If OEM’s made the “offers” available but not installed and all in one folder, with the icons on the desktop if thy must. Then we could choose whether to install or not. That way the advertisers get their way, the OEM gets some income, the buyer gets to choose to try if he wants; everyone wins. I do think they would have to agree to have proper uninstalls that remove all that they installed including all registry entries, log files and config files.

Geez, of course it is a savings to the consumer. Do you think that if Sony suddenly gave up the $48 per laptop, they would just eat the loss, do you think shareholders would not demand better returns. If they had to give up the kickbacks from crapware, of course they would make it up by charging the consumer. Don’t be deluded into thinking otherwise.

Huh…If it is “damn near illegal”, who are you says is committing the crime? Microsoft is not forcing Sony to buy Windows, so you must be saying that Sony is the criminal for choosing to install Windows. Sony installs Windows because that is what the market demands. If they could make money selling (and supporting) Pre-installed Linux, they would. As it is not yet practical($$$) for them to pre-load Linux, they will continue to load windows.

Your statement comes off as a silly fanboy remark, and “damned near” really stupid

From a business/marketing perspective, because of the money the “crapware” (proprietary for-profit software makers) pay to be installed by default, it does make sense from Sony’s perspective to charge for a comp without “extra software”. This is NOT sony’s fault, this is the fault of the general populace purchasing product without research, preference or objection to capitalistic and proprietary software.

Look at the fact the more than 40% of current AOL subscribers still do not own a computer, and infact in most cases pay for a service they have never utilized or bothered to understand, and you will find that for the most part people are not computer savvy or even generally intelligent when computers are involved. Nerds (like myself) tend to blow up at marketing like this, but we forget at the same time that sony INVENTED the CD in 1983, for instance, which even in 2008 is technology we use on a day-to-day basis, and I cannot boycott or excommunicate them completely.

The reality is that the market is changing for the better, and sony is slowly realizing that the people opt for faster computers. This type of marketing will not appeal to the savvy, that much is obvious. Clearly the target demographic is the average idiot who knows what the layman knows of computers, and that person may be willing to pay the 50$ that sony would have otherwise gotten through a 3rd party (advertising), as opposed to making the smart choice and just installing an open source alternative as soon as the damn thing hits fresh air. We are currently experiencing sn open-source revolution, and linux, especially ubuntu (because of the sponsorship and marketing) leads the charge in some areas.

If we want to solve this issue, especially quickly, we need to show the layman that there are open-source alternatives. The real problem is that people think that they are stuck with the computer programs that come with the machine, which is what happens with microwaves and cars, for example, but not PCs or even macs. If generally after a purchase, the layman would be able to install whatever software they liked, this would not be an issue.