Trial software trying PC users' patience

Thanks! That was a good read - especially all the comments.
The bloat in a new retail PC is beyond ridiculous.
Thanks again!

 

I've always been able to avoid these retail pc's, i just go to a guy who's building computers for small and midsized company's, that way i can get the machine build according to my wishes and without the mentioned 'crapware'.

Is this possible in the USA, or are there trade-limitations for normal costumers trying to buy outside retail?

regards

 

The practice (in our country) is that most people want a "ready out of the box" computer. So they get automatically xx-days versions of several programs. That generates another big problem: they only buy (or crack) anti-malware programs after their machines are infected...

Gerard

 

Yes, Gerard i know what you mean, it's the 'plug and play syndrom'.
One of my friends bought one of these 'preinstalled with everything' machines, he got hit by a very nasty trojan just because he knew nothing about that machine in front of him.
They had told him in the store that he just had to plug the thing into the wallsocket and push the start-up button and everything would be oke then.

After that nasty experience he tried a cracked version of a well known antivirus application, he became a bit weary after the previous experience and thought this was the way to go,i told him it was not, protection-software has to be dependable and how can a cracked version be dependable?

They say, in general, that learning to use an other OS is demanding , if you're used to windows, but i think that goes for everything with computers.

regards

 

I believe the latest DELL XPS series can be ordered that way or so I read somewhere.

 

HAs any body managed to order a bare bones laptop.?

Seems so many vendors now have their version of "hidden utility" partition that can interfere with the MBR.
Are these utilities really neccessary?

Have not needed a laptop for some time, but times are changing!
I have always had good experience with Toshiba in thepast but never tried fiddling with their set-up or using apps that want control of the MBR when I had laptop.

see here:https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=132971

Thanks.

As for the story in the original post: why would anyone sign on for AOL?
That is meant to be a good option

 

You bet! Tom's Hardware published this long introduction to building your own laptop. The Table Of Contents on the page I'll give you shows how comprehensive the article is. It's a snap, btw. If you can build a desktop, you can build a notebook. There are more and more vendors for barebones notebooks. Here's the Tom's Hardware article (long):
http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/05/04/building_your_dream_notebook/index.html

CPU MAGAZINE also has a decent intro:
http://www.computerpoweruser.com/ed...rticles/archive/c0509/31c09a/31c09a.asp&guid=

Also, the April 2006 cover story of Maximum PC is about building your own laptop. The article is not online, but it's very good.

It's not cheap to go this route, but in the long run this is the only way to go. You can also look into the latest thing of "barebones" laptops from Dell and some other of the big retailers. One nice thing, you CAN get those without a hard drive and YOU provide the OS.

Here's how I did it. ABS provides some great barebones laptops:
http://www.abs.com/diy/diy_index.asp?CMP=KAC-keywords&ATT=laptop barebones

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