Here We Go Again: Microsoft's Popping Up Ads From the Windows 10 Toolbar (pcworld.com)

Mark Hachman, reporting for PCWorld: When Microsoft's Windows 10 deadline passed, many heaved a sigh of relief, thinking that Microsoft's obnoxious popup reminders had finally been laid to rest. Surprise! Microsoft's at it again, reminding users to sign up for Bing Rewards by using Edge, Windows 10's built-in browser. My colleague Brad Chacos was hit by the ad after hours, reported it, and immediately erased Edge from his toolbar. Here's what we know: The popup doesn't seem to appear if you use Edge frequently (Brad does not). Personally, I've never experienced a similar ad, though I use Edge as well as Bing Rewards, meaning there's no need for such an ad to appear. A notification here, a suggestion there: Microsoft's gently slipped in promotions for Office as well as its third-party apps off and on since Windows 10 was launched, and then sneakily reset those options once the Anniversary Update launched last summer. But here's the problem. Brad turned off his ad settings; the Anniversary Update reinstated them. Brad says he turned off the ad settings again -- and once again, Microsoft reinstated them.

Comments

Simple

[Dunbal]

Delete that fucking malware from your computer and install some other operating system.

Re: Simple

[Dunbal]

I run windows 7 SP1 and I have NO problem. Auto updates OFF.

Re: Simple

[r_naked]

ANY OS is an alternative to the malware, adware, crapware that is Windows 10.

Don't like Linux, get a Mac, or a Chromebox / Chromebook.

Windows was important in the 90s. Wake up that is so last century.

Re: Simple

[green1]

It's viable for the vast majority of people. Either that or I've been easily using a non-viable OS for more than 15 years without noticing that it doesn't work. The fact that you personally prefer the garbage MS is pushing doesn't make it a viable alternative to Linux either.

Just because people aren't currently using it doesn't mean it wouldn't be better for them than what they're using now.

Re: Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

Zealots? We're zealots because we don't accept this treatment from corporations. That is rich. Methinks the lady doth protest too much.

Re: Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

Have you actually tried it?

https://www.linuxmint.com/

Steam for games. Chrome for Netflix. VirtualBox/VMWare for Windows 7. Works great!

Re: Simple

[Stuarticus]

I don't have any real problem with these ads as they are non-intrusive and are often very timely, just the other day I was talking to my wife about anti-virus and an ad for one popped up at just the same time, talk about handy. Now I don't need o search, I just talk about things in range of the microphone and wait for the ad to pop up! -definitelynotshilling

Re:Simple

[Rick Schumann]

Delete that fucking malware from your computer and install some other operating system.

Yeah no kidding. What the hell is this crap, anyway? 'Rewards' program? What the hell? Is this a supermarket chain now?

Personally, I've never experienced a similar ad, though I use Edge as well as Bing Rewards, meaning there's no need for such an ad to appear.

Mark Hachman (more like HACKman if you ask me), stop being a Microsoft shill, you're embarassing yourself. No ostensible computer operating system should be popping up unwanted ads for anything, even if it's for parts of itself. It's just utterly absurd. Microsoft and Windows 10 has become a very, very bad joke, and I don't even want to say what I'm starting to think about the people who honestly think it's 'good' in any way, shape, or form.

Re: Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

Windows 8.1, internet access blocked by MAC address at the router, Firefox pointed to ffproxy running on a local linux box that's connected to PIA VPN.

Re: Simple

[Krojack]

And just how long will that last? At some point programs won't work well if at all for Win7. How many people you see still running Win2k (or Win98) and say they have no problems?

Re: Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

Try telling zat to ze Germans

Re: Simple

[Krojack]

There are still thing that won't run on any of these the I enjoy such as Overwatch.

Re: Simple

[Dutch Gun]

Linux on the desktop is viable if you don't have any non-mission-critical Windows-only software to run, or are willing/able to use an emulation layer to run that software. I have nothing against Linux, but it's foolish to pretend that Windows doesn't have a lock on the desktop for a reason, which is the massive legacy software ecosystem.

Generally speaking, if someone is able to abandon Windows, there's a good chance they may be able to abandon PCs altogether and simply use a tablet with a keyboard attached or even a smartphone for day to day computing and communications tasks. And that's why the PC is a declining market. It's becoming the industrial-sized truck of computing hardware. Powerful and useful, yes, but most people these days don't really need one.

Re: Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

decapitated?

Re:Simple

[Grishnakh]

Yeah no kidding. What the hell is this crap, anyway? 'Rewards' program? What the hell? Is this a supermarket chain now?

It's a consumer-grade OS. What's wrong with borrowing a concept from another area of consumer economics?

Microsoft and Windows 10 has become a very, very bad joke, and I don't even want to say what I'm starting to think about the people who honestly think it's 'good' in any way, shape, or form.

Well I for one think it's great. I'm thoroughly enjoying these stories, and reading about Windows users being pissed off by this stuff. They could stop at any time, but they continue to line up to accept more abuse, so I might as well have a good laugh at their expense. It's not like they weren't warned; MS has been an abusive vendor for at least 3 decades now. If that isn't enough warning, I don't know what is.

Re:Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

But here's the problem. Brad turned off his ad settings; the Anniversary Update reinstated them. Brad says he turned off the ad settings again -- and once again, Microsoft reinstated them.

See? The computer suffers from malware called "Brad" that turns off repeatedly the advertisements on Microsoft's system. Microsoft fixes the symptoms without charge, but if the attack persists, I am pretty sure that the EULA will have a passage somewhere allowing them to deal with the problem posed by Brad more thoroughly before it impacts their ad revenue.

Re: Simple

[Joce640k]

Windows 7 still has majority market share my a large margin. Programs will still be working for quite a while.

Re: Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

That's a pretty smart idea... Can someone with more knowledge say if his strategy is effective?

Re: Simple

[Joce640k]

Sure...if all you need is Firefox.

This sort of behavior by Microsoft seems like an excellent opportunity for anti-malware vendors to step in. I Wonder if anybody is offering anto-Win10 protection.

Re: Simple

[manu144x]

Fortunately, the huge majority of the market agrees and as long as Windows 7 is widely used, there will be software support for it. Microsoft thinks they can force people to do anything just because they are Microsoft, but the truth is there is a reason that all ATM's are still running on Windows XP and are still produced with Windows XP embedded. When windows 10 will get the majority share it will mean it will have stabilized and Microsoft came to their senses. Like it was with Vista. They tried for a few years to push users to get it, spend millions, if they could have sold it at gun point they would have. But in the end they just went back and made Windows 7 which worked well. Same with Windows 10. They will push it like crazy for as long as they can, and if it won't work, I can already smell a Windows 11 in the long run, even if they said they gave up that model.

Re: Simple

[Ann O'Nymous-Coward]

Steam is OK for a minority of older and/or second-rate games. Yes, it's improving, but it's just not there yet. When it gets the triple-A titles I actually want to play, available on release date not years later, then you better believe I WILL there with bells on and bucks in hand, but until then, that's a Nope.

See, I built my homebrew box as a GAMES machine, first last and foremost. That unfortunately leaves me right now with no truly workable alternative, and until there is, Linux shills like you can go right on kidding yourselves.

Re: Simple

[houstonbofh]

The biggest lock they have is inertia. The difference between Windows versions (and Office versions) is less they the difference between old Windows and Linux (LibreOffice). But now the changes are getting bigger, and uglier, and they are annoying the crap out of people! So that "cost of change" metric is starting to slant more towards Linux or Mac. Hence the rises in both of those OSs.

Re: Simple

[houstonbofh]

At least we are zealots without tracking and adds in our toolbars. :)

Re: Simple

[houstonbofh]

Surprisingly a lot of the old legacy stuff that ties people to Windows works better in WINE then in WinX.

Re: Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

was talking to my wife about anti-virus and an ad for one popped up

I hope it was a pop-up for software and not one for Russian mail-order brides

Re: Simple

[Ann O'Nymous-Coward]

BTW in case it wasn't obvious, in the above post by "Steam" I meant "SteamOS running on Linux" NOT "Steam on Windows"

Steam is impressive as hell on Windows, and frankly I'm worried that one of Windows' long term plans with pushing their lame-ass app store, is to try to use it to make Windows into an Apple-style walled garden and kill Steam off. Which would be an ABSOLUTE TRAGEDY.

Re: Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

What percentage of people actually use some specialized software that requires Windows?
There's the tiny minority who like to pop up talking about PhotoShop's CMYK support, and there's a few other niches.
But by and large, it doesn't matter whether you're using Windows XP, Haiku, Puppy Linux, NetBSD, OpenIndiana, whatever.
They all run web browsers, office suites, and all the other software ordinary users need.

Re: Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

Linux is NOT A viable alternative, no matter how much you zealots claim it is.

I pity people with your attitude. Enjoy your vendor lock-in. You deserve it.

Re: Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

I run windows 7 SP1 and I have NO problem. Auto updates OFF.

This. My Windows 7 machine only reboots when I want it to reboot, typically the day after Patch Tuesday. I kinda feel sorry for those Win10 users whose computers reboot at random.

Re: Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

I bet you have so much fun playing all the latest games in all their brilliant [up to] 144hz glory on your... oh... wait a minute.

Here's a shocker, some people have requirements that no other OS can fulfill. Why do people have such a problem understanding that?

Why are people so fucking tribal that they can't just use the right tool for the right job. It's like watching a bunch of cavemen beat their chests about why their tiny part of the world is so much better than everyone else's.

