Sony pulls its head slightly out of its backside

Sony is probably the biggest perpetrator of loading up their brand new laptops with crapware (stuff like 30-day trials of services that almost no one would ever want – like AOL).  Most Sony laptop owners we know just install a fresh OS on their machines the first time they use them rather than try to uninstall the litany of the crapware individually.  Well, if you are in the market for a Sony laptop, your initial experience with your great Sony hardware could be getting slightly better.

Engadget is reporting that Sony is offering to ship you a machine without putting crapware on it for $50.  So Sony is acknowledging their users might want a better experience out of the box…but then charging for the option.  Sony isn’t really putting a shine on their brand with this new ‘Fresh Start’ initiative are they?

As Mac users who are used to pristine machines out of the box, we can appreciate the "fresh start" but being charged for it leaves the bad taste in our mouths.  Is it really worth the $50 Sony?  To give your customers a nice clean computer that isn’t polluted with applications that give your users a three hour of uninstalations tax?

Update: According to C|Net, Sony caved into our pressure and removed the $50 fee to rmove the crapwarz.  Rest of the industry?  Are you listening?