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The Ad-Supported Operating System
Posted by
CowboyNeal
on Fri Aug 04, 2006 01:57 AM
from the these-files-brought-to-you-by-pepsi dept.
from the these-files-brought-to-you-by-pepsi dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The appearance of an ad-supported operating system is probably not that far off. This article takes a look at some of the finer points behind an OS which is financed with ad views, and more specifically the logic behind a free version of Windows which could make this a reality. There are a few issues which must be resolved first, but with Microsoft refining Windows Live and shifting some of their focus to advertising, many of the pieces seem to be falling into place."
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Never in a million years (Score:5, Insightful)
Good Idea but not practical and too annoying (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Good Idea but not practical and too annoying (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Good Idea but not practical and too annoying (Score:3, Funny)
Re:s/windows/google/g (Score:5, Informative)
Accessed via POP3 using the free Thunderbird? Don't mind if I do...
Re:Never in a million years (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Never in a million years (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Never in a million years (Score:5, Insightful)
That would depend on the features of the OS. Linux is free, but I paid for Windows. Why? Several apps I use are available on Windows but not Linux. Therefore, Windows (sadly) has value to me.
This isn't a rebuttal, though. You're right. They've got to answer the 'why bother' question. I probably wouldn't ahve bothered replying except for the "never in a million years" bit in your post.
Re:Never in a million years (Score:5, Insightful)
In essence, so long as they don't actually get in the way then I'm happy with them. As soon as they make a noise, stop me accessing my PC immediately, or sit on top of windows I'm using, then I'd get irritated by them. The key to Google's ad success is that they're easy to ignore. Well, consciously ignore at least, we all still read them even if we don't realise it.
Re:Never in a million years (Score:3)
Re:Never in a million years (Score:5, Insightful)
If crashes, malware, and remote pwnership can't make people switch to a real OS, why should advertising?
I think if Vista came with a USB-controlled cat-o-nine-tails, and you had to take five lashes every morning before you could log in, most people would probably put up with it.
Re:Never in a million years (Score:4, Insightful)
As much as I dislike Windows, it is a real OS -- I wish people would stop with this tripe. Sure, it's deficient and suffers from all of the things you mention. But, there are loads of things for which Linux doesn't have any software to do certain things. And, I don't mean some broken POS 0.11 version of something open source. I mean functioning, supported, commercial software which I can actually use -- like my tax software for example.
Eventually, I decided I needed two machines -- one running XP, and one running my beloved FreeBSD. Because there are just certain things you can only do with a Windows machine. And, quite honestly, my XP box is exceptionally well behaved compared to older versions of Windows. Put it behind a firewall and don't install stupid things on it, and pwnership is a moot point.
*laugh* And, some people might actually prefer it that way, who knows.
At this point, you can guarantee Vista will sell, because of Microsoft's dominance in the market segment. And they will continue to dominate for the forseeable future because it is the only platform most people know, and the only one which many software titles are available on. Apple is pulling some people away, but for many people, Linux (or FreeBSD or whatever) is simply not a viable operating system for what they need to do -- from their perspective, those aren't real operating systems.
Cheers
Re:Never in a million years (Score:3, Interesting)
I replaced my tax software with a linux friendly version of "Accountant."
Damn, this human/program works wonders as I don't have to do any work myself. It's voice activated too!
ie, "Hey, Steve here is this and this and that, I want this and those and s
Re:Never in a million years (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Never in a million years (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Never in a million years (Score:3, Insightful)
MSN Messenger is a good example of the ad-supported Windows "problem". Linux users don't use it (they use GAIM or Kopete or some other Linux-friendly messenger.) so they don't get the ads that come with it.
But, MSN Messenger has features that other, Linux
Re:Never in a million years (Score:5, Insightful)
The article didn't consider that many people don't buy Windows - they have it pre-installed. Now, I suppose that hardware manufacturers could sell their computers with an ad-supported Windows for a lower price. And maybe it would catch on, but I doubt it. If the average computer still has something like 1024x768, even if the ads would be text only, they would take screen space. Now, I'm sure most people have no problem of ads taking some of the screen space, but when you start to have ads from the OS, ads from the browser, ads from the IM application etc. there will be a limit. People just have enough.
