I am a gadget freak. There, I've said it. I love gadgets, but oddly enough, I like there to be a certain simplicity, or if not simplicity, then maybe clarity or standardisation to how they work. This should not come as a surprise to anyone who knows me, such as some of the others here who have been involved in a radio show called Little Brother a few years back.

That said, there is one thing I have learned to despise greatly, and that is all of the extraneous software that comes bundled with every gadget.

Now, I'm not talking about drivers and such. These are an absolute necessity. I'm talking about the stuff that "customises" the look and feel of your computer to "complement" the gadget you have purchased. Most of the time, you don't actually need this crap, because your computer has enough software on it as part of the operating system to take care of things all by itself. That's what the drivers are for, after all.

So yes, I need a driver that will let me plug my digital camera in and retrieve the pictures. No, I don't need a special Sony application to let me do this; I can drag and drop them just fine by myself. I don't need a special JVC application to read my video camera; I have Kino to do that for me. I don't need a special Canon application to run my printer; lpr works just fine.

Of course, I haven't even touched on the fact that most of this crapware doesn't even run on my computer, because I don't do Windows -- I am a die-hard Linux user. No, there is no alternate Windows boot on any of my computers.

Well, it seems that PNY Technologies, the manufacturer of my most recent gadget purchase, have managed to hit a proud new low for crapware. The gadget I purchased was a 2GB thumb drive. At the sale price of $30, I just couldn't resist. I took it home, I plugged it into my computer, and all of a sudden, my computer thinks there is not just a thumb drive, but also a CD-ROM plugged into it.

Huh‽

Okay, so I explored the contents of the "CD", and it contained the PNY crapware, some software called U3. It seemed like a neat idea (lets you install software onto the thumb drive and use it on different computers, keeping all the data together), but this was a lousy execution. If you used it under Windows, you would have to remember to hold shift whenever you plugged in the drive in order not to have this thing launch. Under Linux (as in my case) or Mac OSX, it is just wasted space.

Fine, I said. I would just reformat the thing. I reformatted, and you know what? Unh-uh. IT WAS STILL FUCKING THERE!

After a bit of googling, I found that U3 makes an application that you can use to get U3 uninstalled, but guess what? It only runs on Windows. Oh, I tried running it on Linux under WINE (a Windows emulation layer that usually works, but not always) but no, it didn't work. What is a Windows-free user supposed to do?

Finally, I did borrow a Windows machine for the 60 seconds it took to decrapify this thing, and now I have the full use of my thumb drive, but this was fucking ridiculous. There is no excuse for this sort of thing.

So, my bottom line, if I see U3 on a device, it now gets the unique privilige of remaining on the store shelf for someone else to buy.