Dell Eliminates Almost All Crapware From Dimension and Inspiron Notebooks

Augustine: finally bowing to consumer outcry...

from Gizmodo by Jason Chen

Dell's expanding their no crapware option from their high-end XPS systems to their entire Dimension desktop and Inspiron notebook line; meaning you're going to get the option at purchase time to opt-out of pre-installed trialware and shareware that slows down your computer considerably even when it's brand new. The one caveat is that these computers aren't entirely trialware free—it still has antivirus, Adobe Acrobat Reader and Google Tools left behind.

Dell's reasoning is this: most people want anti-virus built in, Acrobat Reader doesn't count as trialware (it's free), and Google tools is fine because it's from Google. You do have the option of declining the EULA for the antivirus on first boot to have it automatically uninstall, and Acrobat and Google Tools can be removed using Dell's new uninstall utility.

Although we would have liked for the machine to be completely empty when shipped—we've never had a use for Google Tools, and we like AVG's free antivirus just fine—we can live with this. [Dell]