Microsoft Adding More Ads To Windows 10 Start Menu (theverge.com) 328
Microsoft plans to double the number of promoted apps in Start menu. The change, which is scheduled to come with the upcoming Anniversary Update to Windows 10, will see the promoted apps count rise to 10. Tom Warren, writing for The Verge: Some promoted apps are pre-installed, but Microsoft notes that they can be fully uninstalled and any promoted items removed from the Start menu. Microsoft has not revealed exactly why the number of promoted apps is doubling, but it's likely that the company is using it as another method to attract developers to its Windows Store.
I Want Some! (Score:5, Funny)
Where do I go to bend over?
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Yet another false pedanticism.
Remember, people; the dictionary is only a list of known uses of words. It isn't an exclusive list, just a list of stuff that is known.
So even if the dictionary agreed with you, you'd be wrong. But it doesn't.
In English we have lists of known words, and style guides. There aren't any rules, other than that if it isn't clear what the meaning is, then that is non-optimal. It is easy to write something that sucks, or is meaningless, but much harder to write something that is "wrong." But a false pedanticism is a sure a good try.
. There aren't any rules, other than that if it isn't clear what the meaning is, then that is non-optimal. It is easy to write something that sucks, or is meaningless, but much harder to write something that is "wrong." But a false pedanticism is a sure a good try.
There are plenty of rules of English language usage.......
English Grammar Rules
Finding Nouns, Verbs, and Subjects
Subject-Verb Agreement
Clauses and Phrases
Pronouns
Who vs. Whom
Whoever vs. Whomever
Who, That, Which
Adjectives and Adverbs
Prepositions
Effective Writing
Punctuation Rules
Periods
Commas
Semicolons
Colons
Quotation Marks
Parentheses and Brackets
Apostrophes
Hyphens
Dashes
Ellipses
Question Marks
Ex
Classic Shell (Score:4, Informative)
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How long before this is banned due to long "revenue"?
Re:Classic Shell (Score:5, Informative)
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Well hopefully Microsoft will issue an update which will prevent anyone from tampering with the shell and installing a different one. That'll take care of Classic Shell and others of its ilk. Users should not be allowed to avoid the standard Windows 10 start menu.
Thanks satan.
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Hey, I'm just explaining things from Microsoft's point of view.
If you don't like it, you're free to stop using their products.
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No, you're committing a logical fallacy by thinking argumentum ergo decedo applies here. Microsoft is a private company that sells software, and "users of MS software" is a voluntary group which willingly gives money to MS in exchange for software and services. That group has zero power over MS's actions, other than through their voluntary monetary transactions with it.
Here's an analogy for you: you're renting an extended-stay room. You rent it on a weekly or monthly basis, it's fully furnished, and some
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That analogy is really bad. To run with it, you'd have to add that the "scammer" is the guy who sold you the house, and when you bought it, you signed a contract that the seller could come by any time and force you to change your house, or move out of it into a "better" house (the seller gets to decide what's "better"). So when you call the police to complain, they laugh at you and point out that you explicitly agreed to all of this when you bought the house.
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Users should not be allowed to avoid the standard Windows 10 start menu.
Why not? I have Windows 10 on my laptop, and for what I use it for it works fine, but frankly, I can't stand the way it's laid out in comparison to Windows 7 or Even Linux Mint which I'm using on my main computer now.
If you don't want any sort of customization, maybe you should be using a mac instead.
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I like customization. That's why I use Linux Mint with KDE.
But if you use Windows, then you have no right to complain about MS's software. You've freely chosen it, and you're refusing to abandon it in the face of alternatives.
Re:Classic Shell (Score:5, Funny)
You've freely chosen it,
Citation required.
Re:Classic Shell (Score:5, Insightful)
You can complain all you want, but you're wasting your breath. The company doesn't give a shit what you think.
Re:Classic Shell (Score:4, Insightful)
Better yet, move to an OS that actually respects the user. Corporate controlled anything sucks to a large degree, hence my choosing to use Linux, especially the non-sponsored distros that do what they want. I'm not joking and this ads things isn't funny. People just laugh at this and write it off. What's next? A quota on allowed files and photos? Permission to scan said documents? A limit to how many people can have accounts on said machine? Microsoft has gotten worse, if this could be possible, not better.
