Bloatware

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There are several definitions, and even within those defs it's still open to subjectivity:

• Pre-installed software that's not required by a system to work
• Redundant or duplicate features included on a device
• Undesirable programs that were never requested by the user
• Software that has become bloated over time

Often, bloat is a symptom of enshittification

Why it is a problem

Most bloatware tends to be pre-installed because the device manufacturer (OEM) has a contract or partnership with another corporation who's interested in "getting exposure" (actually, to advertise itself and collect user data).

Bloat, in any of its forms, raises privacy and security concerns. As a rule of thumb, every added line of code makes a program exponentially harder to prove for correctness^{[citation needed]} (ignoring the nuance that some code can aid static analysis or even completely enforce invariants), making it impractical (hopeless) to verify that a program is not malicious (such as spyware) or has an exploitable vulnerability. The problem is exacerbated if the app is not open-source (or at least, source-available), since reverse engineering is hard and (in many cases) illegal, forcing the user to be at the mercy of the developers and distributors of the app.

Bloat is known for causing sub-par user-experience:

• Slowness makes users want to exit the website or uninstall the program
• High memory use prevents users from multitasking; and even if they can multitask, the system will be considerably slow
• High power usage increases energy bills and reduces battery lifespan
• Overly relying on network connections (such as internet) prevents users from accessing data that could've been cached locally, and can increase cellular-data billing

See also

• "Web Obesity Crisis"
• Javascript bloat in 2024
• "Software disenchantment"
• https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Who-cares-about-efficiency,-I-have-8-GB-RAM-and%7Cor-a-quad-core-CPU