this post was submitted on 02 Feb 2024
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Of course they have. MS are putting ads everywhere in Windows. The revenue potential is huge and they have more than enough private information on everyone to do targeted ads.
Microsoft would be insane not to go down this route. It's inevitable.
We need more devices for sale that don't use Windows, because this won't stop. Microsoft is a publicly traded company and their stakeholders demand infinite growth.
The only way to get away from this is to use some kind of FOSS operating system
The Grand Nagus advocating for free and open source software... there must be a novel rule of acquisition I have not heard about yet!
Rule of acquisition number 1,337: Embrace, Extend, Extinguish.
Sounds pretty on-brand for Rom
It's in the revised "wormhole aliens" edition .
Rule 69420: You shall sell the product, not be it.
Someone there wants to go back to 20+ years ago when your friends mom's Internet Explorer windows included 75 different toolbars and there was only a little bit of browser space left. The hayday of "Buddy Bar" is returning for your Edge, Outlook, and Taskbar. Next will be explorer and Excel. The future is looking bright.
Also, Bonzai Buddy.
Man, I had a girlfriend once like 20 years ago who’s dad knew I was into computers and he was so proud to show me this neat Banzai Buddy software he found, he thought he was so cool.
That was the moment that I realized that, actually, something was wrong with all the adults on this planet.
the little purple desktop buddy could come back now.. powered by ai
Parents loved that little purple fucker.
so did I but I was 10 years old
It wasn't official right from MS then. Some stupid people even behaved as if MS were the good guys (who'd also never do something like this).
Been doing this for like 10 years now. It was easy to see the future of windows when windows 8 and 10 started sending user data to their cloud. Next step is always serving ads.
And people pay for Windows too. :)
It's not too late to switch to Linux but you are very late if you haven't done it.
You can turn off Microsoft's ads, browser nagging, and data faucet, but as long as you are dependent on them for Windows Updates, that gives them an opportunity to undo your fixes and turn them back on.
FOSS has a similar problem in which the program author can sell out to a less-friendly entity, and when you update the software it starts misbehaving (see Audacity, Simple Mobile Tools, etc.)
This is why I use Debian stable branch. Disadvantages: outdated software (but still get security updates) Advantages: outdated software (but still get security updates) 😅
The thing is, people have been saying "you can turn off feature x" since at least 10 years now, and while that is true for a while, the operating system keeps getting shittier. There is no reason to keep using something like that unless you have to. :)
Agreed. I dual-booted years ago; start menu ads made me wipe the Windows, and Edging their way into people's computers made me realize how meaningless the antitrust lawsuit was.
It's a slow march toward subscription OS and when it's their computer, people probably won't be able to use the nice one-click registry hacks to remove the ads and spyware.
If there's anything particular about your Linux OS that you don't like, there's likely a different distro that does it the way you want, or dig in and learn how to change it.
The bane of the public company. Once you get big enough that you're no longer able to sustain 20% yoy growth your investors will force you to leave no stone unturned.
They've already put in telemetry
Next they'll put in ads
Then they'll sell subscriptions to get rid of the ads
Then the subscription will become the minimum viable product
Then they'll put ads back in
Then they get Premium subscriptions
Then they put ads in there and release the Ultimate subscriptions
etc etc
The problem is the alternative is Google who is already worse. Linux is needed but until mass consumers reject ads it will never go mainstream.
Cory Doctorow said that half of all Internet users use adblockers (dunno where he got that statistic but I tend to trust that man)
lol
i feel like i'm not actually against ads. i'm against the abuse of ads, that take away from the user experience..
i won't mind seeing an ad if it doesnt get in the way of what i need to do on the pc. i don't need an ad popping up when im trying to work on something, launch an application, download a file, etc. an ad in the corner, big enough for me to be aware of it, but obscure enough to not interrupt me will serve its purpose.
problem is, ad exposure is non-regulated and i can't believe how the constant ad spamming doesn't seem to phase a lot of people.
I don't think there should be any ads in a paid OS.