If you're in IT and you choose to use Windows as your personal OS, you have no one to blame for your troubles. MS in effect, is forcing Windows 10 on people. Yes, you can opt out, but for the average person, it's not obvious. Ads on my OS? Really? Dystopian future much?
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I can't recall which version, but a Windows Home Edition did not allow you to even change the desktop wallpaper. I really thought it was user error at first.
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Better yet, move to an OS that actually respects the user. Corporate controlled anything sucks to a large degree
You mean like Red Hat and systemd?
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RH and Fedora are corporate. systemd is largely in place because of Red Hat and would have died on the vine without Red Hat. Gnome is Red Hat's default DE, so there you go as far as Gnome requiring systemd. BSD looks real good about now. I doubt that Theo de Raadt, for example, would be in any hurry to ever allow something like systemd in OpenBSD. Thankfully, he's also opposed to binary blobs, which are not in OpenBSD. Love him or hate him, but Theo is a damn good project manager.
Linux has become balkanized
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I'm not joking and this ads things isn't funny.
I disagree. I find it very funny.
A quota on allowed files and photos?
Hopefully. That way MS can make more money selling cloud services.
A limit to how many people can have accounts on said machine?
Absolutely. People should have to pay much more for a license for a version of Windows which allows more users.
Better yet, move to an OS that actually respects the user.
Haha, like people are really going to do that. If MS issued a new EULA, tested in court, which r
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> Permission to scan said documents?
Adobe's Photoshop (starting back in CS2) already does that shit [google.com]
The problem is, for every 1 legit case, there are 1,000 illegitimate reasons.
Bend over, Lube Up. Because your illusion of software serving your needs is just that with proprietary software.
--
Fuck You Microsoft and your Ads
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-1 Stupid.
Lots of Linux distros ship with proprietary drivers and codecs, or make it trivially simple to download them (US law prevents them from shipping with some codecs, so they have to be downloaded from offshore).
Don't equate "Linux" with "Fedora" (or whatever distro you have in mind). That's like equating "cars" with "Ford Pintos".
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So you are going to use amature Linux distributions, and perhaps lose out on better designed features and support, just so you can be a Hipster Anti-Corporate man?
Linux, and specifically, Desktop Linux has been around way before the current Apps/Social version of Hipsters.
And it is used primarily by people that like to have a better understanding of the OS they run, and that they can more easily change it if they desire.
Desktop Linux is a perfectly valid and preferable alternative to the garbage called Windows 10.
I would suggest you give it a try, but it seems you've already made up your mind.
Your loss.
Re:Classic Shell (Score:4, Insightful)
There's no proprietary applications because all the users insist on sticking with Windows, and refuse to budge. So fuck 'em: let them pay lots of money to look at ads and deal with a shit UI.
GIMP works fine for me, BTW, but Krita is really more user-friendly. LibreOffice works better than MS Office. And lots of stuff is going to web-based services these days so you don't need desktop apps for them. But for places where your business needs some app and it only works on Windows, have fun suffering with MS's abuse. I have no sympathy. That's what you get for not forcing vendors to support your chosen platform. Some vendors support MacOSX because customers demanded it, so it's not like you're forced to use Windows everywhere.
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Well, adding sympathy for those people stuck in jobs that require you have Windows will grease the wheels of change. If it's seen as an undesirable working condition, companies will have an incentive they're not anywhere near as insulated from to start moving away now. Get it seen as a cheap way to make employees happier and a way to improve your looks when trying to get new employees who have options without having to increase the wage offers, and they'll not wait until Win10's privacy issues cause them
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I have a better solution for me....I just canceled my reservation for 10. It was supposed to downgrade from 7 to 10 tomorow. Now it wont be.
Problem solved.
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As if they'll honor your request to cancel...
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They do have government oversight. They send all the data they collect right to Uncle Sam
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Why? (Score:3)
Why should I need third party software to restore functionality? This is broken by design. When support for 7 ends I will probably ditch it.
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I use Start10 which works equally well (but isn't free). However I do not dislike Classic Shell. It just seems to be a little less "pretty" than Start10 :)
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Just install Classic Shell
Will Classic Shell stop the data gathering that is the basis for the ads? Will it stop Bing/Cortana/Office358 from displaying ads based on what you've done on your computer?
Or is it just a see-no-evil solution?