Re: Simple

[Greyfox]

They'll keep getting more intrusive until too many people start bitching about them, back off just slightly from there and hail their "Consumer-friendly" stance of not shoving ads up your ass every 45 minutes.

Re: Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

ANY OS is an alternative to the malware, adware, crapware that is Windows 10.

Don't like Linux, get a Mac, or a Chromebox / Chromebook.

Windows was important in the 90s. Wake up that is so last century.

Wrong.

Apple is still using second rate graphics cards on their mobile systems.

Linux doesn't run photoshop, painter, or lightroom.

Unity under Linux is still crap.

As for chromebook/box, some of us still have need for actual computers and not those crappy little boxes that have less power than my 8 year old laptop.

Re: Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

Well you have YET to have a problem, because M$ is just now beginning their "bundle all updates into one rollup" scheme to put telemetry metrics and popups and whatever else they want to into your security patch updates for Windows 7. There's nothing you can do beyond this point except just allow them to install whatever they want to, or risk being unpatched for the latest vulns. Either you allow Microsoft adware or you get porked.

Re:Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

# aptitude remove adwankery

Re: Simple

[I4ko]

They didn't make 7 better than vista. They just rebadged vista and changed the default UAC policy, nothing else and waited until the CPUs caught up. The winSxS bloat that is in 7 came from vista.

Windows 8 was where they did a ton of optimization so that the runtime resource requirements dropped down to almost XP levels, though the winsxs bloat remains. And Windows 8.1 made something useful out of 8 (got rid of most of Metro crap, though I actually like the tile interface for start page). 8.1 Update 1 broke the improvements to metro a little. If you have software today that works on 8.1 changes are in 5 years it will still work, and allow you to do the same as you do today, be it word processing, gis, cad, endpoint simulation, etc.

There is no reason to have a computer connected to the internet 24/7, use a gateway, allow internet access only when needed.

Re: Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

Huh. Strange that I've been in IT for 20+ years and for the last 5 of it I've managed just fine using EXCLUSIVELY Linux.

You idiots just don't feel like putting any actual effort into having a reasonable computer experience...lazy fucks. You get what you deserve if you cling to M$.

Re: Simple

[I4ko]

Buy single player games, those that run on your machine, just like the games we grew up with. Don't connect to internet. So.. don't buy from steam.

Re: Simple

[Holi]

But Steam on Windows supports far more games then SteamOS

Re: Simple

[r_naked]

If you want to sell your soul to play the latest worthless piece of shit "game" -- go for it. There hasn't been a new revolutionary game in well over a decade.

But for those times that I must play something that isn't available on my OS of choice, I have a PS4.

Re: Simple

[fufufang]

I run windows 7 SP1 and I have NO problem. Auto updates OFF.

Surely that's the perfect way of getting all the viruses and malwares?

Re: Simple

[Dunbal]

Hopefully until Satya Nadella realizes just how badly he fucked things up and Microsoft decides to sell software again. Or until I'm dead.

Re:Simple

[interkin3tic]

Seems like a false dichotomy based on religious beliefs rather than reality. Windows is not the demon. It's perfectly reasonable to assume that you can run windows without being served ads by the OS.

Re: Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't like Linux, get a ... Chromebook.

How is that supposed to help somebody who doesn't like Linux?

Re: Simple

[kelemvor4]

There is no reason to have a computer connected to the internet 24/7, use a gateway, allow internet access only when needed.

No reason except that most computers are used especially for accessing the internet. Maybe it's web, maybe it's usenet, maybe it's irc, maybe it's some client-server apps like Office364 or google for work. Most people I know use their computer mainly for accessing stuff on the internet. Sure, we also do things like write programs, or maybe edit a local document. Internet use is so common now days that not having your computer connected seems silly.

Re: Simple

[DworkinLV]

Of course there are choices. They just involve more work. Block telemetry at the edge firewall. Disable, and remove DiagTrack. Personally I run with Cortana ripped out by the short and curlies. Microsoft doesn't want their services blocked at the firewall, maybe they will learn. Now you can't buy MS Office without a Microsoft account. Guess we will be standardizing on LibreOffice.

Re: Simple

[war4peace]

1. My soul has been sold off a long time ago. Selling it again would be illegal.
2. It's your opinion if you call games "worthless piece of shit" and I respect it. Now would be a stretch for me to expect you to respect mine?
3. There have been many excellent games in the last decade. Not my problem if you don't know about them.
4. Oh, a console gamer. That explains a lot.

Re:Simple

[Kjella]

Personally, I've never experienced a similar ad, though I use Edge as well as Bing Rewards, meaning there's no need for such an ad to appear.

Mark Hachman (more like HACKman if you ask me), stop being a Microsoft shill, you're embarassing yourself.

He might be a shill, but I don't see anything unreasonable about that sentence if you're reporting on something you haven't experienced yourself. Like "I've never had overheating problems, but I live in Alaska", unless you think simply using Microsoft products and services make you a shill.

Re: Simple

[WaffleMonster]

And just how long will that last? At some point programs won't work well if at all for Win7. How many people you see still running Win2k (or Win98) and say they have no problems?

Given Windows 7 has twice the market share of Windows 10 after a concerted year long nagware campaign to get users to switch for FREE it will easily be well past 2020.

Software companies are in the business of making money. You don't do that by alienating 2/3rds of your market..

DVDs were also supposed to be dead a decade ago but markets are not controlled by suppliers they are controlled by demand from paying customers.

I'm sure one day Microsoft's malware operating system will be able to override the user with ransomware popups in which failure to capitulate to new terms will cause your system and all data to be converted into a petrified brick as per terms you *agreed* to in an earlier EULA but that day isn't here yet or is it?

Re:Simple

[Humbubba]

Microsoft is pushing its customer base away. Nowadays, all of the outside consultants bring in Macs and boot into Windows when necessary, which btw, is because of legacy, lethargy and support for a soon to be retiring lead programmer.

Re: Simple

[fisted]

Oh, damn, I never knew. I pretty viably used it exclusively between 2006 and 2011, after which i switched to BSD, but not because Linux wasn't viable. What do I do now, purchase Windows?

Re: Simple

[lgw]

https://www.linuxmint.com/

Steam for games. Chrome for Netflix. VirtualBox/VMWare for Windows 7. Works great!

Is VMware workstation actually supported on Mint? I was planning to hold my nose and install Ubuntu, just to get VMware support.

Re: Simple

[Streetlight]

Just what I was going to write. Since Win 7 can't use Edge, maybe I'm safe from some of these ads. I'm not putting money on that conclusion, though.

Re: Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

same here, win7, no updates. = no problems.

btw what does 10 do that 7 can't besides spy on you and serve you ads? it starts faster....like so what.....and how many people even use all the stuff an OS has? most people just use programs they need or like, like a photo editor or media player, etc. and surf the web.
if the software i use were natively compatible with linux i'd already be gone.

here is a truth that capitalism can't address, the better technology is, the less you need more of it. why did adobe make photoshop a cloud service? because it started to dawn on them that there are only so many features you can add to a photoeditor and there is only so many things most people are going to use it for, so there is no need to upgrade or buy the next version.

just about all of us use some very old software when there a many later versions of it because there is no need to use them. i still use paintshop 8 which is like 10 years old or more, because it does just about everything the latest version does, what it doesn't do i don't need anyhow.

what happens when technology becomes so advanced that it does everything passively as well as draw from renewable energy passively?
the capital powers that be will see that writing on the wall and stunt progress as much as possible so they can milk as much as they can while they can....pretty much the paradigm already.

attention software programers, write for linux and make the world a better place.

i crap a windows 10 every morning.

Re: Simple

[geekprime]

There aren't many "internet" programs that don't understand proxies, so you are pretty much wrong there, that will work for 99.7% of everything.

The real problem is it takes extra hardware and the real question is why the fuck should we have to?

Re:Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

You should be modded +5, Imperative

Re: Simple

[fisted]

Generally speaking, if someone is able to abandon Windows, there's a good chance they may be able to abandon PCs altogether and simply use a tablet with a keyboard attached or even a smartphone for day to day computing and communications tasks.

There's an equally good chance that they are able to abandon Windows because they have reached a level of basic computer literacy that makes them realize they don't need $product to do $simple_task, for most simple tasks. And how to break down $large_task into those.

Re: Simple

[Streetlight]

Windows 7 still has majority market share my a large margin. Programs will still be working for quite a while.

And Windows 7 new adoptions last month were 10 times the adoptions of Windows 10.

Think of all those computers being borked or bricked with blue screens of death (or red depending on how your Win 10 was set up) when auto updates that you can't turn off update your machine.

Re: Simple

[DogDude]

Windows was important in the 90s. Wake up that is so last century.

Some of us grown-ups have to use our computers for *work* and can't just choose whatever OS has the prettiest icons, you know. That's why Windows still runs the vast majority of the world's workstations.

Re:Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

Rewards programs are tracking programs. They tie you to your purchase, and the information is used against you later.

I mean, to enhance the user experience.

Re: Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

ReactOS runs windows programs

Re: Simple

[Darinbob]

Any company that relies on ad revenue for profits and is not giving away the product for free, needs to fix its broken business model. Just having the ads show up is a sign that Microsoft is desparate for the few nickels and dimes I can get that way which means sell that MSFT stock NOW!

Re: Simple

[Groo Wanderer]

You should check again and filter by SteamOS/Linux. Then sort by cost, you will see a fair number of triple A games there. Sure a lot are missing but my last check had over 1000 games available. If you don't NEED game-of-the-moment-X, there is plenty there to keep you happy for years.