This idea has also some serious privacy and security implications [slashdot.org]. Will the average user care? Probably not. But if he knows that the operating system was free, he might go on and try out Linux. He won't consider losing money, if he never paid anything for it in the beginning.
Anyway, this ad-biz is getting ridiculous. What's next? Ad-supported games? Oh wait... [slashdot.org]
PS. I downloaded my Windows XP professional ISO for free from Microsoft. What do you mean you can't get legal Windows for free?
Re:Never in a million years (Score:5, Informative)
Microsoft has an academic developer program [microsoft.com], where they give all kind of software for free. I downloaded Windows XP Professional, Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition and some other software as well. You get an ISO image and your own serial code for the software by downloading from this website with an unique login. Other software that I remember being available was the Visual Studio and SQL server. I don't remember the specifics, as I rather use my Mac. Microsoft Office could not be downloaded.
I believe this is just a way for them to try to keep new developers using Windows, rather than switching to Linux or OS X. Some membership fee is paid by the school, but I don't see any of it.
Re:Never in a million years (Score:3, Insightful)
The two issues are inextricably linked, however. If yo
Windows already is just what TFA speaks about (Score:4, Funny)
Ok, you wouldn't. But the vast majority of people use Windows, which in actuality already is an ad-supported OS. Many (most?) installations of Windows are (1) pirated, hence 'free', and (2) infected with adware, hence 'ad-supported'...
TFA even hints that the point would be to move the ad revenue from the adware companies to Microsoft:
This is no doubt why there was news about MSFT buying a adware company, probably so the operating system could essentially be infected with the most permanent adware possible, though at this point the term "adware" would not really be appropriate.
So, Windows would remain free and ad-supported, as it essentially is right now, but MS would get paid and not the adware companies. An interesting thought, but it's just speculation on TFA's part. MS will probably want both kinds of revenue, licenses (enforced by WGA), and integrated ads.
Re:Never in a million years (Score:3, Insightful)
Linux is free, and ad-free.
It's also free [gnu.org], an important distinction. :) It doesn't matter if it's free as in zero-cost, as long as it's free as in the-freedom-to-copy-it-to-your-friends.
Re:Never in a million years (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Never in a million years (Score:3, Insightful)
By that I mean the same people who make life decisions based on television advertising, worry about characters in soap opera's as if they were real people, and think a family outing to macdonalds is a treat (I'm not joking, I
Re:Never in a million years (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Never in a million years (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Never in a million years (Score:5, Interesting)
- Dragging a window caused a (slow) redraw. Haven't they heard of buffering?
- Inserting a USB memory stick went through some kind of add new hardware thing. Why wasn't it automatically mounted? The drivers were present, so why bother the user?
- Ejecting the USB drive meant going to a tiny PCMCIA icon in the task bar; hardly intuitive. Why wasn't there an eject button Explorer?
- The scheduler really sucks. Even the old 4.4BSD scheduler handled load better, and ULE wipes the floor with the Windows scheduler.
- Why doesn't the kill -9 equivalent always work? Some processes seem to get stuck in system calls that never return. Not good design.
- Privilege escalation is painful. RunAs feels like a horrible hack, and accessing it through the GUI is painful.
- Drivers. Why do I have to hunt for drivers for my hardware? The only specific configuration I've had to do on other platforms was to grab the DRI drivers for FreeBSD, and that was little more than 'portinstall drm.' Windows won't even tell me what hardware I have if it doesn't have drivers for it! It is very hard to find drivers for 'Unknown Multimedia Interface.' If it even gave me the PCI ID then I could google for that.
- Installing software is painful. Each application seems to have its own method of installing. On OS X, I just drag things to the Applications folder. On FreeBSD, I use portinstall. On OpenBSD, I use pkg_add. On Windows, it varies for app to app.