God. Damnnit. (Score:5, Interesting)
You got it (Score:3, Insightful)
You want a proprietary OS? You got it.. What you are looking at is the future of proprietary operating systems. Their purpose won't be to facilitate your work; that's only a nuisance. Their purpose will be to tag and track you, and then do whatever it takes to profit off that information.
Re:You got it (Score:5, Interesting)
Exactly. When you buy into a proprietary vendor's offerings, you're buying into their business model and their reputation. Why would you continue to patronize a vendor that blatantly abuses its customers? At some point, the abuser is no longer to blame, the blame lies with the abusee who refuses to leave and willingly submits to the abuse.
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Re:God. Damnnit. (Score:4, Insightful)
And who will those deserters be?
Not corporate users, MS doesn't inflict this on paying customers.
Not new PC buyers, MS still has the OEMs wrapped around their finger.
Not the average user, they lack the acumen and bravery required to install an OS that's completely alien to them.
Who's left to embark on your grand exodus that will starve the beast?
Re:God. Damnnit. (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't think they're going to desert either, no matter how awful MS treats them.
What'll eventually happen is that tablet-like devices will make home PCs obsolete. People will get sick of MS's crapware, and younger people just won't bother buying into it, and will get iPads instead or whatever. But MS will enjoy years and years of profits from older people who refuse to give up their PCs, just like cable companies are still getting lots of profits from idiots who refuse to "cut the cord" because they're addicted to sports and cable TV. Eventually, the customers will die out, but it'll take decades, kinda like Lincoln cars.
Re:God. Damnnit. (Score:5, Insightful)
"Welcome to Windows 10! As mentioned in the EULA, you are now enrolled in the Windows 10 Premium App Experience! Each month, we'll pre-install exciting new applications from our partners. For your convenience, your Microsoft Store account will be automatically billed for the premium versions of these apps, so you can get maximum enjoyment from your software. You will then have 48 hours to try out each of your new apps. If you decide for whatever reason that an app just isn't for you, you can request a refund by typing in the link below and filling out the refund form. Please allow 4 to 6 weeks for refund processing. Refunds will be distributed in the form of a pre-paid Visa card. Enjoy your new Windows 10 Premium App Experience!"
Microsoft is imitating Facebook and Google? 2 Qs. (Score:3)
Two questions about solving problems caused by Microsoft's apparent attempts to take complete control:
1) The average Windows user is not able to prevent Microsoft from having more and more control. But corporate customers don't want to spend the time to learn a new user interface. They like what is now known as Classic Shell [classicshell.net].
Microsoft is, and has always been, sloppy with updates, often introducting new vulnerabilitie
Re:Microsoft is imitating Facebook and Google? 2 Q (Score:4, Informative)
I understand that there are sometimes vulnerabilities that allow an OS to break out of the VM.
These are very rare and valuable. Much more so than a run-of-the-mill Linux privilege escalation exploit. You don't need a bank vault door on a house with glass windows.
The normal thing malware does when it detects a VM is immediately stop, or sometimes unhook itself, as a way to foil some malware detection engines and generally make life harder for security researchers.
Correction (Score:5, Insightful)
Microsoft notes that they can be fully uninstalled and any promoted items removed from the Start menu for now
There. Fixed that for ya. If there's anything Microsoft taught us lately, is that whatever they say or promise cannot be trusted.
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I bought a Microsoft certified Alienware for gaming on because I was sick of bloatware and crapware being bundled with Lenovo boxes.
Now Microsoft is bundling bloatware and crapware with their OS - this is self-defeating.
I don't want to spend time uninstalling crap. What part do they not understand?
know every file, every byte (Score:2)
Oh. Wait. Never mind.
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I've never done a stage1 Gentoo. My current is from a stage3.
I did build an LFS. Took me over a week. I accidentally fucked up the file system, but the second try only took me a weekend.
I used that' LFS system for about a semester and a half before I switched back to Fedora and embraced package management. That was around 2002. I had a flatmate that got me into Gentoo and I was like, "It's like LFS with package management!"
I've gone back and fourth over the years between Linux and MacOS, but currently I use
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What part of "corporate profits are all-important" do you not understand? What ever made you think that a proprietary vendor would care about your interests?
The nice thing about open PC-type hardware is that, for the most part, it's pretty easy to strip off any pre-loaded software and put whatever software you want on there.
