I’ve had the same experience “breaking in” new Dell’s. It takes about three days to get it the way you want it. I’m flummoxed too, why they don’t seem to automatically ship disk copies for everything that’s installed in it. I suppose it cuts down on people installing their software on other computers, but it’s a pain.

On the other hand they are creating new employment…for people who can figure out how to get the thing running. :)

First of all, more choices are not always good. Certainly Dell could handle the choice of “crapware or no crapware” if you ordered a computer direct from their website, but in retail, having two choices means stocking the shelves with both and inevitably running out of one or the other.

Second, and more important, it would force suppliers to be honest about exactly how much money they’re making in crapware kickbacks, which are currently a completely opaque source of profit, not listed in the sticker price and not included in buying decisions. Offering an alternative makes this hidden profit transparent, moving it out of the shadows and onto the sticker price, and I don’t see how this could possibly end well for Dell. I think customers would perceive the higher priced crap-free alternative as a punishment, instead of perceiving the current crap-filled one as a “discount”. It could also lead to a pricing war if people expressed a clear preference for the crap-free alternative.

No, you don’t have to buy it–Dell WILL send you the CDs; all you have to do is ask. I did as soon as I set up my daughter’s new Dell and got the CDs in about 3 days.

Even so, I didn’t bother reformatting and doing the clean install. I just uninstalled the stupid trialware. Annoying? Yes. But it’s true, it does cut costs. It’s just more annoying when you’re not the one enjoying the cost savings but doing all the work.

Chad Dickerson  talks about how difficult it is to set up a new PC. 

I’ve been helping my friends across the street from me set up their new Dell PC and though it booted up out-of-the-box, it has been ridiculously tedious and frust…

My wife’s best friend wanted to upgrade from OS 9, so I did the usual things: check for processor and RAM requirements first, then make all of the upgrades before installation.

We had to go buy more RAM, which was relatively easy, but it prevented me from really doing anything on Day 1.

Day 2 consisted of putting the RAM in (5 minutes), then backing up data to my external HD, just in case. I finally quit the backup when it apparently hung on photos and movies.
Now, I thought, I was all set–pop the disc in and let it run for an hour. Nope. I had to upgrade the OS and root around on Apple’s site for a firmware upgrade. What made matters worse was that I was downloading everything over dialup (at least now they’re on DSL). I finally installed OS X 10.3 late on Day 2.

Day 3 consisted of getting DSL up and running, then upgrading 10.3 all the way up to 10.3.9. Then we spent kwality time with customer support at Earthlink and BellSouth, getting Mail.app to work with their systems.

The point of my story? I haven’t seen one damn OS, new or upgrade, that isn’t a bitch to deal with in some for or fashion. Even if this computer I was working on was a spiffy new iMac, I’d still have to deal with customer support at two ISPs, which took far too long.

It wasn’t me who doesn’t “understand why it makes a lot of sense to spend more than $850 for a new Dell.” It was my neighbors, who I put in the general category of “people who are not passionate about computers” (and there are many of them in the world). I don’t have a Dell. If I did, I would probably set it up as a dual-boot machine, or even beter install VMWare and run Windows as a virtual machine within Linux — but I think I would have to be crazy to advise my neighbors to do that (ever try explaining a “virtual machine” to average people? Not easy!)

As for installing Linux, I’ve been running Linux for years at home and at work, but installing Linux for my neighbors would be an unmitigated disaster. What would they do about the Quicken problem I raised in my post? There might be an open source alternative out there somewhere, but I doubt it has all the connections to banks, etc. that make that product useful for average people. It would be ill-advised for me to tell them just to roll with it. I agree with you that #3 shouldn’t be recommended for everyone. I would go so far to say that I would only recommend it for people who are already familiar with Linux in other contexts (work, school, etc.)

Then, in the very next sentence, you say “it has been ridiculously tedious and frustrating to clean all the trialware and marketing crud off the thing.”

No offense, but do you see the disconnect here? Crapware is how Dell can afford to sell you that machine for $850. If you don’t like it, you can

1. Return the computer to Dell and find some second-tier supplier that will sell you a $1000 machine for $1000 and not load it up with crapware to drive the price down to $850.

2. Format the drive, buy and install a retail copy of Windows, and spend a week tracking down drivers for all the proprietary crap Dell stuffed onto their motherboard.

3. Format the drive, install Linux, and spend several months finding and adjusting to free alternatives to all the applications you use. Also, discover that you’ve spent your entire life compiling data in proprietary formats that you can no longer access.

(FWIW, I’m currently doing step #3, but I don’t necessarily recommend it to everyone.)

Since I so rarely use Wintel machines it’s pretty surprising what people are willing to put up with. It’s all the bundling that seems to be the problem. Wipe the sucker clean and reinstall and you should be fine.. but why should the average Joe have to worry about that if all they want is a decent computer that WORKS?