              -Charlie

Re: Simple

[Darinbob]

The programs will keep working as long as they don't change. I suspect that Win2K used on today's computers is going to be blazingly fast compared to the bloatware in modern Windows. Sure, you have to use Office 95, but that was the last good version of Office anyway.

Windows 7 is also supported until 2020 anyway. Or are you the kind who buys a new car every year because eventually the old car will be obsolete so you upgrade immediately instead of waiting?

Re: Simple

[Darinbob]

Anyone who makes software that works for Windows 10 and fails to work on Windows 7 is incredibly foolish. Any reputable software maker for Windows may still even make sure it works on Windows XP. Happy customers means you get repeat business and profits. Pissing off customers the way Microsoft does is a fast trip to bankruptcy.

Re: Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

If you want to sell your soul to play the latest worthless piece of shit "game" -- go for it. There hasn't been a new revolutionary game in well over a decade.

I'm sure the rest of Slashdot values your opinion of what they should, and should not, be enjoying as part of their own entertainment time.

But for those times that I must play something that isn't available on my OS of choice, I have a PS4.

Oh, a system from Sony, eh? Yeah, take that Microsoft. Ownership of a Sony product will truly show the world your disdain for questionable corporate practices with closed-source software.

Re: Simple

[Darinbob]

Windows 10 doesn't have any exclusive games that are worth buying anyway. There is no rush to make games with the latest DirectX release, and there are no customers clamoring for it.

Re: Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

You're not paying attention to what I was referring to. THE SECURITY UPDATES WILL NOW COME BUNDLED WITH TELEMETRY YOU CANNOT DISABLE. There will be no 'a la carte' KB-xxxxxx packages available for non-enterprise consumers, coming soon. Disabling Cortana is level I surface shit. Disabling auto-updates ditto. That will NOT protect you from the scourge M$ is going to force upon you, and the only actual alternative for 7 is not to patch at all in the near future.

Re: Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

Nice. Mine lives BSOD reboot. Win 7 just sucks less than 10. Still a Microsoft product, though.

Re: Simple

[nitehawk214]

4. Oh, a console gamer. That explains a lot.

Surprised he did not claim to have "fucked yer mum".

Re: Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

This is the funniest comment I have seen on here in ages. Well played that AC.

Re: Simple

[Mister Transistor]

They started the bundled updated shit last month. I downloaded updates for one Win7 machine early in the month just after Patch Tuesday (The LAST ONE for me!) and did my other machine about two weeks later, and I noticed they had added the "October 2016 Rollup Update" for Windows and a similar-looking turdball for .NET.

So it begins...

Re: Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

No one has to use edge and for me there are better options like Vivaldi.
I would not use win 10 if win 7 would boot from skylake but i have it locked down and updates cannot download with out my permission thanks to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1kGMCfb2xw

Re: Simple

[OneHundredAndTen]

Linux is NOT A viable alternative, no matter how much you zealots claim it is.

It is to me. I am very happy that the illiterate masses stay with Windows, thus attracting all the malware and other Internet nasties. Keep up the good work, Microsnot.

Re: Simple

[poofmeisterp]

There is no reason to have a computer connected to the internet 24/7, use a gateway, allow internet access only when needed.

No reason except that most computers are used especially for accessing the internet. Maybe it's web, maybe it's usenet, maybe it's irc, maybe it's some client-server apps like Office364 or google for work. Most people I know use their computer mainly for accessing stuff on the internet. Sure, we also do things like write programs, or maybe edit a local document. Internet use is so common now days that not having your computer connected seems silly.

There's a function called "Sleep" on all new computer hardware. Need the 'net, push a key on the keyboard, a mouse button, or the power button. Wait 5-10 second and go. Unless people can't wait 5-10 seconds. Wait, I just 360'ed. No pun intended. I swear.

Re: Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

The alternative to Windows are worse. Either you choose Linux and suffer a butt-ugly clusterfuck of FOSS turds or you pay out the ass and bow down before Tim Cook.

Windows was important in the 90s. Wake up that is so last century.

You're so far out of touch you make Hall & Oates do a double take.

Re: Simple

[CBravo]

What is worse than 'corporate practices with closed-source software' is 'corporate practices with closed-source software AND a monopoly'.

No one liked IBM but I wanted OS/2 to succeed anyway.

Re: Simple

[The Real Dr John]

Yeah, 7 will probably be the last relatively honest OS coming from Microsoft. All computers under my control are on Windows 7 pro or ultimate, and are going to stay that way.

Re: Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

Surely that's the perfect way of getting all the viruses and malwares?

Depends. For people who click on, and download and run anything and everything ? Possibly*.
For people who are capable of restraining themselves a bit and not do so ? Not really (if I may take my own experience with my 15+ and 7+ years W98se and XP machines that have never been updated as a yardstick).

*But than again, those people will get those "viruses and malwares" anyway, as thay will probably forcefully ignore any-and-all warnings from whatever security software is installed on their system (and even go as far as to disable it!) 'cause they just must open that email attachment, run that (browser) game or stuff like that.

Re: Simple

[Chas]

I run windows 7 SP1 and I have NO problem. Auto updates OFF.

Surely that's the perfect way of getting all the viruses and malwares?

As opposed to turning it on and getting what are, by definition, viruses and malware?

Re: Simple

[Rakarra]

The biggest lock they have is inertia

The biggest problem is that we don't live in the 80s anymore where games were simple enough that they could be ported by two people to 8 different platforms at once. Now you target one, maybe TWO platforms if they're gigantic enough, and exclusives are in the mix as well. A platform that has a low marketshare does not see much game development, especially not with Wine helping to prop up the Linux gaming side. It's doubly difficult with so many different distributions and versions of libraries and kernels.

Re:Simple

[Rick Schumann]

It's really the tone of what was stated that's the problem. Easy to imagine it being in a slightly mocking tone.

Re: Simple

[Rakarra]

Linux is NOT A viable alternative, no matter how much you zealots claim it is.

You're either a paid Microsoft shill, or one of the 'useful idiots', or you're just a fool who doesn't know any better, or you're a fool who has no technical skill with computers and can't handle any so-called 'OS' (of which Windows has only ever been minimally so) that is any higher than the level of Playskool toys for infants, you needing your hand held like a little baby every moment. As such you are to be scoffed at, mocked, deprecated, disbelieved, and disregarded.

Most people need to use more than just a web browser. They need Photoshop, for which GIMP is not a good substitute. They need decent video editing software to edit videos of their family, I've yet to find anything decent under Linux. They need Quicken, they need good-quality tools developed by professionals, and most of the Linux knock-offs are no where close. There USED to be the problem where they would go into a store and buy a piece of software, which is going to be either for Windows or Mac, but that seems pretty quaint these days.

Re:Simple

[Rick Schumann]

I am actually well aware of this fact, as are, sadly, few others. People not in the know are either confused, disbelieving, or shocked when I tell them. I wonder, has anyone ever seen the 'terms of service' or the privacy agreement for any 'rewards' card?

Re: Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

Microsoft stock has been on a tear lately, after lurking around the $30 mark for quite a long time. Their cloud computing business is picking up steam.

Re: Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

Anybody supporting this crap is foolish. Period.

Re: Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

What? Linux users abandon Windows because it sucks, not to get away from computers.

Re:Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

If only my apps ran on other operating systems! Linux has not delivered on this front. (Think games -- WTF else is Windows good for?)

Re:Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

Is it really a "consumer" grade OS? I mean what does that even really mean? If I'm not mistaken they are advertising Microsoft Windows 10 to businesses as well. Maybe it is a consumer grade product, but it's certainly a joke in general at even that, and certainly and especially for businesses for which it is also advertised.

Re:Simple

[No Longer an AC]

Not me, man. I'm sticking with Windows 8.1!

No really, I am at least until I buy another computer. And I might try to make sure that people have successfully installed Linux on the model I buy next but every time I've played with it, it's ended badly.

When Microsoft start nagging me to get Windows 10 I started playing with Linux in a Virtual Machine. It was not my first foray into the Linux world, but it ended up being just as bad as earlier attempts. Actually, Linux seemed to work okay in the virtual machine even though it was a bit slow (I tried several different ones) - I attributed the slowness to running in a VM. When I tried to boot Linux directly though it would work okay for maybe as long as 5 minutes and then slow to a crawl.

I tried to find help on the many Linux forums available on the internet. Perhaps my search skills are weak, but I failed.

This is why so many of us stick with Windows. For all its faults, it generally works and we don't have to mess around with it too much.

And while I can't claim to be a master of the command line I'm not completely ignorant either. If it takes that long for me to try (and fail) to replace Windows there's no way the average joe is going to even try.

I still dream of installing Linux as a replacement for Windows, but most days I just want to use my computer and not try to figure out how to install a completely new OS. Having only one computer doesn't really help the situation. If I screw up that one I'm without a computer until I can fix it - and I can't even go online if it's down.

Re:Simple

[Grishnakh]

It's advertised as "professional", but you can advertise anything as that. The new Macbook Pro is also advertised as professional and it's consumer-grade too, though with a business-class price tag.

A car company could easily advertise a tiny mini-truck as "professional grade" and make a lame commercial of someone dropping loads of gravel in it (after modifying the suspension heavily so it doesn't collapse), but that doesn't really make it so.

Re: Simple

[Chas]

Technically, if the tool requires that you submit to an OS that's effectively malware? How is that the "right" tool?

That's like buying a TV with a food processor attached. And to change channels or do anything, you need to stick your dick into the food processor.

Re: Simple

[erapert]

Have you looked at the library of games for Linux on Steam?

