“A senior Microsoft Corp. executive says the company is concerned that uncertified third-party software loaded onto new computers by manufacturers could hurt the launch of consumer versions of its Windows Vista operating system later this month,” Saleem Khan reports for CBC News.
Khan reports, “In a private discussion Tuesday night at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the Microsoft official told CBC News Online, on condition of anonymity, that the world’s largest software maker is frustrated by legal shackles that prevent the company from restricting what kinds of software major computer makers install on new PCs.”
‘We can’t do anything about it because it would be illegal,’ the executive said in reference to restrictions placed on the company following a U.S. federal anti-trust lawsuit against the company,” Khan reports.
Khan reports, “The concern arises from third-party software that hardware makers commonly install on new computers in exchange for a fee, many of which have not been tested and certified by Microsoft to work with Vista, the executive said. They include things such as links to online services, and demo versions of programs. ‘We call them craplets,’ the official said. The term is a contraction of the words ‘crap’ and ‘applet.’ An applet is a small computer program or application.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apparently you can make crap even crappier by topping it with more crap.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Wealthy Industrialite” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Top Windows developer dumps Microsoft’s ‘pile of crap’ for Apple’s Mac OS X – September 12, 2006
PC World writer’s advice for Microsoft: ‘Stop making crap’ – July 27, 2006
Of course Apple would never have this problem, muhahahahaha
Craplets – that’s funny. Even microsoft has some wit.
KHAAAAAAAAAAAAN!
Rush has Ditto Heads, I think we should be the MDN Craplets.
Oh we spell disaster alright.
they’re consciously or not trying to be Apple by controlling the software-hardware integration from 3rd party..
too bad they cant!
I bet he got the term craplet from Vista itself.
dude, think it through.
that annoying nagware is how Dell et al make money.
it’s how they can cut costs and still make some profit…
asking them to remove it is like asking them to abandon their raison d’etre..
I’m sure MS is thinking… “first bootup should be a religious experience.. “
Instead its PORNBLOCK V7.003 INSTALL NOW!
So I guess they consider Microsoft Office a productivity Crapplication Suite?
I’m just saying.
Crap topping. The Windows users favorite dish from Microsoft.
Microsoft needs to use apply a little spin to this news.
“Vista, it’s craptacular!”
“Vista, our shit doesn’t stink…that bad.”
“Vista, our shit doesn’t stink…like other people’s.”
“Vista, only our crap and no one else’s. Guaranteed.”
“Vista, we know our shit.”
“Vista, direct from our colon to your PC.”
“Vista, the stench you expect from the people you know.”
“Vista, the finest feces for the discriminating user.”
“Vista, don’t trust other people crapping on your PC, we’re the experts.”
‘Vista, hey, it floats!”
“Vista, why buy a few craplets when you can own the whole sewer?”
“Vista, first potty, not third potty.”
“Vista, your PC, our cesspool.”
“Vista, preloaded with Hep-A vaccine.”
Craplet = software installed by the manufacturer where Microsoft hasn’t gotten its vig.
Great MDN take…
Hey, Apple puts a demo of Office 2004 on new Macs. You don’t see Apple calling it a “craplet” or having it cause the Mac to crash. Gee, I thought Microsoft was the expert in partnering…
Besides, a “real” OS does not have to worry about badly written applications. The app might crash and burn, but the OS is secure. More proof that Windows Vista = Mac OS 9.
Right! I can see right through this one!
Microsoft is trying to shift the blame to PC manufacturers by saying, Hey if Vista sucks it because of THEIR crapplets, don’t blame Vista!
I spot BS!!!!!!
Hey Anon, you forgot one..
“Vista, it’s crappalappin’!”
yeah CRAPplication is the best idea!
Then why doesn’t Microsoft reduce the fee for Windows to box makers in return for removal of the offending craplets installed with the computer?
Nothing illegal about that incentive.
The MDN take me cracked up. It is sad because it is so typical, and it
has been this way for PC’s for a long time. I’ll get laughed at for this,
but I once purchased a Packard Bell 133mhz Pentium machine brand
new ( I had plenty of Mac access at work, I got it to play games ).
The point is, it came pre-loaded with total garbage. I had to format the
drive and do a clean Windows 95 install. It is still the same today, you
can hardly by a machine off the shelf that sports a clean OS…
… Mac. Yet another reason to lova a Mac. Can I get a whoop whoop?
Is a craplet brown?
So much for M$ loving its “partners”…
Gee, I would not worry about a few craplets, Microsoft will always be the biggest crapola in many people’s hearts and zunes.
Apple installed all kinds of 3rd party software to my MacBook and they work great.
PC makers ship webcams and memorycard readers in their laptops and the drivers are missing.
Guess the beige-box-buyers just don’t care or know any better.
Then why doesn’t Microsoft reduce the fee for Windows to box makers in return for removal of the offending craplets installed with the computer?
Nothing illegal about that incentive.
Did you not see this part ?..
‘We can’t do anything about it because it would be illegal,’ the executive said in reference to restrictions placed on the company following a U.S. federal anti-trust lawsuit against the company,”
Basically Microsoft abused their monopoly to the extent that they can no longer be trusted to behave as a responsible business.
If Microsoft want to control what goes onto PCs, they should just make and sell the PCs themselves. Can’t believe they’re bitching about this when this is fundamentally the way the market that made them billions upon billions works.
If you think about it, we have craplets, too, with the trial version of Office preinstalled …
Wah Wah Wah…… Doesn’t Macrosift realize that the biggest craplet is Vista itself…. what a waste of CPUs – spend all that money and ingenuity – only to have some 3rd rate OS put on it.
I mean, who today would go out and spend even $300, only to turn around and put DOS on it (although in some respects it might be more productive that putting Vista on it).
Macrosift is simply trying to put the blame for their crappy OS on some one else…… If their OS was worth anything, it would be secure from “craplets”
Anybody else find the contrast amazing (and depressing if you’re someone who actually likes Doze), that Dull and the others load total s**t as extras on XP/Vista, but when you buy a new Mac you get iLife, one of the best consumer “add-on” packages available?
“More proof that Windows Vista = Mac OS 9.”
Please do not insult OS9 like that. OS9 had some great qualities. Vista… not so much.
Thorin
I got a Packard Bell 486 sx50 with 4 megs of RAM and a 340 meg hard drive with Win 3.11 brand new in ’94 from Campo’s. Of all the computers I have had since (about 5) it was the second best-never a problem. Of course, after I get my second Mac, that will bump the PB down to third, and so on…
Chrissy
I guess that would make me a Ditto-Crap-Head-Let. (best of both)
As Arnold would say-Hasta Crapla Vista, baby!
It’s like standin’ in the middle of a shit-tank and callin’ an arriving turd unworthy. Reminds me of a Japanese saying: Wagakuso wa kusakunai [my shit don’t stink].
One thing about the programs that come with a new mac. Most of them aren’t sample piece’s of crap that load on startup, they are useful things like quicken or marble blast gold (my niece and nephew love that game). You only find them while exploring applications. And if you don’t want one–Office for example. You just dump it in the trash, easy as pie.
Although, now that I think about it Office makes you actually run an uninstaller now that I htink about it, MS doesn’t play well with others.
I think this says it all:
Hey, that’s a find, Botvinnik, “zune” in mirror reverse is just too close to “anus”!
@ken1w about the “real OS thing you were babbling about”:
Search back into the Palm Desktop installer for OS X. Nuff said. Fucked my mac p for weeks until I figured out what was making it act up. It was a brand new Powerbook and I was cursing Apple until I found out the installer file was incomplete. The script just stopped dead in the file. Crazy.
As an IT admin the first thing I have to do is take all that shit off to get a reasonable boot time out of a machine. I understand where they’re coming from. Maybe MS should start building PC’s? They can use teir xbox brad or something.
Craplets? This sounds like a product of the creativity that comes from closely coupling with a variety of partners Bill Gates was talking about. You really do get more with a Windows system. Cool.
He said it.
“…many of which have not been tested and certified by Microsoft to work with Vista,”
Does it really matter?
That’s what happens when you license out your chicklet craplet operating system, Bill Can you say “complete hardware and software solution”, Bill?
‘We can’t do anything about it because it would be illegal,’ the executive said in reference to restrictions placed on the company following a U.S. federal anti-trust lawsuit against the company,” Khan reports.
The pure arrogance of MS must be laughed at frequently (or new vocabularies of profanity get invented)… Can you imagine the self absorbtion that it takes to complain that you can’t control absolutely everything, including what’s put out by independent developers? WOW! If MS wants to control everything then let them make the whole widget – seems like I’ve heard of a computer company that does that, and still allows fully independent software developers to make software that runs on their hardware and OS.
Is MS actually implying that outside developers are becoming unwelcome? Truly incredible.
if Vista was really secure, these “craplets” would be no issue. What about the stuff the user wants to install. Will Vista wag it’s finder and say “No, No” when it sees something that isn’t on it’s “good” list?
Even if craplets were installed, they should not be able to do anything really bad unless the user allows it with root permission…. or is there no such thing in Vista as “root.”
In OS X, a “craplet” would have to ask for permission to do practically anything outside the user’s own space, even if he was an admin…
– gws
Let me understand his statement. MS Vista has 6 Applications (Excel, Word, Power Point, Access, Project, Visio) and over 25,000 craplets. OSX has over 5,000 Applications… Now we all know which platform has more applications and craplets.
