Walt Mossberg wrote a great piece about the out-of-box user experience of buying a new laptop: Using Even New PC Is Ruined by a Tangle of Trial Programs, Ads. I’ve gotta say: preach it, brother. He had a bad experience with his new computer. It wasn't the set-up of the computer itself. One of his major problems was with the immense amount of other stuff that the computer manufacturer installed on his shiny new machine.

I can't say this any better than he did, so here's a quote:

The problem is a lack of respect for the consumer. The manufacturers don't act as if the computer belongs to you. They act as if it is a billboard for restricted trial versions of software and ads for Web sites and services that they can sell to third-party companies who want you to buy these products.

This is a huge problem for users. Companies are forgetting that we're users, and that we're not just consumers. The user has to work harder just to get started. Make it hard for them to start up, overwhelm them with information and applications and trials and everything else, and you're making it hard for a user to be passionate about what they're using. Respect your user, and they'll reward you with more than just being your user.

Respecting your user has many facets. Here are some of them:

• Respect their time. Don't assume that your application is the centre of their world. Don't assume that they're going to read every single word in your help files. Get out of their way and let them get on with whatever it is that they're doing. The best user experience is the one that the user doesn't actually notice because everything is going smoothly for them.
• Respect their intelligence. They're not idiots, so don't treat them that way. They also don't know the software as intimately as you do, so don't assume that they know what you call your favourite feature (and again: they're not idiots for not knowing this).
• Respect their work. Don't interrupt their task if you can avoid it. If you must interrupt them, carefully consider why you are interrupting them and what impact it will have on what they are doing.
• Respect their preferences. If the user has expressed a preference somehow, pay attention. Don't ask them for something if you can get the information elsewhere. I'm looking at you, Firefox: I hate that I switch my location in the System Preferences between my office and my home, but I still have to go into Firefox and change the prefs in there too.
• Respect their privacy. If you want information from them, ask their permission, and specify what you're doing with it.