Re: Simple

[david_thornley]

There's a function called "Sleep" on all new computer hardware. Need the 'net, push a key on the keyboard, a mouse button, or the power button. Wait 5-10 second and go. Unless people can't wait 5-10 seconds.

Ask me why I suspect you're not running Windows 10.

Re: Simple

[fufufang]

I run windows 7 SP1 and I have NO problem. Auto updates OFF.

Surely that's the perfect way of getting all the viruses and malwares?

As opposed to turning it on and getting what are, by definition, viruses and malware?

Well, there is a difference between adware and malware...

Re: Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

You're not paying attention to what I was referring to. THE SECURITY UPDATES WILL NOW COME BUNDLED WITH TELEMETRY YOU CANNOT DISABLE. There will be no 'a la carte' KB-xxxxxx packages available for non-enterprise consumers, coming soon. Disabling Cortana is level I surface shit. Disabling auto-updates ditto. That will NOT protect you from the scourge M$ is going to force upon you, and the only actual alternative for 7 is not to patch at all in the near future.

Can you prove your claim that Win7 security bundle updates will also include M$ spyware??

Re: Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

Pirate Win7, problem solved.

Re: Simple

[poofmeisterp]

Busted. What is it?

Re: Simple

[Ol Olsoc]

Linux is NOT A viable alternative, no matter how much you zealots claim it is.

Neither is Windows 10.

Re: Simple

[Ol Olsoc]

just the other day I was talking to my wife about anti-virus and an ad for one popped up at just the same time, talk about handy. Now I don't need o search, I just talk about things in range of the microphone and wait for the ad to pop up!

Oh boy, I shouldn't have made that joke about shemale midget scat porn. What am I going to come home to?

Re: Simple

[Ol Olsoc]

And just how long will that last? At some point programs won't work well if at all for Win7. How many people you see still running Win2k (or Win98) and say they have no problems?

2020 by my estimate. I dropped Windows once before, and life was better. Now that the one program I needed and ran Windows 7 again has been enabled on the OSX side, I'll be happy to drop them again.

If you are willing to put up with any amount of shit from windows, and still keep using it - that's how much shit they are willing to put you through. You act like its some sign of superiority, while I have pity for people stuck on Windows, similar to the pity I feel for people with terminal syphilis dementia. Sorry for ya, but didn't have to turn out that way.

Re: Simple

[Ol Olsoc]

They didn't make 7 better than vista. They just rebadged vista and changed the default UAC policy, nothing else and waited until the CPUs caught up. The winSxS bloat that is in 7 came from vista.

Doesn't matter, because W7 actually works.

Re: Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually it's a silly idea. Just configure your firewall and/or router to only allow internet access to specific programs. Why introduce an additional step in the process?

Re:Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a consumer-grade OS. What's wrong with borrowing a concept from another area of consumer economics?

Nothing "wrong" with it, it's just silly and pathetic and desperate.

The problem - once again - is ads embedded in the fucking OS.

Re: Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

That simply doesnt work in reality... the entire Internet it seems has gone dynamic. We have Windows updates hosted alongside facebook pages hosted alongside malware and crypto lockers by providers like aikami and cloudflare.

Re: Simple

[Ol Olsoc]

You should check again and filter by SteamOS/Linux. Then sort by cost, you will see a fair number of triple A games there. Sure a lot are missing but my last check had over 1000 games available. If you don't NEED game-of-the-moment-X, there is plenty there to keep you happy for years.

Now he's furiously searching for the ones Linux doesn't have on steam, which will magically become his new favorite games.

Re: Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

I actually like the tile interface for start page

Hey, so I'm not the only one who actually likes that better.

(Metro start "menu" can still suck a dick)

Re: Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

No because of four reasons:

1) I don't run random programs from shady sites
2) All programs that I download get screened through VirusTotal and my local, constantly up-to-date antivirus before being run
3) My computer connects through both a software firewall and a hardware firewall where everything is blocked by default
4) I keep complete, incremental backups and can restore my entire system to working order in 20-30 minutes

Re: Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

No, you aren't paying attention. You patch your system and then go back and rip out all of the Microsoft malware. There are even programs that will do this automatically for you.

Re:Simple

[Ol Olsoc]

Microsoft is pushing its customer base away.

For me, it was twice. I really wanted Windows 10 to work well. And right after installing it, it was promising. I put up with the telemetry because I only ran the program I needed for Windows on it, so nothing of value would be given to Microsoft.

Then the update breakage began. And as usual Microsoft was of little help, and the shills all replied that somehow it was my fault.

So I went to operating systems where I don't have problems that are my fault, and all is good.

Nowadays, all of the outside consultants bring in Macs and boot into Windows when necessary, which btw, is because of legacy, lethargy and support for a soon to be retiring lead programmer.

I've seen a lot of Macs in the last few years being used in a professional capacity, as well as a lot of students on campus using them. They have this weird tendency to always work. It's also the reason why I view the installed user base of Windows a little skeptically.

Re:Simple

[Grishnakh]

It's not silly. It earns them more revenue, which means more profit, which is good for the shareholders.

It may or may not be "desperate", but I sure don't see many people abandoning the Windows platform even with all these complaints about Windows 10. So if they can make more money with ads, and lose no real paying customers, why not do it?

Re: Simple

[rtb61]

Boy do you have it wrong. They will keep doing until sufficient people start harassing the fuck out of government to make it fucking illegal. Now that is exactly the way you do it, fuck them, they want to turn your privacy into an inconvenience, then fuck them and there is no better way to fuck them up. Annoy the crap out of your own government until the create legislation to ban M$ from carrying out that corrupt perverse business practice (don't forget to get others to join in kind of essential), remind the politician that their own privacy and their children's privacy is also under threat (can not maintain that private vs public political stance with no privacy for them or their families). Why the fuck bend over and just take it, when you can do something about it, don't win, so the fuck what, at least you tried and annoyed the crap out the arse holes in the interim and nothing stops you from continuing to try, year in and year out. Face it realistically maybe you'll spend an hour a week on it tops, might not seem like much, but when those billion ants start chewing on that elephant, pretty soon you have no elephant but don't forget to have fun doing it ;D. You might just be that annoying yapping dog but who cares as long as you are having fun being that annoying yapping dog, grr, woof, woof, fuck you M$,

Re: Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

You CAN boot from skylake. Make USB win7 installer. Next download Asus patch tool that adds necessary drivers for EHCI and USB3. If necessary, put nvme driver on stick and load custom driver during setup. Worked for my setup with asus Maximus hero viii, Samsung 950 pro, and i7 6700K.

Re: Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

the entire Internet it seems has gone dynamic

And how does that affect the ability to block or permit internet access to programs and services on your computer?

Re: Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

Thanks, your check is in the mail!

Re: Simple

[slazzy]

Ads for cleaning products and air fresheners?

Re: Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, there's always the option of running it in WINE. I only have a few Windows apps (World of Warcraft is one) and they run pretty flawlessly.

Re: Simple

[slazzy]

I normally get the black screen of death when I've tried to use Windows 10.

Re: Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

Sleep would crash it.

Re: Simple

[guacamole]

Windows 7 updates will end in January of 2020. So that's plenty of time. App developers always target the operating systems that are used, and Windows 7 WILL be used for a long time on many PCs simply because of how much it is popular in the enterprise.

Re: Simple

[guacamole]

Auto-updates off does not mean "never install" updates. On my Windows 7 machines, I usually check "notify me when updates are available" or "download but do not install updates". When my computer is not doing any work, and it can be potentially rebooted, I might review those messages and see whether the updates need to be installed. Besides, there is a bunch of other means to control malware. For one, use adblockers, script blockers, and BRAINS on the web, and use good anti-virus of course.

Re: Simple

[Ol Olsoc]

Ads for cleaning products and air fresheners?

Took me a second there.

Re: Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm a musician. The only good music production, daw etc are on windows. Apple turned logic into a pos. And sadly under windows 10 the latency issues under 8 are gone. So yes I'm locked into 10. And before you say it. Music software under Linux is shit. Under windows it works. Used to use logic till Apple abandoned it.

Re: Simple

[thundercattt]

Win 7 + Never10 = Win

Re: Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

Windows runs the vast majority of the world's workstations because the "adults" using them are either too lazy or just can't be bothered to learn something new. You want to be stuck in the stone age, that's your choice. Otherwise grow the fuck up and learn something.

Re: Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

If you're a musician shouldn't you be playing an INSTRUMENT instead of a computer anyway? Or are you one of those techno retards that calls themself a DJ because they ripped off someone elses effort?

Re: Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow. I use it to record. Play guitar and keyboard with many different types of inputs. Direct USB. Mic'd from external devices. Etc. And edit my audio. You sir are a moron who has never played an instrument much tried to record and edit. what made you reply like that? Apple fan boy? I speak the truth. Idiot.

Re: Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

To be more specific. I have a Boss GT-100 guitar effects board. A presonus iTwo. Using. Presonus studio one. ProTools. Etc. I very much dislike windows but my new laptop will not run xp and no equivalent under Linux. A Linux user since 95. And if you actually knew about recording you would know it's about latency. 5-6ms and using windows 8. Never tried 7. But windows 10 it is 2ms and less. Amazing. When playing 5-6ms is noticeable. Just saying. Troll.

Re: Simple

[Tough Love]

They'll keep getting more intrusive until too many people start bitching about them...

Actually, I'm in favour of more pain for sheeple who still think Windows is the thing to run. At worst it's free entertainment for Linux users, who we now know number in the tens of millions if you only count PCs, or billions if you count Android. And Windows actually does serve one useful purpose: it provides a vibrant (not quite dead yet) supply of subsidized PCs to run Linux on.

