Why I hate U3

Yesterday I got a new flash drive - they were on sale at OfficeMax, and I needed one. So of course I got a SanDisk Cruzer, because I love them. But I also had to get the u3 removal software (http://www.u3.com/uninstall/) so that I could rid myself of the grossly unnecessary u3. In their little survey for reasons I was removing it, they didn't have the "I hate U3 and think it's the stupidest idea in the history of flash drives" option. So, I wrote them a little note in the "Other" section, and this is how it went:

I hate U3 because it pops up whether I want it to or not, did not have my permission to be there, and takes the messy and unfriendly step of adding another CD drive to my computer. I don't need a proprietary platform to run my portable apps on, a guy named John Haller has already provided me with a quality, universal, and free solution, with a launcher and a bunch of nicely-bundled, well-done apps at http://www.portableapps.com. There's a multitude of other compatible apps at http://www.portablefreeware.com that are also free. And if John Haller's launcher isn't your style, there's PStart at http://www.pegtop.net/start/ as an alternative. Note that none of these solutions require adding an extra CD drive to my computer, a simple ini file will have them ask when I plug it in (note the asking) if I want to run it, and they are free. I have choice - I don't need to use either launcher if I don't want to, or if for some reason I wanted to, I could use a couple of them. Notepad++, Firefox, Gaim, OpenOffice.org/AbiWord, FileZilla, Gimp, Nvu...the list goes on of quality software that I can have portably without U3. Oh, by the way, SanDisk is my brand loyalty. All five of my flash drives that I've purchased have been SanDisk, and when I recently bought my first mp3 player, I went with a Sansa. I love all my flash drives. I grew out of the first one, and washed the second one three times before it gave out. With the third one, I dropped my computer on top of while it was plugged in, which cracked the casing open, bent the connector 45 degrees, and knocked the innards out of the casing. I bent the connector back, put the insides back in, and snapped the casing shut. It worked fine. My fourth one died inexplicably after a fairly short time, and I am working on seeing the possibilities of RMAing it. I just got a fifth, a 2GB one. As a poor college student, I generally just get the cheapest, but SanDisk is the exception because I trust you guys so much and have had such a good experience with you. But U3 is where my loyalty ends. It's not what's next, and it's not smart. It's stupid, badly designed, and will not remain on my flash drive after the first time I plug it in.

What's more, PortableApps works just fine under Wine. What more could I ask?