Sony charges $50 to remove laptop bloatware

by Peter Sayer

March 21, 2008 —

Sony is offering to remove some of the trial software it crams onto the hard
disks of new laptops -- for a fee.

Buyers of the configure-to-order
versions of its Vaio TZ2000 and Vaio TZ2500 laptops can opt to have Sony remove
the some of its own applications, in addition to trial software and games.

The "Fresh Start" option, billed as a software optimization, costs
US$49.99, and is only available to customers choosing to pay an additional $100
to upgrade the operating system to Windows Vista Business from the Windows Vista
Home Premium edition offered as standard.

PC manufacturers are often paid by software publishers to include such trial
versions on the computers they ship. Bloatware, as it is often called, poses
problems for businesses because it reduces system performance and available
hard disk space, makes it harder to maintain a consistent software image across
PCs from different sources and may introduce additional security vulnerabilities
or -- in the case of games -- unwanted distractions for workers.

Dell was one of the first PC manufacturers to offer to remove bloatware. Last
July it introduced
Vostro, a range of PCs for small businesses designed to be simpler to manage.
Everex followed suit a week later, saying it would eliminate bloatware from
a $300 desktop machine for consumers.

Customers opting for Sony's Fresh Start will miss out on software including
Microsoft Works SE 9.0 bundled with a 60-day trial version of Microsoft Office,
Sony's Vaio Creation Suite Photo Software bundled with a 30-day trial version
of Corel Paint Shop Pro; the Click to Disc video editor; WinDVD, and a free
edition of QuickBooks Simple Start that can only track 20 customers.

Sony justifies the $49.99 fee by saying it covers removal of the unwanted software
before shipment -- although selecting the option appears to have no consequences
on the estimated shipping date.

Although Sony has other laptops with configure-to-order options, including
the FZ, SZ, AR and CR ranges, none of those are available with Fresh Start.

IDG News Service