CrunchGear

Funny, a factory OS X install is around 20 gigs… No, thats not bloat. Every mac user speaks 25 dialects of French.

Yep Ilya has a point mac come with about 80 different languages installed and a load of other cr*p that you dont need… and I am pretty sure .mac is a trial… and other software bundled with a mac is trial like some of the apple software cant recall which stuff 20GB factory installed OS X compared to a few GB factory installed Windows… Apple sometimes does make me laugh, I do wonder if they know what macs are like when they make these ads

FUD? Tell that to Walt Mossberg, who just b*tched about bloatware on his new Sony. Although Mossberg was referring specifically to his new Sony he also condemned the play for placement, industry standard inclusion of bloatware.

Over-generalization? Perhaps. Mostly true? Definitely.

Uh, I don’t think the commenters so far OR the post author get it.

Pre-installed bits on the hard drive aren’t what the ad is complaining about, it’s pre-loaded software that actually starts up and runs on your machine, and annoying and hard to remove icons that are littered around your menus. Mac OS X doesn’t do any of that. A trial copy of Microsoft Office hiding in your Applications folder on a Mac isn’t the same as crapware.

I don’t see how this is FUD at all, it’s common knowledge that many people have blogged and written about. Show me one big name PC maker that doesn’t pre-load their system with crap. If you can’t, retract the FUD tag.

Lame spin on this article, Crunchgear should employ better journalists.

I’ve bought lots of Macs and PCs over the years. I’ve yet to get a retail PC that was not loaded with all kinds of stupid crap. This is one time when the “I’m a Mac” ads are dead-on right.

I’m with John on this one. I’ve never once purchased an OEM PC that wasn’t chock full of utter crapware. The last two Dell laptops I purchased were immediately wiped and reloaded once I unboxed them. And the last 800 Dell PCs I had the pleasure of deploying were also wiped without a thought. Dell, HP/Compaq (who seem to be the utter worst), Sony, and the rest of the big name makers all load their default images with probably 20-30 programs that are trials that you’ll hardly ever, if ever, use. They do this because it drives down the cost of the PC due to this extra “value add” software they think we all need.

I’ve had the pleasure of purchasing a number of Macs and none of them were as bad as any random PC I can buy. Sure, it came with trials of MS Office and other sundry software however, it was all useful in a way. When you buy a PC, you get software advertising Earthlink, AOL, MSN, Shutterfly, Kodak Online Picture services, and so much more at no cost to the end user. It’s nothing but free advertising and it adds a ton of bloat to your default install.

Another Mac ad that’s actually dead-on for truthfulness.

Ya know, I might have actually decided I wanted a Mac by now (for certain applications) if it weren’t for Apple’s horribly arrogant company image. It would be great if Apple’s ads actually told me why I should want a Mac, rather than making generalizations about PCs that only Mac worshipers think are completely true.

hmmm… Well, sat here with my newish MacBookPro…and a Dell (one of my clients) and I have to say that the Dell (BRAND-TASTIC) is chock full of Guff… I did hate that my Mac came with Office Trial …but hey ho

Still - the adds are funny, the packaging was nice and the MBP works… but that’s about it… (oh, and it did crash when I ran windows on it.. but you get that)

My last “real” pc came with NO gumpf…(home build)… do that with a mac!…