Do No Evil (unless we can make lots of money doing evil). Currently, the zeitgeist in computer makers is that they, not those of us that buy the damn things, own the computer. It comes loaded with crap designed to either steer you down a direction you don’t need (Hello AOL!) or designed to be borderline spyware like the Google stuff above.
You can’t buy a car that drives you to a Shell station when you need gas and you shouldn’t be able to buy a computer from Dell that directs you to ad pages by Google. When you buy a product, it’s yours and you should have all the power in making decisions regarding that product. Google has lost its way as it got huge just like all other “Do No Evil” companies before it. Google isn’t special and it doesn’t look like it ever was, regardless of the lofty mottoes and intentions of its founders.
More overreach can be found here where Google basically admits to wanting to store your personal information so they can better organize your life. I’ve got news for Google, this centralization of power information scares those of us who think decentralization of most everything is the way to go. You may use it for good now but history teaches someone always comes along to use it for something bad.