The same is not true of proprietary software, and especially OSes. If you don't like them the way they are, it's your responsibility to find something else.
Why isn't it free to everyone? (Score:5, Insightful)
With stunts like that, pushing ads and apps on people and everything, why does it still cost something to get Windows 10?
Put the damn ISO on your website, unlock the damn activation/serial/whatever thing and you'll get more users.
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With stunts like that, pushing ads and apps on people and everything, why does it still cost something to get Windows 10?
Put the damn ISO on your website, unlock the damn activation/serial/whatever thing and you'll get more users.
But being paid twice works for cable TV companies!
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Because "nobody ever got fired for choosing microsoft," and "linux is fine for hobbyists."
Their customers have no idea that they can switch, and microsoft doesn't expect them to figure it out anytime soon.
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Their customers have no idea that they can switch, and microsoft doesn't expect them to figure it out anytime soon.
A lot of customers can't switch; most of them can't switch even.
Whether its because they rely on solidworks, or quickbooks or some line-of-business or point-of-sale tool tons of businesses can't switch.
Microsoft is apparently turning the screws Home edition was always garbage. Now Pro edition is fast becoming the new Home edition.
And the only edition worth using will be enterprise edition. But that's going to cost you.
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Their customers have no idea that they can switch
Oh BS. Everyone's heard of Apple's Macbooks, at the very least. People are just too lazy, and will make up no end of excuses to justify their submission to this abuse. Even techies do it; look at the postings here and on other tech sites. There is absolutely nothing which will convince these people to stop using Windows, nothing. So MS is correct to milk them for as much revenue as possible.
If your customers absolutely refuse to abandon you no matter how
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Kindle fire has ads on its lock screen to subsidise the cost of the device so maybe windows 10 will only cost $50? (hahahahaha)
Using microsoft's windows only tool you can get a windows 10 iso from microsoft for free https://www.microsoft.com/en-u... [microsoft.com]
It activates without question on bios keyed hardware.
Although it should still have the key printed on the label.
I still don't like it though looks too much windows 8 and a variety of features I use has been removed and one of the selling points cortana requires l
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Something that respects the user privacy, that doesn't show me ads, that doesn't try to force Ms apps and services on me, that gives me full control over my machine, you know, a proper OS.
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With stunts like that, pushing ads and apps on people and everything, why does it still cost something to get Windows 10?
Simple: because they can.
Put the damn ISO on your website, unlock the damn activation/serial/whatever thing and you'll get more users.
Having more profit is more important than the absolute number of users. Obviously, they feel that they can maximize profit by both showing ads and also charging you for the privilege of watching these ads. It appears that most users are stupid enough to s
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With stunts like that, pushing ads and apps on people and everything, why does it still cost something to get Windows 10?
I blame MMOs. People got used to paying for the client and paying again monthly. Microsoft then went on to charge monthly for XBL, when PC gamers were already getting multiplayer for free for everything but MMOs.
On the other hand, there's now a lot of Free-To-Play games out there, and some of them aren't even completely Pay-To-Win. Some of them are just Pay-To-Win-Faster. Robocraft is a nice example.
Classic Start (Score:2)
Hopefully Ads For Linux (Score:2)
What happened after win7?? (Score:4, Interesting)
MS finally got me to switch back from Linux from a host OS to a guess one. It was stable, secure, gorgeous, ran smooth without winrot of XP, and was a great but boring desktop OS to get work done.
As an IT professional I need to use the latest and greatest to keep my skills up and not look incompetent when an executive for example in a conference room needs help on his Windows 10 tablet etc.
Win 8 was fine except the GUI and artwork. I upgraded kicking and crying because I needed to learn Hyper-V. Windows 10 my God is just terrible. Re0imaged my system 4 times already due to bugs. If you run a sfc /scannow it will corrupt ESSENT database. Only a re-image can fix it. No DISM /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth will make it worse! Acutally it will complain about the source files. Put on your installation cd and it will break Windows 10 as it will put outdated .dll's back. It is Vista quality.
Windows bright white windows titles ARE TERRIBLE. I enabled color in settings but I do not like how it looks. The icons on the taskbar pinned are too freaking SMALL. Oh, that is right I should have a gigantic start screen and pin down "My documents" "My downloads", etc. Under Windows 7/8.1 if you install Office 2016 it will actually put the icons there for you pinned in the taskbar. MS is forcing it's view of tiles and running cell phones on computers for familiarity hoping us old farts who hate change will want to use Windows Phones. YEAH RIGHT.
