Ayanami Posted December 8, 2007 Share Posted December 8, 2007 I had a revelation a moment ago. I just brought my Gateway back from Best Buy. And as I wait 2 minutes for my PC to boot up each time I have to restart it, something dawned on me. It's not Vista's fault. Brand new and restored, my Gateway is loaded with more {censored} than I can list. Bundled Virus software, Google Desktop, Napster, and a million other things are fighting for my system's resources. Why does Vista (and XP for that matter) run so much better on a Mac? It's simple. 9 out of 10 times, it's just the OS we're installing. We're not even installing drivers. The OS is gonna run smoother than a baby's bottom, because 40 different applications aren't fighting to load. So now I have the awesomely fun task of removing loads of software off of my Gateway laptop. And then pulling all the excess stuff out of my boot process. But it really hit me that this is the fault of the hardware company, not MS. And we should really keep that in mind, as much as we bash Windows, and especially Vista, for slow boot times and crashes. You show me an out of the box modern computer versus a clean OS install, and really, which one do you expect to run better? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Headrush69 Posted December 8, 2007 Share Posted December 8, 2007 I agree this is part of the problem. Received my new Dell last week and first thing I did was format and re-install just for that reason. Problem is 9 out of 10 times that machine will eventually end up like that anyways. I'm still amazed looking at customers computers how much useless {censored} most people have on their systems. (self-installed) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robotskip Posted December 9, 2007 Share Posted December 9, 2007 A lot of the computer stores around here build excellent computers for people and beat OEMs for many reasons: - Way better price - A lot of the guys are geeks, even though these computers aren't for them they put them together properly, etc - Decent hardware configurations, it seems with a lot of OEMs they just barely scrape in on the good things, like they might give you 2GB of DDR2 but it's only 667MHZ - No junk pre-installed And so on.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ayanami Posted December 9, 2007 Author Share Posted December 9, 2007 Building towers is one thing. I desired a laptop. At this point, if I needed a tower, Mac or PC or Linux, I'd build it myself. My point is, that a good % of users just buy theirs from the nearest electronics store. And they're coming with more and more and more {censored}, which filters down. The companies have to get so much $$ for having these computers come pre-installed with their software. Heck, I remember when HP came with iTunes pre-installed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scj312 Posted December 9, 2007 Share Posted December 9, 2007 If you order custom from gateway.com you can choose to not let them install the {censored}. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ayanami Posted December 10, 2007 Author Share Posted December 10, 2007 I doubt I would have gotten the same deal if I ordered custom. 1.8 GHz Dual Core AMD 2 GB RAM 250 GB HD 1.3 MP Webcam DVD Burner 5 in 1 card reader 14 inch $700 I'm pretty happy with it right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
limini Posted December 10, 2007 Share Posted December 10, 2007 Pssst! You need the decrapifier Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Metrogirl Posted December 19, 2007 Share Posted December 19, 2007 First thing I do with any system that comes preloaded is to go to the mfctr site and download all the drivers, then format the HDD and install a clean build with the drivers added as necessary. If you've read my pages you will know that I don't even install the full driver package if I can help it, I unpack the installer, search for the .inf and .cat files and point Device Manager to them so I don't get a mass of useless 'helper' applications installed. Nine times out of ten that works just fine. I cannot believe the {censored} that Sony, HP, Lenovo stuff onto a PC thinking you'll want it. But I have to confess that we are not part of the great majority of computer users. Believe it or not a lot of naive users actually like Fisher Price programs and Google toolbars and feel more comfortable with just what the supplier delivered. I cleaned up a laptop for a friend who wanted some of the original {censored} restoring because she missed it. So much for power users! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xplizid Posted December 19, 2007 Share Posted December 19, 2007 I agree they put heaps of junk in the restore discs. Tiger discs are the same way but at least you can select what you want unlike OEM the windows finishes install and then without your consent starts loading up crapola. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azurael Posted December 19, 2007 Share Posted December 19, 2007 but it's only 667MHZ Which is the fastest RAM you need for optimum performance with Intel CPUs up to 1333MHz FSB... That's sense, not cheap-skate. I only have DDR2-800 in my PC, and it's running sync with my FSB at 450MHz. My memory benchmarks are better than any off the shelf desktop I've seen using an Intel CPU. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
littledragon Posted December 19, 2007 Share Posted December 19, 2007 I have to agree with this topic. Being in IT for over 10 years, I've seen Windows become more and more stable. These days, if Windows gets a blue screen, 9 times out of 10, it's because of faulty hardware. Replace the hardware and the problem is done with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InorganicMatter Posted December 19, 2007 Share Posted December 19, 2007 Couldn't agree more. I just used nLite to integrate drivers/updates and strip a Windows XP disk down to 400MB. It installed on a brand-new Dell OptiPlex (you know: the quality Dells, not the plastic garbage with crappy AMD processors and buggy NVIDIA chipsets). It installed in a few minutes and runs like a bat out of hell. All it's got is Windows XP and SQL Server 2005. Solid as a rock too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apowerr Posted December 19, 2007 Share Posted December 19, 2007 I completely agree. I went into 'Programs and Features' on my Mothers new Vista laptop, and the amount of junk was ridiculous! Trials for all sorts of dial up and useless applications. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Metrogirl Posted December 20, 2007 Share Posted December 20, 2007 One more quick observation about drivers ... it's often not wise to accept hardware driver updates offered by "Windows Update", particularly for network hardware. I've seen NICs screwed completely by the drivers MS offers. Best to go to the motherboard or NIC manufacturer's site and grab their latest, or even better, if it's working fine just leave well alone. And why on earth does Windows Update sometimes offer drivers for hardware that's not even in the machine? Device ID strings are supposed to be unique. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tripleboot Posted December 22, 2007 Share Posted December 22, 2007 I always install my own OS when I get a new PC just because of all the {censored} they put on it. I know Dell has the option now to not install most of their 3rd party software buddies. I'm not sure but does Dell still have a 3-5GB partition on thier PC's/laps used as a rescue disk if you need to call Dell for help if you F'd up your system. When I got my daughter a Dell 1505 a couple years ago I reformatted the whole disk after I noticed it had a seperate partition placed on it for recovery problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wipeout Posted December 23, 2007 Share Posted December 23, 2007 I do the same, it saves a lot of trouble. I'm gonna let my dad know about the "de-crapifier" and see if he can fix up his Gateway and even more so his Toshiba, though it's not the {censored} it's the computer itself. I've had a lot of problems with 2 or 3 Toshiba's, but I'm not gonna get into a mini-rant here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts