Microsoft's Crapware-free PCs

No, Microsoft has not struck a deal to resell Apple Macs or PCs loaded with Ubuntu. Instead, they are offering up PCs in both their brick-and-mortar and online stores that come free of most of the crapware you'll enjoy when buying from the likes of Best Buy or directly from the manufacturer. According to Ars Technica (see previous link):

The new "Microsoft Signature PCs" initiative means the software giant is removing all preinstalled software from the computers it is selling, and loading them instead with full versions of programs of its own choosing.

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According to the Microsoft Store, Redmond is bundling the following applications on the PCs it is reselling: Microsoft Security Essentials, Bing 3D Maps, Zune 4.0, Playready PC Runtime (for WMC), Adobe Flash Player for IE, Adobe Acrobat Reader, Windows Live Sync, and Windows Live Essentials (which includes Windows Live versions of Messenger, Mail, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Writer, Family Safety, Toolbar, as well as the Office Live Add-In and Silverlight).

This is a positive move, in my book. Aside from the great annoyance that has been Windows for, oh, well, decades at this point (heck, I remember having to reinstall Windows 3.11 constantly anytime anything on the system got a little wacky), crapware has been high on the list of reasons computer users have wanted to take baseball bats to their PCs and demonstrate the dominance of humanity. I think this move will get people, who for whatever reasons insist on using Windows, to actually enjoy their PCs. Until, that is, they actually try to do anything useful. Then they'll just be back at hating Windows.

Seriously, though, I'm curious to see a study comparing the reliability of the crapware-free PCs to machines pre-loaded with crapware goodies. I'm wondering if Windows will actually prove to be more stable and responsive without all the extra baggage.