardware, such as that from... ooooooh... Sony, for example.
Ed wants to thank the likes of Sony for finally stopping hitting us in the face. It's a start so I don't want to disagree too hard, but personally I think consumers need to start hitting back when we're sold rubbish and simply refuse to accept this sort of behaviour in the first place. The only reason suppliers sell you computers in this state is because you allow them to do so.