- ACPI support is somewhat flaky. Quite often my laptop would go into suspend mode and never resume. According to the comments in the ACPI code for FreeBSD there are some special work-arounds for a buggy ACPI controller in my machine, but somehow Windows doesn't have them. Why not?
- Drag and drop support in Windows is very hit-and-miss. Many things don't even seem to support drag and drop on text!
My conclusion was that Windows is not ready for the desktop, let alone the laptop.I can't wait (Score:5, Funny)
Or play "Punch the Monkey!!!" on my task bar.
No thanks. I've been sticking with Free Software lately because I like it better for research, but if this advertising crap ever happens, I might just become a convert to the philosophy.
Re:I can't wait (Score:5, Insightful)
The problem with an ad-supported operating system is that people expect the computer to work. And when they sit down to do their taxes, balance the check book or write an email they do not want to be hindered with ads about the latest tax, accounting software or email client that is available. Sure, this model may have some people who will do it. Heck, the reason I watch so little TV is because of the ads (and yes I know about Tivo), and the last thing that I want is to be attacked with ads while using the computer; I use the computer when I want to be entertained as is, why would I voluntarily invite it on to my computer? This is just the realization of ad folks that people are starting to spend inordinate amounts of time on the computer and they want to encrouch on where people are spending time. AOL is switching to an ad context, and they are going to offer free service. I think that many people would happily pay for an operating system just to avoid the ads.
Besides how much do you want to bet that an ad-supported OS would make the malware guys overly happy? Think about it. If a malware guy could take over the ad-subsystem on Windows, then the user might not even know it. So instead of getting reputable ads they start getting penis enhancment products and the like.
Re:I can't wait (Score:3, Informative)
Isn't that a good idea, given that they can try it for as much as they want first and make sure it's worth the money. I am more worried that the pay option will not be
like email spammers.... (Score:3, Interesting)
So instead of getting reputable ads they start getting penis enhancment products and the like.
Or, if spam email is any predictor, the hijackers will advertise their services promising to reduce the OS-planted ads. Oh, and also how you can get your ad p
Re:I can't wait (Score:3, Funny)
Ad vs Subscription, but... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Ad vs Subscription, but... (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm not sure why you don't understand, it's not like th
In The Future... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:In The Future... (Score:3, Funny)
352ff7: 00000 00000 0000 0000 0000
Enlarge your pennis!
Dumbest Article I have ever read (Score:5, Insightful)
This article is touting the ad-supported OS like it will have a million entrants, but who are the players that can go for this? Only 3 realistically, Microsoft, Mac OS X, and a company with their own branded Linux.
An ad supported linux will never take off. The good and free versions are just too numerous and the other trillion reasons that won't work. It will never fly on Mac OS X, that is just too contrary to contemplate. But Microsoft...... why would they want an ad free OS?
Right now, they make a set amount from each sale. An ad supported OS will not only lower that intake, it will not have long term gains from all the people who will patch their OS to fix it from the "crippled" version to the good version. Total loss for MS.
This seems to be just somebody's hair brained scheme to "compete" with google, but how does it compete with Google? It doesn't. Google, if they ever release an OS (I doubt), will supply it over the net while MS here just pushes a reduced cost version off store shelves.
Furthermore, the article states:
Um, no. Home Users already indirectly pay for Microsoft when they purchase a computer. No win for Microsoft there, either in marketshare or revenue. It would not be ideal for internet cafes, as people pay cafes (at least in Europe) to use those computers, so bludgeoning them to death is neither in the interest of the Cafe owner who sells time (and doesn't get any revenue from said ads anyway) nor their customers. In libraries, again, I have to ask why?
I chalk all this nonsense to a slow newsday. I swear, this is the dumbest fad that is making every idiots eyes light up as if this is the best thing since sliced bread. The advertising market is already saturated, people are becoming resistant to advertising in general, and the pie is only so big.
