Steven Frank has an excellent article which explains exactly why PCs are a total pain in the arse. The whole thing is worth a read. It’s exactly how I feel when asked to come around and help a friend set up their new PC.

The VAIO came loaded with so much shovelware that it took in the ballpark of fifteen minutes just to boot the first time. After the desktop came up, the disk just kept grinding and grinding and grinding, as Norton (60 day trial!) popped up, followed by Trend Micro Anti-Spyware (60 day trial!), a dialog box warning me that my Bluetooth module was not set discoverable (uh, thanks?), a cascade of Sony windows (for which they designed their own window style), the Ask! Toolbar conveniently pre-installed itself into Internet Explorer, some bubbles asking me to set up such-and-such piece of hardware, and, I’m not kidding, an “All Programs” menu in the Start Menu that spanned three columns.