I am not an MS hater anymore. But man, Windows is bad again after it finally stopped sucking. The only good thing about MS is visual Studio and Office. I suppose I like tablet features and Netflix and Hulu apps on the road or on a 2nd monitor if I want to watch Star Trek while I work etc. But, man Windows 10 is years off.
Do not get me on the schziphrenic gui either. Now with 3 UI's which include a hamburger menu.
But MS is making it worse by forced upgrades, spyware, and now ads. I do not want 10 anywhere near my computers! But I need them for Hyper-V for my MS certifications so what choice do I have?
Windows 10 is going to be the next XP sadly after 3 short years. Sigh. I hope if we all yell enough MS will mature it and change by 2019 when Windows 7 goes EOL and we are forced to use it.
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Not if people take the "I need a cert in this!" they won't change a single thing...
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Well explain to HR how you can do x, y, and z without a certification. To be a gold partner for MS you need to have your MCSE current
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As an MS-hater, I'd also like to add that Vista was the most attractive of all Windows versions. Win7 was a step down with the dumb "awesome bar".
Mainly Vista got screwed because it needed too many resources and MS specified minimum hardware incorrectly, so a bunch of under-specced machines were sold with it.
Is it just me? (Score:5, Insightful)
...or does anyone else also think that ads have NO PLACE being in the freaking operating system?
Re:Is it just me? (Score:5, Informative)
...or does anyone else also think that ads have NO PLACE being in the freaking operating system?
Definitely not just you. It's just that Microsoft doesn't care what people want, Microsoft cares about what Microsoft wants.
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>> Microsoft doesn't care what people want, Microsoft cares about what Microsoft wants.
It truly boggles my mind how bluntly obvious about it Microsoft have become, yet STILL people choose to buy their products.
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Call me strange but if buy (i.e. pay money for) a product I expect it to work FOR ME 100%. There should be no extra nickel-and-diming or giving any of my CPU cycles to someone else.
It feels different when something of high value is given for free. You kinda expect some level of give and take somewhere/somehow.
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Didn't Ubuntu put Amazon results in the local search box? I mean its not just MS.
Yes, they did, and that shows why Linux is so much better. (I'll ignore the fact that removing the "Amazon Lens" was rather easy.)
With Linux, when a vendor pulls this shit and loses your trust, it's no problem: you just switch to a competing distro. They're all pretty similar, and very compatible with each other anyway. With Ubuntu, it's really easy because there's a distro which is just a re-spin of Ubuntu, called Linux Min
Re:Is it just me? (Score:5, Interesting)
I don't think it's an operating system anymore, it's generation 1 of the customer engagement interface.
I don't know how they'll deal with this at the business level. Really small businesses that buy PCs with Windows preinstalled probably will be told to just stuff it up their asses, most won't switch to Linux or MacOS due to software dependencies and other issues. Which is part of MS plan, obviously, to be able to provide advertising "reach" to the business demographic and not just the hapless home users.
Larger businesses will be told they can buy enterprise licenses where these features are off by default and/or see the 10 page technet document on 47 changes that can be made at each workstation to disable these features. Microsoft will end up using added features as a way to extract more money from customers who don't want those features.
More businesses that wouldn't ordinarily want enterprise will end up buying it at greater cost and probably more than a few double-buying Windows by buying enterprise volume licenses to image over the Pro version it shipped with.
Maybe I'm just too naive to understand the MBA financial model behind all of this, but it strikes me that had Microsoft consolidated their desktop operating system into a single edition around the time of XP or 7 and stopped trying to use it as a marketing platform they would have a lot more end user good will. Why they're choosing to lose even more good will by force-feeding their marketing platform when alternatives are more prevalent than ever (linux, mac os, saas, cloud, mobile, etc etc etc) is mystifying to me.
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Maybe I'm just too naive to understand the MBA financial model behind all of this, but it strikes me that had Microsoft consolidated their desktop operating system into a single edition around the time of XP or 7 and stopped trying to use it as a marketing platform they would have a lot more end user good will. Why they're choosing to lose even more good will by force-feeding their marketing platform when alternatives are more prevalent than ever (linux, mac os, saas, cloud, mobile, etc etc etc) is mystifying to me.
