Sony Tries to Charge $50 to Remove Crap, Quickly Reconsiders
- Scribbled on March 21st, 2008 by Jonah Falcon
- Filed in Editorial Content, Firmware, Industry News, WTF
A quite controversial move was commited by Sony today, when the company offered $50 for a “Clean Start” application to remove all the bloatware from its Vaio computer. After an immediate outcry from Engadget in a charmingly titled article “Sony Hates You“:
Sony has quite the history of crippling excellent, beautiful hardware with horrible, useless software. The company’s UX UMPC bluescreened on us the first time we turned it on, and crashed the first time we tried to shut it down thanks to all the bloatware on it, while a Laptop Mag review says their Vaio TZ ran “as if it were broken” before they managed to wipe it clean. Lucky for us, it appears Sony is finally seeing the error of its ways, but instead of removing the crapware altogether, Sony has the nerve to offer a $50 “Fresh Start” option, which “scrubs” the machine clean before shipping it your way. At the moment you can only configure the TZ2000 crapware-free, but hopefully Sony will be rolling out the choice to the rest of its laptops soon. Or here’s an idea, Sony: stop trying to milk profits and start giving consumers laptops that actually work out of the box.
Sony four hours later made the “Fresh Start” application free of charge.
(Thanks, Wired.)
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