Re:Dumbest Article I have ever read (Score:4, Interesting)
If it's an either/or deal then you're right. But suppose they're just testing the water looking to make ads ubiquitous on the windows platform.
Then they'd probably market Vista with a ridiculous mark up - even by Microsoft standards, that is - and then offer an entry level version with full functionality, but supported by adverts. Of course, the ad-supported version costs as much as they think the market will bear, but everyone is so relieved at not being charged One Beeeelion Dollars that they think "phew, what a relief". Likewise when the OEMs start bundling the ad enhanced version by default.
MS already have the infrastructure to serve the ads via their acquisition of Massive. They'd need to make sure no one turned the adverts off - which sounds like a job for WGA.
Suddenly the spyware like elements of WGA make sense. MS can mine user activity patterns to serve targetted ads, beat Google at their own game, and get an ongoing revenue stream against the likelihood that the next windows released gets delayed until the Twenty-Second Century. Huzzah! The company is saved!
You know, I think this might actually be The Plan...
Ads in Linux (Score:5, Funny)
Dear Sir/Madam,
I am the wife of Dr. Mabunga, the former minister for internal affairs in Nigeria,
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3409 2005-12-13 14:35 cpuload.c
-rw------- 1 root root 614363 2005-08-17 19:16 culturalgrammar.pdf
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 456 2006-03-23 17:17 cv
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 27136 2006-02-03 12:08 cv+cover.doc
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 48 2006-08-01 15:56 Desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 33995 2006-03-30 10:26 dilbert2006610630330.gif
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 49672 2006-03-30 10:35 dilbert.gif
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 245760 2006-03-16 15:57 djpenguin.zip
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 2005-11-16 17:44 dlmgr_.pro
drwxr-xr-- 2 root root 336 2005-08-19 15:55 download
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 223 2006-07-13 15:23 DVconfig.ini
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6461758 2006-06-13 15:07 E1.wma
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 10583 2005-07-19 10:49 endian
Public Terminals (Score:5, Insightful)
The thing is, all the major software makers are desperate to find some sort of subscription or rental model so they can get a guaranteed revenue stream without having to stay on the product improvement treadmill. Improving software is HARD - Vista is a crystal clear example of how hard - which makes it expensive. If a software house can persuade customers to keep giving them money without improving the product, they're on a win.
That's why they're tying software to hardware with product activation and pushing DRM or other methods of artificially obsoleting their products. Almost all of Microsoft's OS sales are with new PCs but even then, your ordinary punter, after paying for the OS for the Nth time, is starting to ask "how many times do I have to pay for this crap? It's barely changed in the past five years, but I still have to fork out the same $$ as I did the first time." Expect to see more of this sort revenue model as software becomes more complex.
What's really needed, of course, is a new way of writing and maintaining software. The programs we use today are essentially bespoke, hand-built items, much the way cars were at the start of the 20th century. The primitive fabrication methods are masked because computer software can be duplicated infinitely without additional cost, but it's still an industry ripe for a new enry Ford to invent the digital equivalent of a production line.
Re:Public Terminals (Score:3, Insightful)
Isn't this what Google is becoming? (Score:5, Insightful)
Trying to plug an advertising-driven model into traditional "operating systems" is like trying to glue a Mini-ATX motherboard into a Palm PDA. Some things just don't translate. We have learned to accept Google's ads, because they sit inoccuously in parts of the screen that would be blank otherwise. How can Windows even attempt this?
I don't think Microsoft and Google are competing on the same terms any more, if they ever were. While Microsoft are still selling products that were defined twenty years ago and hit their peak a decade ago, Google is busy reinventing the online world, following its own designs and writing the rules.
Let me give you an example... Office applications. On the one hand, Microsoft is wondering how to provide online access (advertising supported, metered, whatever) to Office. Now, Google are thinking, "in five years' time, people won't want to write documents this way any longer" and they're thinking of how to use the web to create documents, presentations, totally bypassing the Office metaphor (which is ancient, dating to before the days of the IBM PC). The very first microcomputers, running CP/M, ran office applications (WordStar, CalcStar, etc.)
