Dear ATI
Dear ATI,
I recently began to experience strange glitches in my ATI Radeon 9800 video card. They would appear sporatically, and often render my two monitors unusable. In an attempt to resolve this issue I have tried reseating the card in my computer and making sure the fan was spinning. In a last ditch attempt I decided to download newer drivers (though mine were from 9/07 7-10_xp32_dd_53250).
http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx?p=xp/radeonx-xp
Like most computer savvy people, I went to your site and downloaded the Display Driver package (7-12_xp32_dd_55811). I really didn't want any other bells and whistles, so seeing the statement that the package contained ONLY display drivers I figured I had found what I needed.
After downloading it, the very first screen asked me if I wanted to download Earthsim. Earthsim? No, if I had wanted to download Earthsim, instead of going to ATI I would have typed "earthsim" into google and then downloaded it there. Heck I don't even know what that is....will Earthsim fix my display issues? Will Earthsim let me see my desktop again through the fuzz and static that randomly pops up? If not, then why the hell would I want to install this.....I had a hard enough time getting Norton out of my computer, I don't need more bloatware. And while I'm at it, I already purchased Half Life 2 a few years ago, it's a great game and while I recommend it I really don't need a link to "free" games from Valve that I already own.
I think you need to change the title of the link from "Display Driver" to "Display Driver and other crap you don't really need".
Sincerely,
Dennis Judd
Comments
Don't bother throwing a bottle in the ocean, just untick the options if you don't want something.
What about Windows Media Player built-in windows, or if you want to remove outlook express, moviemaker or IE6 for good ? how about the google-toolbar every single installer is proposing you ?
I think you'll never stop writing complaints if you go into that path : business is business you know, marketing is needed to bring money and make softwares better, bundles are just a technique like another but sometimes things aren't that bad...
Otherwise, you can still switch to Linux dude ;)
Posted by: HiDennis! | January 21, 2008 02:27 AM
For me though, the issue was that all the stuff i'm complaining about was only suppposed to be in the full driver package. The one with catalyst and all the other stuff. If you look at their site it says this "The Catalyst Software Suite includes a shortcut for a free game offer from Valve, the Steam software installer and a shortcut for Earthsim."
Well I downloaded the "Display Driver" only link....so well, you get my point. I know i'm pissing in the wind here, but they caught me on a bad day I guess....
Posted by: Dennis Judd | January 21, 2008 07:27 AM
The choir hears you Preacher Dennis, blatant marketing like pop-up windows you get from certain commercial sites are expected (annoying, but we know we're gonna have to deal). But this kind of tactic is what sickens me. I came across this post while trying to find out what the heck Earthsim is, and why it was bundled in the ATI driver package. Its disturbing to hear that even if I unchecked the Earthsim option in the setup wizard for the bundle I d/l'd from the ATI site, that I would still have been infected with their sneaky, unscrupulous attempts to steal a few more pennies from advertisers. It IS wrong of them, and it IS worth complaining about. If we as consumers never spoke out against what we thought crossed the line in business ethics, we would have no child labor laws in the U.S.. HiDennis! does have a point though, I'm going to RedHat very soon...
Posted by: feelU | February 11, 2008 03:56 PM
I'm right there with you. I'm doing a fresh install right now and just got the latest drivers. When I want a driver, that's all I want in the package, the driver.
Posted by: Ian | February 28, 2008 03:00 AM