Simon’s Blog

Dell Inc. today announced it has teamed up with Skype to preload Skype software on its PCs; and just recently, Dell announced it would preload its computers with the Google toolbar. I have a message for Dell: we may be going to stop buying Dell PCs. Why? Because this every-increased pre-loading of software is annoying, and more importantly wastes significant amounts of our time.

We’ve been buying quite a bit of computer hardware recently - from servers to desktop and laptops to storage. For laptops and desktops we’ve been buying Dell - they’re really easy to buy from. The latest Dell desktop arrived a week ago, and the amount of preloaded software has now got completely out of hand. It now takes a siginficant amount of time to uninstall/deactivate this stuff. Whether it’s trials of security suites, or annoying toolbars, or trials of ISPs - we don’t want any of it. Please stop doing this Dell. Or at least provide a check-box that says something “No pre-loaded rubbish” so customers can choose. We will also be making a point, as far as it doesn’t inconvenience us, to not buy software or do business with any company whose unwanted software is preloaded on Dell computers.

So Dell, and Dell partner companies, please understand that pre-loading pushes costs onto your customers and potential customers by making them do the work of getting rid of software they don’t want. Please stop it.