IndustryStandardJul 11, 2024

Microsoft is not done yet: more ads spotted in latest Windows 11 build - gHacks Tech News

https://lemmy.world/post/17461231

Microsoft is not done yet: more ads spotted in latest Windows 11 build - gHacks Tech News - Lemmy.World

When is an ad an advertisement and not a recommendation? Microsoft clearly likes to use the term recommendation for what others may see as an advertisement. There are recommendations in the Start menu, Settings app, Lock screen, File Explorer, Get Help app, and other areas of the operating system already. These are often not that useful. App recommendations in the Start menu are limited to Microsoft Store apps. Now, Microsoft is testing recommendations in the Microsoft Store app. If you never use the app, you won’t be exposed to these. If you do, you may notice recommendations popping up when you try to use the built-in search. First spotted by phantomofearth on X, two or three recommendations are shown whenever search is activated in the official Microsoft Store app.

Show threadGhostalmediaJul 11, 2024

People need to stop complaining about the ads and they need to start complaining about the existence of a Windows monetization team.

Kill that team now while the revenue is small and the shareholders won’t throw a giant hissy fit.

As long as that team exists, they’re going to be putting ads in shit. Cut the head off the snake.

Show threadNaibofTabrJul 11, 2024

Microsoft put themselves in this position when they started giving out Windows 10 for free. It was effective in bringing most of the market onto the new version, but it set an expectation which it now feels like they can’t break, so they’re also giving Windows 11 away. Now to offset that missing revenue, they have to do something to extract value from users.

I don’t see how they could stop this without replacing it with something more exploitive.

Show threadTheBigBrother
There is nothing free in this life…
Jul 11, 2024 at 10:00pmWeb
Show threadRefurbished RefurbisherJul 11, 2024
Linux is free.
Show threadTheBigBrotherJul 11, 2024
Monetarily yes, but not free of time, in fact time it’s the most precious resource we have.
Show threadblind3rdeyeJul 12, 2024
A one-off time ‘investment’ of switching to Linux will save you from all future cases of searching for how to wrestle with the latest Windows crapware. If you switch, you’ll be in time-debt for a few months, and after that you’ll be ahead - and you’ll stay ahead indefinitely. You’ll also have the piece of mind that you are not being spied on and monetised by your OS.
Show threadTheBigBrotherJul 12, 2024

Personally I use Linux, and TBH as I value my free time it’s why I say it, if you need something that just works and don’t want to mess around looking for fixing trivial errors on the internet I would suggest using windows to 95% of people, I hate windows but I must admit if it’s about stability at exchange of looking ads with not tech ability definitely it’s the most recommended.

Linux it’s amazing but it’s not for everyone.

Show threadmrvictory1Jul 12, 2024

It’s like the eternal battle Apple VS Android

My subjective opinion: Comparing Linux v Windows to iOS v Android is a terrible analogy. Both mobile OS work fine and have little differences.

Show threadjj4211Jul 12, 2024

I think this overstates the “you must futz with it” of both Android and the common Linux desktop. Broadly speaking, both are pretty much fine out of the box for most people and the stuff they are likely to want to do to Windows is similarly easy to do with a likely default desktop environment (I’d say KDE more likely than Gnome, since Gnome opts to try not let you do a lot of stuff and demands you have to do “weird stuff” for some customizations). You don’t have to play with “expert tiling-only window manager N” or go off the deep end tweaking to the Nth degree.

Same with Android, though with even less likelihood of anyone bothering to go “off script”. 99% of Android users never touch adb, never do an oem unlock, never boot an aftermarket OS load.

The fact that you can, does not imply you must.