I used to write many documents using Word, then I switched to OpenOffice a few years ago. Today, I edit my documents as text, post them to Wikis, and use text-to-PDF and text-to-HTML conversion tools to produce deliverable output. I don't open OpenOffice any more unless someone sends me a document. The only exception is spreadsheets. I've not yet seen a new online abstraction that replaces spreadsheets, though calculations would be a natural feature to add to wiki systems.
Google gets this, I think.
Re:Isn't this what Google is becoming? (Score:3, Informative)
Windows has ALWAYS been ad-supported... (Score:5, Interesting)
* Program performed illegal operation
Sends the hapless home user scurrying to get a licensed copy of the OS.
* Windows did not shut down properly. Files may be corrupted or lost
And the poor chap goes out and buys a UPS. Never a chance to even imagine that ext3 rarely loses files even during a power shutdown.
* Photoshop Elements may not work well with this Service Pack
So the user pays Adobe for the privilege of being lazy enough not to explore better options.
* Windows encountered an error in lsass.exe and must shutdown
The user buys an upgrade since there's no support for the old OS any more.
And so on, Windows has been a huge advertising platform for anti-virus software, UPSs, Backup-software-that-actually-works-but-is-suppos
The fact that despite being an antiquated junkpiece several years behind in technology, Windows has succeeded as a platform, proves a coupla' things:
1. User apathy and lethargy is a very potent force. A user would rather patch a buggy junk, rather than learn something better, simpler and advanced.. like Linux, Opera, Firefox, Open Office, Gnumeric etc.
2. It's not possible to release Newer OSes forever, that's still prone to viruses and malware... remember You Can't Fool All The People All The Time...
and so, it appears
Microsoft has patented Web-Service-OSes that can be metered like Electricity and Gas. It's about time, one would've thought. Suddenly, all these lower-life-forms like anti-virus and backup s/w firms who depended on MS for their living.. would become redundant! There'll be hell to pay, since these guys don't die overnight.
Symantec, Trend Micro, Citrix or Veritas wouldn't take such initiatives lying down. Interesting times ahead!
It's been happening for years, to some extent. (Score:4, Interesting)
Could work. (Score:3, Interesting)
If MS provided retailers with a cut-rate version of Windows to distribute on their products, how many people, really, would bother uninstalling said OS from their new computer?
Can MS make enough selling adverts to match or overshadow the profits they'd otherwise make from selling a straight system OS?
I'd venture a big fat 'Yes'.
An OS driven ad is very different from an internet ad. --Why? Because the internet ad only comes up if you go to a specific site. An OS ad comes up if you turn on your computer. How easy is that to sell to a company?
And who cares about click-throughs? Click-throughs are for small companies trying to hawk wares on the web. That's small potatoes. When you can guarantee a hundred million pairs of 'eyeballs' you can now get advertisers like Coke and Tide and GM sending checks to your accounts receivable department. Coke and Tide and GM don't care about click-throughs.
-FL
Two Words: (Score:3, Insightful)
I (jokingly) predicted this years ago... (Score:3, Interesting)
Even though the idea of an advertiser-driven OS was a total joke at the time, it did seem like an inevitable development someday.
Advertisement-riddled Windows (Score:3, Insightful)
Seriously... does anybody think this idea is good? At all?
FreePC did it. (Score:3, Informative)
I always wanted to get one to just run as a monitorless file server, but they stopped answering my emails after I asked what was being done to stop me just reformatting the thing. Oddly enough, they disappeared when the bubble burst. Can't imagine why...
Re:Ad-OS is already here (Score:5, Informative)
Not to speak of the last "dell" I got (sorry folks, dual core $700 (not anymore), couldn't resist [dell.com]). I don't remember half the crap I deleted but trial word perfect, trial mcaffes, plus a shit load of isp adverts, this is ontop of the normal winxp adverts if you click the wrong thing. Fortunatly the crap was easy enough to delete, well except for McAfee's spyware.