Crap, crap, crappity, crap!
thekilldare ~
“Crapplication”….I like that…..from here on out, I deem, by the powers vested in me and MDN, that all applications pertaining to the Micro$oft Monopoly be named henceforth, CRAPPLICATIONS!
Unremarkably, crap at the bottom of the pile bears a striking similarity to crap at the top of the pile…
If I were a Microsoft box assembler “partner”, I’d be quaking in my boots feeling like I was about to be PlayedForSure.
Will Microsoft start building their own PeeCee’s?
Ironic that the internal (no pun intended) name for the Vista version of the Zune software is Craplet.
Nice work there Microsoft, shoot yourself in the foot by badmouthing your hardware vendors. All they are trying to do is make Windows somewhat of a decent user experience.
It seems to me that all Micro has to do is manufacture their own brand of computers, and guarantee that VISTA will work on them, and come supplied with no craplets. This would be perfectly legal, and they could then control the interface between the operating software and the hardware. Not only that, they could emulate Apple more effectively.
They already have a brand Name: Vista. What’s wrong with that?
This would give them some additional leverage since the other manufacturers would have to counter this with their own guarantees that their craplts work and do not sabotage VISTA.
The computer company could be a separate corporation, wholly owned by Microsoft. It will be called Microhard. Or maybe not.
The actual story before it was edited:
“Senior executives of hardware companies say they are concerned that Microsoft software loaded onto their computers could hurt the launch of consumers because of the flawed Windows Vista operating system later this month,” Saleem Khan reports for CBC News.
Khan reports, “The concerns arise from Microsoft operating systems that hardware makers commonly are forced to install on their computers in exchange for a fee, many of which have not been tested and certified to work with their hardware, the executives said. They include things such as links to online services, and demo versions of programs often referred to as Explorer and Office. ‘We call them craplications,’ the officials said. The term is a contraction of the words ‘crap’ and ‘application.’ If you look up craplication in the dictionary, you will see Microsoft’s logo.
Hey, at least there’s not a ‘month of vista bugs’ now like their is for apple.
And where is your new OS? What is it, Lynx? Ocelot? When is it going to be released? Hmmm. Can you smell the vaporware?
And if your mac computers are so great, why wasn’t one shown at macworld? Is a phone and a wireless router all that they’ve got to show?
Steve Jobs, Steve Jobs, whatcha gonna do,whatcha gonna do when they come for you?
This weeks episode of “SEC” is filmed live on location in Cupertino.
Anonymous – “Vista, the stench you expect from the people you know.”
LOL!
That’s CRAPTASTIC!
Yeah, to bad Microsoft isn’t like Apple, and able to tell consumers that they have to upgrade because we’re not going to support your current apps or hardware with the new software release; or control the complete hardware end of the business either.
Of course, Microsoft has users still running software that is 20-25 years old on Windows. When was the last time you heard of someone using MacWrite 1.0 on OSX, though you still run into people using old DOS software on Windows.
Mac users have a high horse they need to get off.
Hey Sam,
I’ll bet they’re not using 20-25 year old machines to run that ancient software.
My first Mac IIci still starts up and runs the installed apps without a problem. Yes, it’s slow, but it works. I’ve never even changed the battery.
Would I choose to use it over my G5? No. But I could still produce marketable graphics on it like I did 16 years ago if I had to. I would bet you can’t say the same.
My wife’s first Windblows PC (bought in 1998 has been replaced four times. FOUR! Not out of want, but out of necessity!
In my line of work (graphics and prepress) I am forced to use both platforms. I started out in a Mac and PC shop in 1988, and over the years up to today have had to use both. At work I am using a 1 year old Windows machine (HP Pavilion with XP) against an old Mac G4 with OSX 10.4. I honestly was shocked to see that the Mac starts up several seconds faster. The Mac has 1 Gb of RAM, the PC has 2 Gb.
The G4 performs almost all production tasks faster than the HP! Unbelievable!!
I equate it like this: Using the Mac is smooth, fluid and generally a pleasure. Using the PC is like rattling a rock in a soup can. It’s clunky and has no finesse. AND has to be restarted at least once a day!!!
I haven’t shut the Mac off in over three weeks.
Norm:
As much as I appreciate your devotion to your venerable G4 with 10.4, I can hardly wait to replace mine this year with a Intel Core 2 Duo (or better) and 10.5. Bite the bullet and do the same, you won’t regret it. You can always donate your G4 to charity.
Sam:
I challenge you to (i) actually name the 20 to 25 year old software and/or hardware currently being used by brand and version, and (ii) identify which businesses, institutions, and organizations are using these archaic systems. If you can’t, I have to conclude that you are a lying sack of shit.