Re: Simple

[Tough Love]

Boy do you have it wrong. They will keep doing until sufficient people start harassing the fuck out of government to make it fucking illegal.

I agree, being stupid enough to run windows should be illegal.

Re: Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

It's only a matter of time until Microsoft starts exploiting Chrome and Firefox vulnerabilities, encrypts all your documents and then asks you to enable AutoUpdates asap or else.

Re: Simple

[iivel]

For starters, I can't run Docker without toolbox, which doesn't actually work universally (virtualbox and my system don't get along) and I can't install SQL Server 2016. So, that dev machine is either going to have to upgrade to Windows 10 or Server 2012. Win 10 makes more sense to get bash.

Re: Simple

[KozmoStevnNaut]

GTA IV and GTA V (plus GTA Online) are the big ones for me, the main reason I keep a Windows partition for games. Other games that I've enjoyed that are not on Linux include the Batman Arkham series, the Bioshock series (Bioshock Inifinite is on Linux), Bulletstorm, the Carmageddon reboot, Darksiders I and II, the Deus Ex series, the Divinity series (D:OS is on Linux, though), TES: Skyrim, the Fallout series, the Hitman series, the Just Cause series, the Mafia series, the Wolfenstein series, the STALKER series, Sleeping Dogs, and probably others.

Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of great games available for Linux/SteamOS, but not nearly as many as for Windows. And AFAIK, there are no Linux/SteamOS-exclusive games.

Re: Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

What the shuddering fuck are you talking about?

I've been editing photos on PCs for 20 years. Started with PSP 3, moved to PSP 5, moved to GIMP. Have never needed Scrotoplop, ever.

What the fuck is Quicken and why do you think "everyone" needs it?

PROTIP: "everyone" is not a synonym of "me".

Re: Simple

[fisted]

What protocol do you suggest to inform the router or firewall what program it is that produced the packets in question? How do you secure it? How to you cope with spoofing?
Ohhh, you're talking about the software "firewall" that is built right into the OS you're trying to tame. Yeah, that sounds useful.

Re: Simple

[fisted]

Block telemetry at the edge firewall.

How do you identify what is telemetry and what isn't?

Re: Simple

[fisted]

1) I don't run random programs from shady sites

But you use "shady sites", or maybe even totally un-shady sides, which cause foreign data to be processed by local processes. Takes one drive-by attack to break your amazing security scheme.

Re: Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

TinyWall.

Re: Simple

[fisted]

No. You cannot expect your "firewall" to effectively control the OS when it is the OS that controls the "firewall".

Re: Simple

[r_naked]

Windows was important in the 90s. Wake up that is so last century.

Some of us grown-ups have to use our computers for *work* and can't just choose whatever OS has the prettiest icons, you know. That's why Windows still runs the vast majority of the world's workstations.

The company I work for is on track to be Microsoft free by Q3 2017. We are already MS free on the workstation side, but there are things like Great Plains, that they got backed into a corner YEARS ago, that are a lot harder to let go of. Even that will be gone Q1 2017, the two biggies are the SQL server clusters, they will be the last to go.

So don't cry me a river about it isn't possible to run a big corporation without sucking on the MS teat. I have helped several companies shed at least the MS workstation weight, and this will be the first that has decided to go *entirely* MS free.

Now I am not a graphics person. But I can still see that in the professional gfx world, Photoshop is still king. However, the shops that have custom software, and don't have the source code -- well they were just stupid.

Re: Simple

[allo]

Just use a default route, which doesn't route to the internet.
Then install a proxy on a device in the LAN, which has correct internet access.
Next configure single programs to use the proxy on the LAN-device.

MS will start reading your firefox' settings to detect proxysettings for working internet access. Skype already does (on linux at least).

Re: Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

bullshit, unless you are into some speciality programs (3d modeling, image and video manipulation, ect) most people even in the corporate world dont need windows. the only reason they still use windows is because companies refuse to retrain people to work with another operating system, this is usually because most companies are stingy on all training figuring that they will just replace the obsolete people with new ones.

id say 80% of all departments in any corporation could be switched to linux with no impact on functionality of their job roles.

companies will switch away from windows when Microsoft decides to turn on these features for the domain registered computers, its not like they actually remove them when you connect a computer to a domain, they just silence them.

Re: Simple

[allo]

Because MS could never transfer such data in the encrypted connection, which is used to pull updates. Never.

Re: Simple

[nehumanuscrede]

You know. . . many folks HAVE to run a Windows OS due to the software they utilize not running on anything else. It's a chicken and egg thing. Developers aren't going to waste time building their application for a platform that maybe 2% use. Users want, but can't get, a Linux option for the very same reasons.

Yes, yes, there are Linux substitutes out there for some things, but not usually for professional software.

Last I checked, Zbrush doesn't run on Linux. Nor do the CAD / CAM programs I use or some of the rendering systems.

Even if there were, the software licenses are typically OS specific which means you would need to buy the damn license for it all over again. Some of those licenses can run several thousand dollars or more. It's easier to go with MS then isolate it from the internet as a workstation.

So before you bash on folks for using MS operating systems, realize some use their computers a bit differently than others.

Not that we're shilling for MS, it's just that we don't have a damn choice.

Re: Simple

[freeze128]

Sure, that SOUNDS like a good idea, but eventually, the real world will outpace your OS. Win 2k is great! It will run fast on modern machines. But eventually, it stops getting updates for the OS. "That's OK..." you say, "Those updates usually break things more often than fix them". Office 95 is fine, until you realize that everyone else in the world is saving their doc files as .docx, and you can't open those. Then Mozilla stops providing builds for Windows 2K, so the latest version of Firefox you can run is 3.6. That means no HTML5 support. Your experience starts to suffer. Finally, when your hardware fails (it often does - bad caps), you have to replace your motherboard, and you find out that the manufacturer doesn't even make drivers for Windows 2K for your new hardware.

So, you bite the bullet and upgrade to Windows 10 like you should have done years ago, but only to find that your peripherals (Printer, scanner, etc) are so old because you had to have them working on Win2K, that there are no drivers for them on Windows 10.

You thought you were saving money, but you were just putting off the purchase until you had to buy EVERYTHING at once. Well done.

Re: Simple

[fisted]

That was my point.

Re: Simple

[fisted]

Pretty sure you replied to the wrong post there

Re: Simple

[Tough Love]

You know. . . many folks HAVE to run a Windows OS due to the software they utilize not running on anything else.

That may be true for a small minority people, for the rest it's just an excuse for inaction. Easy to prove: people are abandoning their Windows peecees in droves and doing everything with their phones, tablets, Linux desktops or even macthings. Fact. Kinda erodes any sympathy I might otherwise have for people whining about the evil things Microsoft does to them. It's their choice and they created that monster. They know what to do about it.

Re: Simple

[Tough Love]

Zbrush is a really bad choice for your argument. Pros use Maya, the rest of us use Blender which arguably surpassed Zbrush long ago and is widely considered as good as or superior to Maya for most of the things a 3D artist needs to do. I'm going to need to write your argument off mainly to fear of exercising neurons. Just remember this: use them or lose them.

Re: Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

That's why Windows still runs the vast majority of the world's workstations.

Sorry, I missed the reason you gave. Because you need to do real work?
You're deranged if you think the reason Windows still runs the vast majority of workstations is because it's somehow superior for running applications.
Terms like "FUD", "Vendor Lock-in" and "Embrace, Extend, Extinguish" all came from the Microsoft playbook.

Re: Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

Linux is NOT A viable alternative, no matter how much you zealots claim it is.

It is but those with blinkers over their eyes can't see it.

Re: Simple

[Chas]

Yeah. Adware just flashes unwanted ads at you.

Malware makes system modifications you don't want, loads things you don't want, and endangers your system stability.

Windows 10 fulfills all the requirements for the latter.

Re: Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

or a Chromebox / Chromebook.
Dude ChromeOS is just as bad about spying on you. So is Android. Remember Google invented this business model.

Re: Simple

[Rakarra]

What the shuddering fuck are you talking about?

I've been editing photos on PCs for 20 years. Started with PSP 3, moved to PSP 5, moved to GIMP. Have never needed Scrotoplop, ever.

What the fuck is Quicken and why do you think "everyone" needs it?

PROTIP: "everyone" is not a synonym of "me".

I don't need Quicken, and haven't used it since my high school days. But it is a frequent example I hear from people thinking of moving to Linux that I don't have a good substitute for.

And yes, most Photoshop users retch in horror when confronted with GIMP. It's not a substitute.

Re: Simple

[Ann O'Nymous-Coward]

Sadly those have become a pretty rare breed in recent years, especially among triple-A publishers. Even if you can buy a disk, they very often expect you to connect to the net, thanks to their bloodyminded insistence on DRM. Off the top of my head, I think Ubisoft / EA are repeat offenders.

Re: Simple

[Ann O'Nymous-Coward]

Heh. I'm afraid I'm addicted to game-of-the-moment-X. A regular series-o-holic. Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Dishonored, Doom/Quake/Wolfenstein reboots, Deus Ex, Thief, Assassin's Creed, Dragon Age, Far Cry, Darksiders, Dark Souls, Castlevania, Devil May Cry, god knows how many others.

AFAIK not a lot of those series hit SteamOS close to release date.

I know that situation is slowly improving. I'm just waiting for it to get to the point where it's genuinely workable. I enjoy doing battle with my games, not so much with the spyware in Windows.

Re: Simple

[Ann O'Nymous-Coward]

Ahh, a cynic after my own absence-of-heart.

See above.

