Appfail: Nero 9 Free - of good reasons to install it, that is

Agreed, I downloaded the free trial and it took like 20-25 mins to install and I also had to uncheck multiple options and op for a custom install so I could really see what I was getting and there was gigs worth of crap like dvd menu templates etc which while sometimes can be good not gigs worth of good.

At a time around nero 6 or so it was a really good and easy to use program but not anymore now I use InfraRecorder!

I think I'll go download it right now! Where's that link again?

Ashampoo Burning Studio Free - handles audio & Blu-Ray too! NERO = FAIL. I used to be a devout Nero user, but it has become so bloated and gets worse every new version.

http://www.snapfiles.com/screenshots/burningstudiofree.htm

CD's and DVD's are leaving soon, so, Nero still want's to get some money before that time and this is great way to do it (they think so).

What they are going to do after end of CD and DVD era? :D

i'm done with NERO since version 6.6.0.15 (still use it on XP machines, because it is just excellent). but the logic to install 1.8 GB of code (that would be the full suite) to burn a stupid disk completely escapes me.

for my little burning needs i'm using InfraRecorder (free, open sauce and portable). as mentioned before, in the age of dirt cheap monster hard drives and SDHC cards, optical disks are pretty much dead. their usefulness as storage/backup media is rather limited anyway.

My sentiments exactly!

Even though my motto is "Free is Good" I still remind people to read about what they are getting and after that read it again and once installed read the HELP or read me section before doing anything. One reason most down-talk freeware is they were too anxious to use it, never read anything on it and then ran it before knowing what it really does or even create a restore point. I learned the hard way when I first started using freeware but now I have a happy running computer with the best freeware found....
Free is Good
Kenn-Keeper......

I've always used Nero but I agree with many, its getting too bloated, and full of junkware you have to avoid installing.

Your first 4 reasons are not really anything to be worked up about, it's SOP in the industry and falls under "always catch a few". Relax. No big deal.

Reasons 5 through 8 are variably cogent, but again, it is necessary to remember the target audience.

#5 -- I would be one of the 1% I suppose, the only music I burn is copies of CDs I own. So this works well.
#6 -- Again, you have to remember that this is, after all, advertisement for the full version. It also falls into the category of 1 - 4, Relax.
#7 -- Here before you chastise Ahead, you must first lay the blame squarely upon Microsoft - they started the sloppy install slide, and foisted the registry, with all of its unnecessary complexity upon us.

***Instead of getting worked up, perhaps a small talk about the benefits of Revo Uninstaller is called for.

#8 -- Probably true, it would be something you could best write Ahead about. I know I'd like to see a less bloated full version of Nero - version 7 was the last one that was anywhere close to reasonable in size, and actually, it could have had the ability to cut out a lot.

I'd like to see the full version with the ability to cut much away, for those who don't use many of the features, and don't own terabyte drives. I do own them, but not on my notebook.

I use ImgBurn most of the time.

Also worthy of not is the built in burn functionality in Vista SP2 (and Windows 7). It works well for CD, DVD, DVD-RAM and BD data discs. It even does both multi-session UDF 2.5 discs and all-at-once UDF 1.02 (standard) discs. If you use it with Windows Media Player it might even burn audio CDs (but I sure haven't tried).

While I agree that Nero has grown into some serious bloatware, I still keep using it because of one particular feature, the ability to burn more than one disc at a time. Are there any alternatives that will let me burn 3 or 4 discs simultaniously?

DiscJuggler ... not free though

http://www.padus.com/products/discjuggler.php

license fee varies from $50 (2 drives) up to $550 (16 drives)

There was a time when a program like Nero was necessary because there weren't any viable free alternatives, but that's not the case anymore. There's no reason, as you noted, to install something as bloated as Nero when there are open source and freeware apps that do the same job, take up less space and load much quicker.

I need a free program that can burn videos onto a DVD that'll play on a DVD player (with a menu) anyone got any good suggestions?

PS: It has to be able to burn a large number of video files onto a DVD player. (not like nero that can only take 700MB on one)