That is pretty much the main point of my comment is that they bundle these old versions and so many people just click no when java asks to update (I haven't seen a popup for flash so I don't know how many answer yes to that) and adobe only has a tray icon when the reader needs to update (which is perpetually there on so many machines).

One of the biggest annoyances for me with new windows laptops is that many of the manufacturers no longer send the windows cd to reformat if they send a cd at all it is to recover back to the condition with all crapware installed.

HP now has a recovery manager to create recovery disks for you and the last hp computer I saw had to create 5 dvds in order to recover to that state (which would probably require something like a 6 hour reinstall).

It is a sad state if you ask me that you get this now because it allows manufacturers to take away cost by bundling shareware with the computer, just a few years ago toshiba was still shipping legitimate windows cds which allowed you to reformat to normal windows.