Sorry to burst your bubble, mate. Some pf them are on Linux, some aren't. But the ones that are almost always take their sweet time to get there. Life's too short for that crap, I say.

Re: Simple

[Ann O'Nymous-Coward]

Exactly my point. Steam on Windows kicks serious ass. SteamOS on Linux just isn't a workable alternative yet.

Re: Simple

[Ann O'Nymous-Coward]

Bah. Bioshock, Borderlands and Divinity series, I knew I was forgetting several of them. Probably still forgetting others.

no longer an OS, but an ad platform

[Anonymous Coward]

My OS should not interrupt my work flow. Send it straight to the trash can. Actually I migrated from Win7 to openSUSE, never even installed Win10, as the writing was already on the wall.

OS as advertising platform

[sinij]

OS as advertising platform. No thanks. I'd rather deal with obnoxious RTFM attitude, distro balkanization, and user unfriendly UI of Linux than put up with that from Windows.

Re:OS as advertising platform

[green1]

The good news is that Windows and Linux have exactly the same amount of support (unless you're an enterprise paying a fortune to MS on an annual basis). And the Linux UI on most distros is far more user friendly than the Windows one (don't confuse familiarity with ease of use, they aren't related)

Re:OS as advertising platform

[Anonymous Coward]

Sadly, linux doesnt run the software I use most. No autocad, no navisworks, no revit. Hardly any support for the HTC vive. Im not a programer, if something requires alot of commandline work, ill pass.

I want to click on the icons and have it work, no tinkering involved.

Re:OS as advertising platform

[Anonymous Coward]

Sadly, linux doesnt run the software I use most. No autocad, no navisworks, no revit. Hardly any support for the HTC vive. Im not a programer, if something requires alot of commandline work, ill pass.

I want to click on the icons and have it work, no tinkering involved.

Well if they are for your work then fine and I would assume your work pays for the licenses.

If it's for home use then it's your money or are you one those who people who has a green parrot on their shoulder? Did you every stop to think that there are alternatives?

1990's calling, Linux would like it's FUD back.

Re:OS as advertising platform

[green1]

All the major Linux OSes are fully graphical, and can do everything you'd need by "clicking the icons and having it work" no tinkering involved.
In fact, the excellent software repositories and built in support for almost all hardware makes things far more likely to "just work" than on Windows, and generally require less tinkering.

As for your specific software requirements, they're rare, and alternatives exist. Most users have no need for many thousands of dollars in professional software tools in addition to their OS.

Mark Hachman is known for seditious behavior

[Anonymous Coward]

I would suggest we all critically evaluate the history of his articles before accepting this as truth. If only this webzone had some sort of editorial system that could review these stories for accuracy and quality before posting them.

Only LUDDITES hate apps.

[Anonymous Coward]

Appsoft is simply trying to coerce this LUDDITE into using an appy app app on Appdows 10 instead of LUDDITE software!

Apps!

Re:Only LUDDITES hate apps.

[Anonymous Coward]

Sexconker, don't you think it's time to stop using a meme that is so Last Thursday and at least move on to something a little fresher? How about Doge? Based Doge at least is cute. Just think: You could go on memegenerator and caption Doge pics and post the link. Wouldn't that be better?

Re:Only LUDDITES hate apps.

[desdinova 216]

I thought sexconker was the cows guy?

Please post the steps somewhere else

[Provocateur]

We are not interested in how to get rid of it. Simply post the news you know of; not how to get it out of the system.

Or a disclaimer: How we became a slashvertiser business model instead of a legit news site.

Re:Please post the steps somewhere else

[bananaquackmoo]

Strongly disagree. I don't want to have to go looking for those steps.

Re:Please post the steps somewhere else

[Anonymous Coward]

I understand, but a link would have worked just as well, and the details should all be there, and you wouldn't break a sweat clicking on a link now. We're not pushing search engines here, either. It should be a tech news site, with no bias, pure and simple. I am sure you would agree to that last point.

Re:Please post the steps somewhere else

[Anonymous Coward]

We are not interested in how to get rid of it.

"We"? Are you the Queen of England, invoking the royal 2nd-person? Have you a mouse in your pocket?

Do not presume to speak for the entirety of the readership here. Some of us are very interested in how to get rid of it.

Re:Please post the steps somewhere else

[Anonymous Coward]

The world should be different, but it's not. News at 11, suck it up.

And this is a surprise? Why?

[QuietLagoon]

Microsoft has shown that the Windows 10 customer base is willing to put up with these types of pop-ups. Does anyone really think that Microsoft had no plans to show ads in order to monetize the Windows 10 users?

.
Why in the world did Microsoft go through such great lengths to get its customers to upgrade to Windows 10, if they were not planning to gather customer data and monetize it.

Here we go again

[Grishnakh]

[eats popcorn]

This just keeps getting better and better. Go Satya!!

Hopefully, they'll next force full-screen advertising on startup, and periodically during use.

Re:Here we go again

[PRMan]

Satya N.

Satyan.

Hmmm.

Re:Here we go again

[Rick Schumann]

Want to start a betting pool as to how long it'll be before they roll out a forced 'update' that turns Windows 10 into it's own ransomware, too? Imagine this: Clippy's protection racket

Re:Here we go again

[jez9999]

People who use W10 are so locked in to MS, I honestly wonder whether they'd stop using it even MS mandated that everyone's lockscreen be goat.cx or something, or whether they'd find a way to like it.

Re:Here we go again

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a fscking nightmare. My kids have to use it for skool. The amount of times they've been unable to do work because the shitty OS goes into a three hour "updating / reboot" loop has become a bloody joke. It's as though the entire OS is being re-installed every time. And don't get me started on the fscked up devices: video regularly defaults to VGA resolution after so-called updated, and the only fix is to delete the newly created screen device. Wireless keyboards have been dumped because win10 + patches decide we're not allowed to use them any longer.

Re:Here we go again

[Anonymous Coward]

At least it's a good thing you didn't have to pay for it right?

Re:Here we go again

[Anonymous Coward]

Snadella.

Yesssssssssssssssss

Re:Here we go again

[Anonymous Coward]

It's as though the entire OS is being re-installed every time.

That's because it pretty much is.

"Microsoft currently distributes major Windows 10 updates -- Anniversary Update, for instance -- as essentially full operating system installs, going as much 4GB in size..."

Now they're supposedly going to change that. Someone at Microsoft must have been introduced to the amazing new technology known as "binary diffs." But it's too late for me, after two different bungled updates that took hours to perform and then went into boot loops (where only a format+reinstall fixed it), I reinstalled Win7 Ultimate and am back to being happy.

Re:Here we go again

[DogDude]

"Locked in" how, exactly?

Re:Here we go again

[Anonymous Coward]

roll out a forced 'update' that turns Windows 10 into it's own ransomware

That is the definition of an OS or a photo manipulation tool as a service.

Re:Here we go again

[Anonymous Coward]

Habit, or work given pc, or software, or just what's 'available' locally, or just what one is used to, or habit, and habit.

To many folks, MS Windows is so ubiquitous and common they don't even know they have Windows (tm). All they know is it's a computer. It's what computers just 'are'.

We readers know better and shop around or even dare I say it- work in tech *gasp* and are aware of the blatant differences amongst the entire digital landscape. But not everyone. I wouldn't know the difference between two sewing machines, though my wife is highly opinionated on & tells me some are embroidery ones, and others a surger - what ever the heck that is. So some of us just 'don't know' about some things.

But yeah, tl;dr the answer is MS is so common now it's default to many folks/industries- and they don't even consider other options. This is no grounds for abuse my MS and for them to behave the way they do is a shame.

Re:Here we go again

[Anonymous Coward]

OS as a 'service'

LOL, no, you'd have to have a two-digit IQ to fall for that so far as I'm concerned.

Re:Here we go again

[Grishnakh]

Most people are just plain dumb. I'm no expert sewer, and don't know what a "surger" is either, but I can certain understand that there's more than 1 brand of sewing machine, and I can certainly grasp the concept that there's different types of sewing machines for different and perhaps specialized purposes. Sewing is a craft that's been around since prehistory and the invention of cloth garments, which probably goes back tens of thousands of years, so of course there's going to be a certain amount of complexity to it, and many different types of stitches, and of course competing companies selling machines to do this.

Not only that, but anyone with even half a brain should know by now that there's Apple computers out there (PCs/laptops, not just iPhones) which are not the same as Windows PCs. They even have stores in malls selling their overpriced computers. This isn't highly esoteric tech stuff any more. But I don't doubt there's still morons who don't get it.

This is no grounds for abuse my MS

Now this just isn't true. In a capitalist system, it's a company's job to extract as much profit from its customers as possible. If the customers really are so uninformed and stupid that they won't leave that company no matter how badly they're treated, whose fault is it? If 90% of everyone keeps buying Chrysler cars even though they're unreliable junk and catch on fire frequently, and they simply refuse to even consider a GM, Ford, Toyota, Honda, Mercedes, etc., no matter what, who's fault is that? Especially when they have one friend who has a Honda and raves about how great it is and how they never worry about their car catching on fire or the wheels falling off, but in response these people just roll their eyes and make snide comments about him?

Don't forget, MS went through an extremely public trial about this back in 1999, which was all over the news. People have had literally years and even decades of warning about MS's behavior. And during this time, Macs (as much as I hate them these days) have grown from a bit player to a pretty sizable (though small minority) player, and Linux has been around for 2 decades now. After all this time, I simply have no more sympathy for people who suffer willingly with these abuses by MS. There *are* alternatives, they've been around for a very long time, there simply is no excuse any more. This really is a case of the frog refusing to leave the boiling water (except in real life, that's an old wive's tale and real frogs aren't that stupid; only humans are).

