this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2023
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"if I don't use it, it's useless"
Bloatware doesn’t necessarily mean it’s useless, but if even a reasonable percent of people don’t want or need it or shouldn’t be preinstalled. That’s bloatware.
For bloatware to be a meaningful term, I think it needs to go beyond just some arbitrary percent of users don't need or use it. For an OS, having baseline apps which are useful across a wide variety of hardware setups and use cases is reasonable, even if they don't apply in your particular situation. Bloat would be superfluous apps that replicate baseline features or baseline apps that have grown in scope beyond what's strictly necessary.
Remote desktop and camera apps are pretty primary pieces of functionality, whether or not you use or need them. Windows is bloated garbage in general but those apps are not really a part of that imo... I don't know if there's really a precise definition of bloatware but I sort of think of it mostly as something that takes up your system resources rather than just hard drive space. Something that runs all or most of the time even though it doesn't actually provide much value
It's bloat because a lot of people will never make use of it, so it's taking up more space (bloating it) for no appreciable gain. It should be easy to install if you do want to make use of it, but not literally every piece of software should be installed just because some people will use it.
It coming pre-installed is also harmful to third parties. Many will just choose the MS version because it's already there, rather than potentially find another group who's made similar (maybe even better) software for the same purpose.
By that definition
grepandawkare bloat on Linux.At least I can uninstall either of those programs with a single command
i'd wager those tools are "indirectly used" by other used software ... that should also be included into the definition.