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Sony's Fresh Start option, available only with TZ2xxx series laptops, requires Windows Vista Business edition and grays out the option to include Micosoft Works in the final configuration.  (Source: Sony Style)
Sony offers removing trial-ware for a fee

Trial-ware is an annoying aspect of buying a new PC from a manufacturer. What makes it worse is when manufacturers do not offer the option to users to remove the trial-ware from the PCs before they get shipped out. Sony has heard consumer's pleas, and has decided to cash-in by charging for not installing trial-ware.

Sony is now offering a new option dubbed "Fresh Start", which essentially means that trial-ware is not installed on a PC before it is shipped out. This option, however, is not free and comes at a fee of $50.

Users can choose a "Fresh Start" for their PC during the configuration step in the Sony online order process under the "Software Optimization" section. Although the option does remove annoying pre-installed applications, charging $50, or any fee for that matter, to remove software consumers don't want in the first place is more than one would want to pay, especially if all the manufacturer has to do is build a common image without the unnecessary software.

Despite the fee it charges, it seems that Sony still wants to limit the consumers to whom this service will be available to. Currently, "Fresh Start" can only be purchased with the TZ2000 and TZ2500 model laptops. Narrowing down the list further, it is only available to customers who choose the Windows Vista Business operating system over the Windows Vista Home Premium option, which is a $100 premium on its own. In addition, if a customer wants the Microsoft Works suite, the Fresh Start option is unavailable to them, further limiting the options.

Based off of the lengthy list of requirements for the "Fresh Start" option to be made available during the order process, it is safe to conclude that Sony has mostly business users in mind for the option. The fact that choosing Windows Vista Home Premium rules out the "Fresh Start" option further corroborates Sony's intentions for targeting business users.

In the event a system recovery is necessary, there is no mention whether trial-ware will be installed when using the recovery partition/disc.


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And Microsoft gets fined by the EU...?
By therealnickdanger on 3/21/2008 1:48:17 PM , Rating: 4
Seriously, what a crock of sh*t. I hate, hate, HATE bloatware! I remember when I bought my last Dell laptop. The first time I powered it up was with my trusty DBAN CD in the drive. After a quick wipe, N-Lite and go!




RE: And Microsoft gets fined by the EU...?
By beyazkeyat on 3/21/2008 1:59:05 PM , Rating: 1
I didn't get any bloatware on the Dell laptop I bought a while back, it was quite nice. What a rip that they make you PAY to NOT INSTALL it, though.


RE: And Microsoft gets fined by the EU...?
By MrSmurf on 3/21/2008 2:03:19 PM , Rating: 5
Not really a rip if you think about it. Sony and others make money by putting that trash on your PC. It's like paying for HBO to have no commercials.


RE: And Microsoft gets fined by the EU...?
By FITCamaro on 3/21/2008 2:12:56 PM , Rating: 1
To charge you NOT to do something though is absurd. This is why I buy notebooks from independent manufacturers like Sager. You get the hardware + a fresh install of whatever OS you choose. Only thing they load is the drivers you need.


RE: And Microsoft gets fined by the EU...?
By Duwelon on 3/21/2008 2:22:37 PM , Rating: 5
The trialware reduces the cost of the PC. By not including the trialware they're forgoeing any payments made to them by the companies who pay them to install the trialware in the first place.

Trial ware sucks, but this isn't as bad as it sounds. Now if everyone would do it... you might see that $50 fee become a competitive $20 or something like that.


RE: And Microsoft gets fined by the EU...?
By eyebeeemmpawn on 3/21/2008 2:59:24 PM , Rating: 1
quote:
The trialware reduces the cost of the PC.


call me a glass-half-empty kind of guy, but the way I see it, trialware increases Sony's profit margin.


RE: And Microsoft gets fined by the EU...?
By johnsonx on 3/21/2008 10:30:25 PM , Rating: 4
quote:
The trialware reduces the cost of the PC.

quote:
call me a glass-half-empty kind of guy, but the way I see it, trialware increases Sony's profit margin.


There's no difference between the two. You don't understand how a free market works if you think there is.


RE: And Microsoft gets fined by the EU...?
By ImSpartacus on 3/22/2008 11:01:02 AM , Rating: 2
There is a difference, PC vendors will charge more for PC's without bloatware.

