In other news, the earth is round. Consumerist reports that Best Buy is up to their usual dasterdly tricks. They advertise an inexpensive computer. Then when you go to purchase that computer they only have ones that have been "optimized" by the Geek Squad for $39.99 more than the advertised price.

This is shameful and it should be illegal. Not only because they don't seem to be able to sell an item for the advertised price, but because their optimization service is a monumental joke. At best it will remove a few icons from the desktop (but not the actual crap programs that they point to... Like AOL, Symantec Virus Protection, etc...). At worst, they will lose parts for the PC like power cords or actually make it run slower! Good Lord people!

This just in! Consumerist Reports that Best Buy's Mac Optimisation Service Also Sucks!

How do you avoid this problem? NEVER EVER SHOP AT BEST BUY! Unless you are getting a price on something that makes you feel like you are ripping them off (hardly ever) just run away from that horrid place. There are plenty of other places to buy great computers from. Namely, I would look at Amazon, Newegg, HP, Dell, ASUS, and... well ANY other place.

If you want your PC optimized here is a good idea. Install Ubuntu over Windows and never look back. Ok if you have to keep Windows for some dumb reason then "optimize" your store bought PC that comes full of crappy programs that you aren't going to use anyways and just run the DeCrapifier on it. It is sad, but companies like HP and Dell put all kinds of useless stuff on their PC's that you need to clean up before its useful.

Once you have your PC DeCrapified but before you do anything else, you should make a disk image of it (then you don't have to use the manufacturer reinstall that will just put all the crap you just decrapified back on in case you ever need to wipe the disk and start from scratch). Clonezilla is an awesome project that is free and makes it easy to clone your drive to provide a perfect disk level backup you can use to start from scratch again if you need it.

You could also just buy a Mac. They don't come with stuff you need to DeCrapify. If you are looking for a good deal on a Macbook go check out the prices on Amazon. They are usually quite a bit cheaper than at the Mac store. Then go to your local Mac store and ask them why you shouldn't just buy it from Amazon. They will price match it and may even give you a deal on a warranty. I saved about $350 on my 17" Macbook Pro doing that.