That is silly. ANY named brand factory PC has tons of crap on it, Dell or not. I am sold on Dells for lots of reasons. I bought it for those reasons, too, plus the warranty and in-home service.
But I have some old-fashioned ideas, one of which is that when I pay for something it is my absolute property.
When I buy a car, for example, that does not give the dealer the right to stop at the house every night and rummage through the trunk.
And that is essentially what some of these "Helpful" programs, like support.exe do, not to mention some of the things lurking in XP.
Dell made a decision, not to offer any other OS options. I respect that decision, just as I am sure they respect mine not to repeat the mistake. OK, maybe it is just my quirks, but on a broadband connection I pay for it is going to be all MY traffic, or traffic with my permission only. No going through my dumpster, reading over my shoulder, or otherwise "Phoning Home".
I feel it is like trespassing on property, or breaking and entering, and unlike real-world situations, I cannot shoot someone dead for doing it through my cable connection, but I sure would like to.
