[ubuntu-uk] DELL w/Ubuntu available in the UK

[alan c]

Tony Arnold wrote:
> Mark,
> 
> Mark Harrison wrote:
>> Tony Arnold wrote:
>>> I've never understood how or why this works! Why should the vendor of
>>> the bloatware pay Dell to install it? Surelly, Dell should buy a license
>>> for the bloatware from its vendor and pass this on to the customer. It
>>> just seems counter intutitive to me, but then I work in a University and
>>> have almost zero understanding of how business works!
>>>   
>> It's the "free trial" principle.
>> 
>> The software that's included is something like a 30-day version of a 
>> paint program, or a 6-month subscription to an anti-virus product.
>> 
>> Once the customer is hooked on the product, it's easier for them to get 
>> out a credit card and pay the fee to enable it for longer than to start 
>> looking around for alternatives.
> 
> Ah! That makes sense. I've never bought a machine from a retailer with
> pre-installed software, so I've never experienced this. Just goes to
> show that there are even more potential hidden costs to the Vista
> machine that aren't there with FL/OSS.

I have several times been called to help the novice owners of new 
machines (dell as it happens). In each case the machine was 
effectively *disabled* because the worried new owner/s had refused to 
click on popups asking various questions including sign up of various 
things. These would have mostly ended in them getting deeper into 
things they simply did not understand  (and were genuinely confusing 
to me too) and probably paying for things they did not want.

In each case it took quite a few hours for me to talk them through 
their machine and its popups and demands and allow them to decide what 
they wanted to do.

Almost always they decided to dump the crapware and use free or foss 
instead. In one case the person decided to continue for a time with 
mcafee becase a 13  month free period was clearly offered. However, 
after 3 months a statement came from mcafee that the free period had 
ended. If you cannot trust an antivirus company who.....

The untrustworthy company's program was quickly dumped. All this 
dumping took an enormous time, including checking that stuff had gone 
as expected , and the endless rebooting of course.

The moral of the story is that obviously there are enough people who 
do not go to all the trouble and worry to dump the stuff, and end up 
paying, to make it worth wile for the companies to want to install it 
and presumably pay for this.

One consequence was that K/Ubuntu  got installed quickly too, when it 
was realised that it did not need this stuff and any way the non 
proprietary basis was a more pleasant environment!
-- 
alan cocks
Kubuntu user#10391