Sony giving Fresh Start to Vaio UX Micro PC

Update: Sony Fresh Start back to being just for Vaio TZ

The bloatware-free Fresh Start option that Sony recently made available to Vaio TZ notebooks running Vista Business will soon tire of its exclusivity with the series and opt for an open relationship.

Sony Electronic's Senior Public Relations Strategist, Jon Piazza, responded to my email about a "clean" UX Micro PC this afternoon with the following statement: "Fresh Start will be rolled out to the entire product line by the end of this summer."

It's been nearly two years since I unboxed my UX180P, so I don't remember the horrors of the out-of-box experience. If it was anything like my TZ170N, whose crapware included full-length copies of Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2, then I understand why I blocked it out.

Comments

[Benz145]

lol wonderful picture!

[RBrent]

I can still remember what it was like.

My poor, poor 180P... you blocked it out for a very good reason. The UMPC that can drive all that crapware hasn't been made.

[Bush -- not related]

I don't understand why there's not more outcry over what's essentially a form of blackmail: "Give us $50 or we'll decrease the efficiency of your computer!"

Yet ANOTHER reason to prefer Macs and/or linux boxes.

[Kamall]

Very nice to see them do this. I love Sony myself, Sony and Playstation fanboy here. But they do have some very anti-consumer practices, DRM, expensive accessories, mediocre support, don't seem to treat us well at all.

I dislike that all of their computers have Intel VT (hardware virtualization) locked off, I hope they can please enable it on their future notebooks.

I love my Vaio TZ, can't wait for its successor but I hope Sony can be more friendly towards us or I may have to sadly defect to Asus, their 11" U2E looks quite nice and I'll be watching for Sony's and Asus's future 11" Montevina notebooks.

[Bruno]

I have to admit I don't get it what the outcry is all about. All (or nearly all) manufacturers include bloatware on their computers. Sony is giving the option to opt out of it (I think I read it is a free option now). Either way, the situation is surely better than it used to be. Shouldn't Sony be commended for it instead of ostracized?
Maybe if they positioned it the other way, i.e. for letting them include the bloatware one would get $50 discount everyone would have been happy!

And I don't think this has got anything to do with Windows/Mac/Linux discussion. Some o my Windows machines (though not many) came with no bloatware. Macs we have bought came with trial/shareware software.