XPS Developer Edition “Bloatware”

Hello, I recently had the chance to use a Dell XPS Developer Edition - gr8 m@chine

However, a few things about the expserience left me saying "hm"

For example - Firefox did not come pre-installed - but Chrome and Chromium were.

Additionally, Ubuntu Software Center did not come pre-installed - a special edition called Ubuntu Software was installed instead - that pushed Transmission as it's marquee app (and was otherwise faulty).

Have we really come full circle here? Is this old news? Has any one seen something similar?