Sony Charging $50 to Not Annoy You
It never fails. You finally take delivery of your shiny new Sony / Dell / HP / other laptop and you’re all smiles. You boot it, you rock it, you love it. Then something happens, however. Something starts to wipe that giddy smile right off your face. You realize that you have have to spend the next hour of your life removing all of the annoying crapware, trials and games from your hard drive before you can really enjoy it. Tired of it? Sony is now providing a new option that they call "Fresh Start". We call it "You’ve Got to be &%^*$#% Kidding Me". Long story short, you pay an extra $50 for your laptop and Sony will be kind enough to not install all of that garbage on it. Apparently margins are tight these days and Sony needs the extra dough they get for sullying your experience. How does Sony attempt to spin the new option in such a way that makes them look less slimy? "Free up valuable hard drive space and conserve memory and processing power while maximizing overall system performance right from the start." Wow, what a bunch of sweethearts. Currently the crap-free option is only available on the VAIO TZ2000 but expect Sony to de-crap other models soon as well.
On Mar 21, 2008 @ 10:31 am, TxdoHawk Said:
Personally, I’d take the $50 and keep it for myself. In the day and age of SATA, OS reinstalls don’t take too long. Sony’s computer lines aren’t exactly value-priced though, so I’m not quite in their target demographic.
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On Mar 21, 2008 @ 11:06 am, Nate Said:
I feel like I’m in some dream where The Boy Genius Report has become Engadget.
Freaky.
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On Mar 21, 2008 @ 11:07 am, mingkee Said:
DIY computer FTW
you even can clean install your new computer with software of your choice
this not ONLY can free up your RAM and storage, you also can get rid of some annoyance
I spend about 3 hours to wipe everything out, and install everything myself with included XP or Vista (this method even you can install good ‘ol XP if you’d spend $140 to get XP OEM, you can buy a hard drive associate with OS!
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On Mar 21, 2008 @ 11:51 am, Galvatron Said:
@nate unfortunatly yournt dereaming bgr becamame an engaget flunkie along time ago
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On Mar 21, 2008 @ 11:56 am, Nate Said:
Way to miss the point Glav.
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On Mar 21, 2008 @ 12:22 pm, Andrew Said:
I read about this on Team Stealth a week ago…. http://teamstealthonline.com/blog/archives/107
(actually submitted it as a tip a week ago too, oh well). The worse thing is that if you don’t take the option, they still charge you $20 for the VAIO apps that are included.
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On Mar 21, 2008 @ 1:29 pm, Michael Said:
Dell Vostro series doesn’t come with the crap-ware as standard I believe.
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On Mar 21, 2008 @ 3:22 pm, isis Said:
Yep that’s why I traded that sony for a macbook…problem solved. Now I run both OS and I have 0 issues…I spent 5 hours trying to fix all the issues because I deleted stuff I should have kept…Iwas on a spree…
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On Mar 21, 2008 @ 3:24 pm, Tyrone D. Said:
wow…i’m glad i didn’t buy a Sony this week. i have a Dell XPS M1530 that i got from the previous owner that didn’t come with crapware and i already need an upgrade (processor, video card and screen resolution suck on this one)…i guess another Dell XPS it is considering i get some kick-ass prices with Dell
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On Mar 21, 2008 @ 3:43 pm, jeremy Said:
see… with this and the recent price raise on blu-ray, aren’t the sony fanboys(mildlyretardedcracksmokingmonkeys) loving themselves now.
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