Re:Here we go again

[fibonacci8]

Stockholm Syndrome, presumably.

Re:Here we go again

[Anonymous Coward]

We keep telling you. Don't you ever LISTEN?

file formats.
Windows only applications.
patent extortion.
using non-standard standards...
bribery?
kickbacks?
Buying any company that Microsoft thinks has a competing product.
killing any company that they decide has something profitable and refuses to be bought?
stealing software (quite a few convictions there).
illegal monopoly activity (several convictions there).

if they insist it's their computer, ought to pay y

[swschrad]

ought to pay you to suffer with it. if it's your computer running their OS, you should still be able to control the appearances.

getting to hate the 'softies.

Windows 10 Adware Edition

[Anonymous Coward]

Miss me? I'm back.

So glad I don't have any computer with Windows 10

[blind biker]

With my personality, I'd be miserable. Not being able to schedule updates when I want (or completely opt out of them) is something I not only take for granted, but something I insist on. Same with ignoring my privacy settings. And shoving ads down my throat (after I opted out of them) would drive me mad.

So, I guess Windows 10 is for the meek, and as we know, they will inherit the Earth.... right?

Screwed either way

[wickerprints]

I've got money burning a hole in my pocket, but between this and the piece of shit MacBook Pro that was announced recently, I don't know what to do. Buy a Razer laptop and install Linux? The Surface Studio looked amazing but I refuse to use Windows on my personal computer.

Like this election cycle, it seems that personal computing seems to be on the same race to the bottom, in terms of which company can screw over their most loyal users the most.

Re:Screwed either way

[phorm]

If I had the money, I'd go for a nice Asus Zenbook and install Linux on it...

Re:Screwed either way

[PsychoSlashDot]

I've got money burning a hole in my pocket, but between this and the piece of shit MacBook Pro that was announced recently, I don't know what to do.

I'm no fan of some of the behavior recently, but this latest one requires you to be using Edge. You'd be doing that why? Use Firefox like a normal person and you're okay. Or Chrome, if you must.

There's much to get riled up about, but this one isn't one.

My latest purchase was a Surface Book, and after setting things my way (ClassicShell, etc), it's very reasonable.

Re:Screwed either way

[houstonbofh]

It would be good to learn it. It may or may not be the future of computing, and the end all be all of human computing existence... But learning how it works will be a good thing. More tools in the toolbox. (Be warned that everyone I know who learns it ends up switching.)

Re:Screwed either way

[sremick]

Dell Latitude or Precision Mobile, then install Linux. You can configure these exactly how you'd want.

Re:Screwed either way

[Anonymous Coward]

You're shopping in the wrong place. Honestly, there are people trying to offload zenbooks by the dozen. Don't bid; just narrow the search to Buy it now and you can get your dream machine for less. Try the search thing on ebay. Leave out the Windows; you'd be surprised at the hits you get. Believe me, that's how I bought my dell. Some guy was unloading them because some office had probably backed out of their purchase. His photo of the laptop sped up my search, and 99 bucks later I had it. YMMV; but there are good choices out there, especially if you are a US resident =)

Re:Screwed either way

[Greyfox]

I just got a Dell precision with a touch screen and Ubuntu preinstalled. It has ports, has super-fast wifi, has 32 GB of RAM and everything works out of the box with Linux.

Re:Screwed either way

[jez9999]

Give it to me.

Re:Screwed either way

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm no fan of some of the behavior recently, but this latest one requires you to be using Edge. You'd be doing that why? Use Firefox like a normal person and you're okay. Or Chrome, if you must.

Why would you ever assume that MS will leave you alone with Edge-related promotions if you are not using Edge? I would expect them to deploy increasingly obtrusive in-OS advertising to further this goal.

Re:Screwed either way

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm no fan of some of the behavior recently, but this latest one requires you to be using Edge.

No it doesn't. Check out the screenshot in the article: what happens is that when you start a non-Edge browser the first time after they started this campaign, a little pop up appears above the Edge shortcut in the task bar telling you to use it and "earn while you browse." It also shows up in the "Tips" part of the Action Center, which to be fair, was a Windows 10 feature I forgot existed.

Who knows how frequently this popup will appear (I've only seen it once) but it's incredibly annoying and I wish Microsoft would stop pulling shit like this.

Re:Screwed either way

[literaldeluxe]

Give System76 a try; they make very nice Ubuntu laptops. For those (like me) that run Linux Mint, they're perfect (no hardware issues, etc.).

Re:Screwed either way

[guacamole]

I bet some vendors (Dell, HP, etc) still have a stock of new PCs with Windows 7.

Hehe

[Anonymous Coward]

Looking forward to the EU version with ads striped out.

Re:Hehe

[Grishnakh]

Hopefully MS will grow a backbone and tell the EU to shove it, and force them to have ads too. If the EU refuses or gives them any legal problems, MS can simply shut down all their government computers, yank their licenses, etc.

You don't make yourself utterly dependent on someone, and then tell them what they can and can't do.

Re:Hehe

[Holi]

Yeah yanking their licenses would actually be illegal and the EU would then eat Microsoft until all that was left is visual basic. Your plan would result in the end of Microsoft. (loss of a major market and the billions they would be sued for is not something they could recover from, not to mention the PR disaster). Remember Microsoft is the dependent one, without continued sales they disappear.

Re:Hehe

[Grishnakh]

Yeah yanking their licenses would actually be illegal and the EU would then eat Microsoft until all that was left is visual basic.

Hahaha! How exactly do you propose they do that? Microsoft is an American company, not a European one. MS can easily ignore any judgments in the EU.

And on top of that, how exactly are they going to pursue a case when all their governments are shut down because they have no IT systems working?

Remember Microsoft is the dependent one, without continued sales they disappear.

How's that a problem? No one in the US is going to stop using their software, no matter what. And in the EU, it's pretty simple: pay up, or else. Having all your critical IT systems shut down makes it pretty hard to run a company or a country.

Re: Hehe

[Anonymous Coward]

you're an idiot. if ms shut down its eu operation it would get sued to oblivion by the us shareholders for destruction of shareholder value or similar

Re: Hehe

[Grishnakh]

No, you're an idiot. MS doesn't have to shut down their EU operation. They just have to shut down all the EU government computers for a week to show them who's really in control, and then triple their prices for them to be turned back on.

Re: Hehe

[catprog]

In which case the government would immediately look at an alternative.

Possibly even mandating documents sent to the government be in odt format to make Microsoft's job in Europe even harder .

Re:Hehe

[donaldm]

Hahaha! How exactly do you propose they do that? Microsoft is an American company, not a European one. MS can easily ignore any judgments in the EU.

Like it or not any company has to abide by the laws of the country they market their products in. Sure Microsoft could try to use heavy-handed tactics on the country they sell their products in but they risk all their in-country assets being frozen with possibly an embargo put on all Microsoft products. Also something like this would start a diplomatic row but trying to threaten countries in the EU would only isolate the US in the eyes of the world.

Remember Microsoft is the dependent one, without continued sales they disappear.

How's that a problem? No one in the US is going to stop using their software, no matter what. And in the EU, it's pretty simple: pay up, or else. Having all your critical IT systems shut down makes it pretty hard to run a company or a country.

Do you honestly think that Microsoft could shut down all critical IT systems? If this was tried all Microsoft's assets in the country would be frozen and there would be a massive switch to alternative operating systems and applications around the world (yes you read correctly "the world"). You may not realize this but there are quite a few very smart IT people not living in the USA.

Re:Hehe

[Grishnakh]

Like it or not any company has to abide by the laws of the country they market their products in.

Not when the country is utterly dependent on that company and its products. You seem to have a fundamental misunderstanding of what real power is, and how it can be wielded.

Do you honestly think that Microsoft could shut down all critical IT systems? If this was tried all Microsoft's assets in the country would be frozen and there would be a massive switch to alternative operating systems and applications around the world (yes you read correctly "the world").

See, this is where we disagree. I would love to see MS actually do this, and no, I really don't think there'd be a massive switch. MS has been making their systems more and more onerous for quite a while now, and no one's switched yet. I really don't think there's much of a limit to how much MS can abuse their customers. Don't forget, all these governments rely on all kinds of software that only runs on MS systems, and these ISVs aren't about to change either, because why should they? Their customers aren't going to switch to another vendor, because they're all locked in.

there are quite a few very smart IT people not living in the USA.

If there are, they aren't in decision-making positions because all these countries have happily made themselves completely dependent on an abusive US vendor instead of choosing one of many better alternatives. MS pulling the plug as a display of power isn't going to change this. The idiots will still be in charge, and will always be in charge. It'll be much, much easier to just submit to MS's wishes than to go to all the trouble of changing everything.

Re: Hehe

[Grishnakh]

Then they'll quickly figure out that, short-term, it's easier and faster to just submit to MS's wishes than to break themselves free.

Re:So glad I don't have any computer with Windows

[Maritz]

Been running Win 10 since summer, yet to see an ad. Seeing one would probably make me change my tune, although I do have anti-beacon installed. I've played around with Ubuntu a few times, but you know what? When I hook my Win 10 laptop up to TV with HDMI cable, it works. When I do the same with Ubuntu, no sound. That's why people don't use it.

Install Windows, and you do not own your PC

[Anonymous Coward]

It seems that when you use windows, you agree to transfer ownership of your pc to Redmond.

Re:And this is a surprise? Why?

[Rick Schumann]

This pic illustrates very clearly and concisely the general character (or lack thereof) and attitude of the Windows 10 'customer base' of which you speak. Need I say more?

