Comments on: Why I will Never buy a Branded Computer Again

By: Tristech

Tristech — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 12:54:12 +0000

I don’t know about you all but Toshiba makes the best laptops (hardware wise). With ATI graphics and AMD processors they are unstoppable, before u ditched ur original system u should have went to ur hard ware profiles in the control panel and wrote down the model numbers to the graphics, sound, etc. because it is easier to go to the website of the company that made the piece of hardware and get the most up-to-date driver. then install the OS of your choice because that laptop/desktop is in a box for months, theres no way it has the latest driver. and build ur own desktops if u know how

By: wth

wth — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 00:22:37 +0000

Too funny. I guess I became geeky by accident. I came out of the state pen in 92, knew a little, bought a PackBell haha. Had lotsa problems. Ended up kicking it for hours with techies. They werent as busy back then,”While I got you here..could you tell me..” Things went wrong. I learned how to fix them. BUT Viruses..PET PEEVE. Its mostly just bad housekeeping IMHO. I think that virus companies and bored Bulgarians write these things so they can create a cure. I use OSX most the time. My desktop has Jaunty.(I screwed up windoze installation and got mad, the only thing that I could install was Ubuntu)MBR was messed up. Just as well. Only thing I miss on this Dell XP400 is the webcam wont work no matter what gspca type mess I use. I dont care. Im no fashion plate anyway. Pushing 60 hard. Well just wanted to say hullo. Really enjoyed yer videos. Trying to figure out Gambas right now#$%^

By: Jeroen

Jeroen — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 12:53:43 +0000

If you ever run into such a problem again, try driver genius BEFORE you remove the OEM install (http://www.driver-soft.com/) I know it says pro edition and that you need to pay but no worries it’s a 30-day trail and that’s enough to backup all the drivers!
I use it lot’s of times when (re)building OEM installs for customers.

By: Grant

Grant — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 10:29:58 +0000

I know this is old, but I just stumbled across it browsing this site.

A pretty good way of finding out what hardware is actually installed is a lovely Linux tool called LSHW (http://ezix.org/project/wiki/HardwareLiSter). It is available in many Linux distro’s default repositories – it’s also installed on a good many ‘LiveCDs’.

By: Oberon

Oberon — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 06:58:26 +0000

Actually, all the bloatware is to justify the price they charge. “Sure it’s a bit more expensive, but look at all the software that’s included! That’s a $$$$ value right there!”

Having done support for more than one of the above mentioned companies and talked to a lot of people, a surprising number don’t even know what’s installed on their systems when they get them or what most of the stuff even does. Many times in the past I’ve advised people to uninstall most of it.

At least Dell has taken a step in the right direction, listened to the community at large, and started offering machines loaded with Ubuntu. (http://www.dell.com/ubuntu)

By: The Great Excelcior

The Great Excelcior — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 07:56:54 +0000

Actually, Vista is the reason I switched to Ubuntu. It is bloatware/crapware of its own special kind, since in its default configuration you find your hard drive getting filled up for no apparent reason because of Vista’s backups and shadow files. Don’t get me started on the POS “user control” which is the MS was of having the computer control the user instead of the other way around.

I had to say ‘hasta la Vista, baby’ or trash the laptop. I dumped it and bought a netbook because XP is still available on those, and it was too heavy and bulky to be a bring everywhere machine. My desktop is hefty and dual booted for any photo/video editing and gaming needs, and my netbook is also dual booted, It’s light, easy to carry, and great for browsing on the go at restaurants, work, church, book stores, in the car while my friend drives aimlessly forever…

Anyway, if she’s not addicted to paying for every piece of software she runs, you might try to get her onto Ubuntu and set up the windows programs she can’t do without under wine? If you’ve been in a field with cattle, you know what they leave in their wake. Simlarly, the Longhorn project gave us Vista. I am not taking a chance that Windows 7 won’t also be problematic despite the beta release’s apparent goodness.

By: Marvin

Marvin — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 09:09:46 +0000

Actually the prices we see on most laptops is with the discount granted by all the bloatware.

By: Phoenix

Phoenix — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 01:27:45 +0000

Yeah, I feel your pain. I’ve been through the same things before I started to build my own. The computers I had the same problems with were Compaqs. The problem is that these computer makers are trying to make it simple to restore a PC. Mainly because they know that most of their users probably shouldn’t be using computers in the first place . So they make a Restore CD/DVD and then the marketing guys get in there and load it up with bloatware because Software company X is going to pay them $5 buck or whatever for each PC they put it on. I think they could solve the problem by offering to include the OEM CD/DVDs with the new computer.

I don’t mean to go off on a rant. But why don’t they offer a discount for all the bloatware they put on my computer? I might be willing to put up with it for 500 bucks off