I don't think you're being naive. MS understands their market saturation in the enterprise, and that thousands of business critical applications will run only on Windows. They are using this leverage, like a mafia don would use it to extort local business owners and maintain their monopoly.
It is reprehensible but not surprising.
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Maybe I'm just too naive to understand the MBA financial model behind all of this, but it strikes me that had Microsoft consolidated their desktop operating system into a single edition around the time of XP or 7 and stopped trying to use it as a marketing platform they would have a lot more end user good will. Why they're choosing to lose even more good will by force-feeding their marketing platform when alternatives are more prevalent than ever (linux, mac os, saas, cloud, mobile, etc etc etc) is mystifyi
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I don't think it's an operating system anymore, it's generation 1 of the customer engagement interface.
It isn't. It's generation 2. Xbox Live was their first generation.
I don't know how they'll deal with this at the business level. Really small businesses that buy PCs with Windows preinstalled probably will be told to just stuff it up their asses [...] Larger businesses will be told they can buy enterprise licenses where these features are off by default
Essentially, yes, but it doesn't take much of a business to get rid of the crap. Microsoft volume licensing starts at 5 seats.
Maybe I'm just too naive to understand the MBA financial model behind all of this, but it strikes me that had Microsoft consolidated their desktop operating system into a single edition around the time of XP or 7 and stopped trying to use it as a marketing platform they would have a lot more end user good will.
Microsoft tried to screw gamers over hard and then they announced en masse that Microsoft could go fuck themselves, and they backpedaled hard. They're not a captive audience. Desktop users are.
Why they're choosing to lose even more good will by force-feeding their marketing platform when alternatives are more prevalent than ever (linux, mac os, saas, cloud, mobile, etc etc etc) is mystifying to me.
Because they have a captive audience married to specific software packages which only run on Windows.
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More to the point, it's only a matter of time before these ads start to originate from third or fourth-party server farms that also sling malware. Relatedly, it wouldn't surprise me if Flash ads were accepted if the money was right.
I've already replaced the start menu with Start 10 (Score:2)
Don't make me replace the whole OS, Microsoft. It'll only take a moment.
Clicking and Surfing in 2020 (Score:3)
User: clicks link or menu item. Computer: Waiting for ads.cloudystuff.porno, waiting for targeted.butuseless.something, ah! Popup: I see you're running a cleaner, have you cleaned your teeth today? Try xxxx.whitestuff.com -> Connection timed out please try again etc. etc.
The only way around this may be islands of 'useful' non-profit intra-tubes with sharp spikey firewalls. Everything else will be commercially saturated.
Thank you sir, may I have another? (Score:4, Insightful)
"Microsoft plans to double the number of promoted apps in Start menu."
Well if they do this just 3 or 4 more times it'll be promoted apps all the way down.
No need for pesky files or personal stuff, it'll be nothing more than a dedicated ad platform.
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
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Don't forget the internet. How long did it take for MS just to get properly online?
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MS you have to admit even here makes excellent office and business software development products. Their operating systems and browsers are terrible.
From what I gather is MS has given up on Windows. So they are doing ads and making htem like a cell phone OS so they can sell new API's with visual studio 2015 and cloud services with Azure, Office 365, and OneDrive.
No one is willing to pay for Windows anymore so no effort is made to really sell it. Just use it as a screen for mobile appstores and products. I f
This should have been expected (Score:5, Insightful)
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Some of us have taken the steps to ensure as little exposure to ads as possible.
Onion-like (Score:5, Insightful)
Ten years ago this would have appeared to be a post from The Onion. I can't believe this is really happening.
I dumped Windows 3.1 for Mac and later Linux, and I haven't really looked back since. Sure I bump into windows now and then, but I don't feel like I've missed out on anything.
But this takes the cake. How ridiculous can you get? They must have seen the writing on the wall and decided to go out with a big hurrah.
there is a market for a smarter firewall (Score:3)
one that actually understands content inside packets and rewrites them or ack's, back to the sender, that all is peachy and fine but does not forward the packet to the end host.
basically, SDN but meant to HELP people and not just fuck with them. and yes, some SDN in the industry is for evil purposes (I used to work for a company that was big into SDN...)
