How could I have been so stupid? What I thought would be a simple test of Kodak’s EasyShare 5300 All-in-One printer Monday afternoon resulted in a software glitch that completely disabled my Computerworld-issue laptop for nearly 24 hours.

Kodak markets its new line of EasyShare printers as having lower printing costs and longer print life than competing ink-jet models. I’m testing an evaluation machine against an H-P unit to see whether that’s true in a real home office situation. But I hadn’t planned on something as simple as the driver installation becoming a show stopper.

The most popular ideas in Dell’s IdeaStorm forums:

#1 Offer OpenOffice as a preinstalled option to MS Works or MS Office (107, 903 votes)
#2 Offer Firefox as the default preinstalled browser on new machines (89,553 votes)
#3 Have a "No extra software" option so users can buy a machine that’s not loaded down with trial offers and other "crapware." (78,498 votes).

People appear to not only be fed up with the "crapware" that clutters new machines and robs them of performance but also seem to want more options besides the usual Windows / Office bundle.

The most popular ideas in Dell’s IdeaStorm forums:

#1 Offer OpenOffice as a preinstalled option to MS Works or MS Office (107, 903 votes)
#2 Offer Firefox as the default preinstalled browser on new machines (89,553 votes)
#3 Have a "No extra software" option so users can buy a machine that’s not loaded down with trial offers and other "crapware." (78,498 votes).

People appear to not only be fed up with the "crapware" that clutters new machines and robs them of performance but also seem to want more options besides the usual Windows / Office bundle.

Is Vista a real dog? One might come to that conclusion after reading Wall Street Journal technology writer Walter Mossberg’s experiences  with a recently purchased  a Sony Vaio SZ laptop. The laptop came with Vista preloaded.

His main complaint in the WSJ story (which requires an online subscription to access) is the time it takes to remove all of the trial offer "crapware" that comes preloaded onto the machine. But he also remarks twice on how slowly the machine starts up and reboots, "even if you haven’t yet loaded or launched any of your own software."

Is Vista a real dog? One might come to that conclusion after reading Wall Street Journal technology writer Walter Mossberg’s experiences  with a recently purchased a Sony Vaio SZ laptop. The laptop came with Vista preloaded.

His main complaint in the WSJ story (which requires an online subscription to access) is the time it takes to remove all of the trial offer "crapware" that comes preloaded onto the machine. But he also remarks twice on how slowly the machine starts up and reboots, "even if you haven’t yet loaded or launched any of your own software."