It's not like they are going to say "Oh we'll just take a smaller profit on this PC if you don't want bloatware." No, they make the same amount anyway, it's just a matter of whether you want to save 50$ and let them put trials on, or cough it up and save yourself a whole 15 minutes.


By johnsonx on 3/22/2008 11:21:11 PM , Rating: 2
You completely missed my point, yet illustrated it perfectly anyway. Well done.


RE: And Microsoft gets fined by the EU...?
By pauluskc on 3/21/08, Rating: 0
RE: And Microsoft gets fined by the EU...?
By dever on 3/21/2008 3:18:34 PM , Rating: 5
You seem to have missed the point. Sony, along with most hardware vendors, receive money from the software vendors when they install the trialware on the computers. This allows them to save $xx dollars when building a system. Thanks to competition, this savings is passed on to you. Those who don't install the bloatware, have a higher cost to produce the same PC as those who do.


RE: And Microsoft gets fined by the EU...?
By Duwelon on 3/21/2008 4:38:46 PM , Rating: 3
You're not telling anyone anything they don't already know. In fact, its probably a lot more expensive to create the Bloatware image than the Non Bloat image.

However, By using a bloated image, they get Paid by several companies, kind of like a sponsor. Everyone does this, so the savings go to the consumer in the end anyway. If it was just one company doing this you might have a point, but the bloatware profits are a very real part of a companies overall profits.


By jackedupandgoodtogo on 3/23/2008 2:38:54 PM , Rating: 2
The argument that bloatware reduces prices is not quite accurate. Bloatware only increases the profit margins, not reduce the manufacturing costs. Competition is what's hurting profit margins, and so everyone resorts to ad placement on their machines to make up for this profit margin squeeze. Does that make it right? No, because for someone who has to maintain them, I have to go and remove them or reinstall a fresh OS. This is time and computer resources that's being taken away from me at a fractional savings on the computer purchase price. For your average consumer, they may not know what all that trialware is for, but it sure does take up a lot of hard drive space if they don't need it.

So you may be saving $50 up front, but you're paying everyday from owning less of the computer that you bought. If you decide to clean it up, that's time and money spent doing that. My time is worth more than $50.


RE: And Microsoft gets fined by the EU...?
By dever on 3/24/2008 4:09:39 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
Does that make it right?
You seemed to be confusing business practices or decisions (good or bad) with some sort of personal malice aimed at you.

Businesses understand that installing bloatware will irritate some users, such as yourself. But, many people, do go for the extra $50 savings rather than having a clean system.

And no, bloatware doesn't "reduce manufacturing costs," but it does offset them. And, because of competition, it's connection to the profit margin isn't certain.


By jackedupandgoodtogo on 3/25/2008 2:00:27 AM , Rating: 2
Please clarify for me. You say I'm confusing business practice with "personal malice", and then you say businesses understand their act of installing bloatware *will* irritate users other than myself, therefore making it no longer a *personal* malice. If they know their business practice is going to irritate users, isn't that considered malice?

Do yourself a favor. Go to Sony, HP, and Dell's site, configure a comparable system and price them out. You'll find they're not exactly the same price, and you'd be hard pressed to figure out which system is giving you a "savings" from the bloatware they pre-install. I'll give you a hint. HP is not the cheapest, and they also give you tons of "free" software for your "savings".


RE: And Microsoft gets fined by the EU...?
By pauluskc on 3/21/2008 3:33:39 PM , Rating: 2
And you seem to have missed the point that Sony is gleaning the extras as extras, not cost reductions. I couldn't believe that they are competitive in their prices vs. higher performance without Apple like self-worship vendors in the hundreds (thousands?).

Pocket Waxing.

Why do you call it bloatware anyways?
- Because it would be the same exact system without it.
- Less work involved not doing it in the first place.
- Reduces consumer feeling of satisfaction (bloat++).

YUCK!


By ImSpartacus on 3/22/2008 10:58:33 AM , Rating: 2
It is not the same system without bloatware. It would cost much more.

Bloatware is like commercials on TV or ads on websites. The website owner gets paid for displaying ads and the TV company gets paid for displayed commercials.

PC companies get paid for putting bloatware on their computers. You pay more to have a computer without bloatware.