I have not heard of anyone having a smart(er) firewall that can reject the MS forced updates. I think there is a need for one.
guys, go make one and you'll make bank. no end user wants to HAVE to take forced updates. and clearly, this filtering now has to run off-box. to really work, it can't be on the same metal as the win10 system.
Promoted Apps are Automatically Installed???? (Score:5, Insightful)
Am I reading this right? I can actually pay Microsoft to install applications on millions of PCs without the owners'... I mean "users'" permission?
Tell me again why ANYONE finds this acceptable?
I miss Ballmer (Score:5, Funny)
There aren't enough chairs being thrown these days.
Can't wait (Score:5, Insightful)
Uh huh (Score:2)
So, they don't even have full penetration of Windows 10 yet, and they're already tightening the screws.
It's bad enough that we have so many crank conspiracy theorists. Actually proving them right is only going to encourage them.
ridiculous, but easily blocked (Score:5, Informative)
Let me be clear, I think pushing ads into the OS is pretty nearly the definition of dystopian and frankly obscene.
It is easy to block however:
http://bgr.com/2015/11/20/wind... [bgr.com]
As CNET helpfully explained this week, you only need to follow a few steps to turn off ads:
Open the âSettingsâ(TM) menu
Click on âPersonalizationâ(TM)
Click on âStartâ(TM) at the bottom of the left-hand column
Find a heading labeled âoeOccasionally show suggestions in Startâ and turn the switch to the âOffâ(TM) position
BTW: take the opportunity while you're in settings to turn off ALL THE OTHER SHIT THAT'S ON BY DEFAULT in WIN10.
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Don't think so...looks like you are number 3, sport! Early worm gets the bird!
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I first encountered a Windows 10 system last week cleaning up a system my inlaws bought (it wasn't a huge mess, really, but it had McAfee installed, and default to Bing, and... etc).
I opened the start menu. It exploded into some massive pile of shit. I clicked down on the stuff that was text down in the bottom left corner and completely ignored the rest of it. In
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Even though your post is hard to read (to say the least) it contains many valid and worthwhile points, especially about Microsoft not being the only one collecting information on us.
But here's the problem. Yes, I can opt out of or block Windows 10 upgrades and backporting of telemetry to (in my case) Windows 8.1. I've done that. But then again, I'm a former computer professional, and I ought to be able to figure out how to do such things. (Disclaimer: at this point I very seldom boot to my Windows partitio
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Are Microsoft's actions legal, based on EULAs and so on? I'm sure it's all legal but I certainly can't say it's ethical. Now you might respond, what company today is ethical? That's a very good question, but I think if we just let things go and don't demand ethical behavior, we're never going to get it. If we reward unethical behavior with our hard-earned dollars, what are we doing?
That's a great point. Ethical != legal. If you want ethical behavior from others, you have to be willing to enforce that desi
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Wow.
The worst part of your post is that you apologize for MS.
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So if I buy a retail kit it will not show advertisements?
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I guess the question is, what company can I go work for that does not have active directory, sharepoint, MSSql, and a bunch of windows clients? that's an honest question. No one runs a pure apple network, not even apple computers, that's a fact. No one runs netware, no one runs an entire domain with Linux and Ldap. So how does someone who's never used the OS complain about it? that's a valid question. But to answer yours, in the mid 80s there was no means to learn linux unless you knew someone doing it. Sure, there were some BBS and NewsGroups, go head and step in the way back machine and see how those kind fellows treated people trying to break into unix and linux, it's a fun read. It is so similar to the crap you'll see kids spouting in a call of duty match that it's almost funny. No desktop computers showed up at your house with linux installed, or even as an option. The choice was MADE for most of us, we built up a skill set, based careers on those skills. Sure my bash skills and technical knowledge could land me a job supporting linux devices (it actually did) but that's hard to come by. I can walk into ANY company, ANY company, a gas bar, a mom and pop bakery... and guess what? Their using windows. I'll let the 20 year old me answer your question too, for reference. "I don't want to run an os that requires me to compile my own fucking device drivers" Case closed.
Ernie Ball and RedHat come immediately to mind.
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"Niche" skills with Linux(or anything besides MS) will allow you to keep your job longer.
But go ahead, keep on "doing the needful" and defending MS domination of the enterprise, and how every mom and pop shop on the planet is under their sway.