Is This The End For Crapware? - Comments Page 2

When considering a desktop or mobile computer, crapware should be part of that decision, so have a look at the huge differences between home/mass-market computers and those for business and institutional use.

The home and mass market models are easily found in stores, brick and web; it’s the good stuff - OptiPlexes and Precisions, ThinkCentre M's and ThinkPad T's, HP/Compaq Elite and Advanced, Acer Veritons, et al - that flies mostly below the radar.

Better designs, better parts, more stable platforms, more durable in every way, often with 3 year warranties with 2nd business day onsite service, and rarely is there any crapware, except perhaps for proprietary utilities that need to reined in or turned off.

The reason is simple. If a company loses individual home/mass-market customers, that's a problem; but unless a mass of customers goes public, or launches a class action suit, the company can usually ride it out. Consider Dell and the leaking capacitors on old Dimensions, or Apple’s ongoing MacBook Pro scandal.

But if a company sells problems to a college, university, think tank, research center, hospital, corporation, city, state, branch of the federal government, or a branch of the military, it can be a catastrophe.

During the XP to 7 transition prompted by the end of support for XP, my three biggest institutional clients collectively purchased over 30,000 PCs, mostly Dell OptiPlexes and Precisions and Lenovo ThinkCentre M’s.

Imagine losing those clients, or what it would cost to repair the relationship, or even worse, if word got around and it became a sector trend and a company lost a big piece of that entire market.

Given that the prices are usually close, often identical, and sometimes even less than home and mass market computers, why not have a look at the good stuff?

When you look at the histories of those product lines, it’s clear that those 3 year warranties with 2nd business day onsite service are what some institutional techs call “werewolf insurance”: i.e., of course they’ll give that sort of warranty, support, and service, because the odds are that you’ll never use it.

For Ari, who asked about the national origin of Superfish...

It came from an Israeli company in America that bought malware from a company in Israel. But it bears mention that in both America and Israel, you can get away with having a business that sells a product or service that would get you a bankrupting fine and/or a federal prison term in France, Germany, the Czech Republic, and elsewhere.

One need only consider the national differences in laws regarding privacy, the legal definitions of various forms of malware (especially spyware), and your right to control what's on your computer, how it gets there, product disclosure, etc.

Does this program work on tablets and smartphones? Would love to get rid of the bloatware on those devices.

EDITOR'S NOTE: No, only on PCs.