Re:if they insist it's their computer, ought to pa

[Anonymous Coward]

This. Remember all those companies in the mid-'90s through the bubble whose whole business model was offering financial incentives to opt into their advertising? Now with Microsoft, you pay them to see the ads.

Adware

[Anonymous Coward]

How can you complain about ads while using adware??

Trading trust for browser market share

[Anonymous Coward]

Because making a browser that people actually want to use is just too damn difficult.

Windows 10 Enterprise may be the fix for this

[ErichTheRed]

I really wish Microsoft had handled this "free upgrade" thing better. Marketing wouldn't allow them to say "We're merging Home and Pro into Home, buy a subscription to Enterprise if you want to opt out of the tracking and the ads." But, that's exactly what's happening. Most large businesses are going to have to shell out for Enterprise in the form of a Software Assurance subscription.

With minor complaints about the UI and of course the ad-supported nature of it all, I find Windows 10 to be pretty good overall. The problem is that nothing is "free." Apple can afford to give away MacOS for free because they make so much money on expensive hardware and Store revenue. Microsoft doesn't have that yet - their Surfaces are nice, but they don't have the constant ATM-like stream of money coming in from Store purchases. At the same time, development on Windows for hardware they don't control needs to continue. So while it sucks, it makes sense for Microsoft to go to this model. Businesses pay the subscription bill as well as licensing all their other software, and they cede the consumer end of the market to tablets and phones. At the same time, they get a stream of money from slinging ads to the home users, who didn't pay for the product.

Although I don't like the 365-style rental model any more than the "you are the product" one, I think Microsoft could use it to allow people to buy into Enterprise if they didn't want to be tracked. Right now it's a huge pain to buy Enterprise licenses for average people -- you have to sign an agreement with Microsoft, pay for Software Assurance, etc. Unfortunately, Microsoft and other vendors are never going back to the boxed software model -- the revenue lock-in is too tempting and allows them to keep collecting money from customers forever rather than a one-time purchase.

Re:Windows 10 Enterprise may be the fix for this

[houstonbofh]

That and the volume licensing going form a 250 seat minimum to a 500 seat minimum means that most small and medium businesses are screwed. And they are the majority of workers in the US. And if they start to switch to Linux and Mac, things for MS will get bad fast.

Re:Windows 10 Enterprise may be the fix for this

[Anonymous Coward]

This is the perfect use-case for piracy.

Re:Windows 10 Enterprise may be the fix for this

[Kjella]

Although I don't like the 365-style rental model any more than the "you are the product" one, I think Microsoft could use it to allow people to buy into Enterprise if they didn't want to be tracked.

Nothing prevents Microsoft from making a domain-crippled "Personal LTSB", no Edge, no Cortana, no feature upgrades, ten years of running Windows software with security patches and all the work is basically done anyway. They just don't want to.

Re:Windows 10 Enterprise may be the fix for this

[Anonymous Coward]

Alas, there is a minimum commitment of 250 copies to buy into Software Assurance; it's not feasible for anyone in the home market.

Re:Windows 10 Enterprise may be the fix for this

[Anonymous Coward]

Who would want such a limited version with unfinished and unpolished UI, non-maintained or improved security features, and integration hell with other products and services? You do remember how unfinished the very first version of Windows 10 was (not that it would be finished now either)? Then there is the issue of hardware support. On the other hand Windows changes so fast now that using certain security features require constant vigilance for IT utilizing them. It is like deploying a beta, MS style, where there are no feature freezes between the iterations.

You don't own your computer anymore

[scorp1us]

I realized about 10 years ago that the mindset trend was to stop respecting device ownership and leverage the install base as a market. You see this primarily on Win, but OSX too. Microsoft started this before giving away Windows 10 for free, but now it's somehow more acceptable because, hey you didn't pay anything for it. Well now you're finding out "free" still has a price.

The only place it doesn't happen is on Linux. Which, along with a non-obtrusive updater, has become my OS of choice.

Re:You don't own your computer anymore

[houstonbofh]

The only place it doesn't happen is on Linux. Which, along with a non-obtrusive updater, has become my OS of choice.

To be fair, Canonical tried it with the Amazon scope, but got slapped down so hard I doubt anyone else will try it for a while!

Re:You don't own your computer anymore

[Somebody Is Using My]

Except these days most people /are/ paying for Windows 10, either by purchasing it from retail (a tiny minority) or as a hidden cost included in the price of their new PCs (everybody else). While OEMs usually receive a large discount from Microsoft, Microsoft isn't giving Windows10 away for free to them either. I read that only about 30% of Windows 10 users are those who received the free upgrade; the larger majority purchased the new OS when they bought a new computer.

So it's ingenuous to claim that adverts are acceptable because Windows10 is free, because for most people it was not.

Re:You don't own your computer anymore

[Anonymous Coward]

True story: I (legit.) paid $10 for a (legit) Edu key. Edu/Ent versions can opt out of telemetry but at the cost of controlling updates, apparently.

Re:You don't own your computer anymore

[JackAxe]

I agree with your premise, but for many of us Linux is not yet an alternative. Believe me you, when I can install the programs I need to work an OS other than Windows or OS X, I will do so.

For now I work on Windows, since it has excellent support and choice of hardware. Originally I worked on OS X, which I had to move away from when Apple changed its focus towards mobile.

Re:You don't own your computer anymore

[Anonymous Coward]

you mean "disingenuous" rather than "ingenuous".

Re:You don't own your computer anymore

[Anonymous Coward]

Linux Distributions break shit all the time.

Re: You don't own your computer anymore

[Anonymous Coward]

Bullshit. Daily Linux Mint (Ubuntu) user since 2009. No breakage.

Re:And this is a surprise? Why?

[NixieBunny]

This justifies why I went to such great lengths to prevent them from upgrading my computers to 10.

When will you realize the simple fix

[Anonymous Coward]

Just stop using Microsoft products and start seeing real innovation, competition more compatibility everywhere

What a POS

[Anonymous Coward]

The levels this piece of shit company descends to at times is bewildering. It's as if they're anti-consumer. Oh wait, they are.

Bring them down from the inside!

[sgtsquid]

Here's an idea. If enough of us bought a single share of MSFT, then file a shareholder lawsuit arguing that this will kill the company long term, it would at least cause a big PR problem for them. Most people never hear the details of this stuff because it only gets covered in the tech news, but a lawsuit like this would make the mainstream news. It might even cause enough of a headache for MSFT to get them to back off on some of it.

Re:if they insist it's their computer, ought to pa

[houstonbofh]

This. Remember all those companies in the mid-'90s through the bubble whose whole business model was offering financial incentives to opt into their advertising? Now with Microsoft, you pay them to see the ads.

Remember what happened to all of those companies? Apparently, Microsoft didn't...

Golllum's Input

[avandesande]

Wicked, tricksey, false. Windows 10, we hates it!

Trust

[penguinoid]

If you can't trust your operating system, you can't trust anything on your computer. Linux might not be user-friendly, but at least it's not actively user-hostile. Resetting user settings is hostile. Showing ads is hostile. And automated updates means they can run any code they want on your machine, which requires trust or at least naivete. And to be honest, user-hostile is much harder to debug than any Linux problems you might have.

Re:Trust

[Anonymous Coward]

If you can't trust your operating system, you can't trust anything on your computer. Linux might not be user-friendly, but at least it's not actively user-hostile. Resetting user settings is hostile. Showing ads is hostile. And automated updates means they can run any code they want on your machine, which requires trust or at least naivete. And to be honest, user-hostile is much harder to debug than any Linux problems you might have.

Linux systems are so passive-aggressive it hurts. It gets a little old after a while, and I use Linux extensively.

Stable APIs? "Your ideology is wrong."
High thread count? "You're coding it wrong."
Easy to use? "You're using it wrong."

I wear to god it's like giving someone your old clothes - unwashed, and saying "You're welcome."

Re:Trust

[Anonymous Coward]

> Stable APIs? "Your ideology is wrong."

That only affects kernel space. The Userspace APIs are stabilized on purpose partially so that commercial software on Linux can exist. But closed source stuff in kernel mode will always be a pain.

I think you play the troll.

Re:Trust

[citylivin]

"And to be honest, user-hostile is much harder to debug than any Linux problems you might have."

Lots of people saying "just use linux" not just you, but you are are the person i am replying to so here goes.

Simply accounting. Doesnt work in linux as far as i can search. Planetside 2, does not work in linux, as far as i can see.

Linux is awesome on the server, vmware, android.. But because I dont have time to dick around with compatibility problems i run windows 7 because it just works. And when i go to install a program and there is a problem, i dont have to second guess whether it is an incompatibility with the platform.

In 2020 we shall see if more games are cross platform (looks like wasteland 2 and wasteland 3 are, so thats great!). But still I would have trouble giving up programs like winamp, which i have been using since the 90s. And the main issue for me is that I know that programs will just work in windows. My wifes programs especially. I can work around UI differences and program incompatibilities, but my wife cannot. I also have been a windows only tech for 15 years and there is something to be said for using what you have to support. I can tell usually pretty quickly if an issue is a hardware or software problem, and i feel that a lot of that knowledge is windows specific. Sure the logging in 8000 times better in linux, but unless i start using linux regularly professionally i doubt I will install it at home. No one will give me a job maintaining linux workstations with no desktop linux experience, so its a catch 22 as far as my career is concerned.

Re:Trust

[Anonymous Coward]

Sucks to be you?

Re:Trust

[Shane_Optima]

Linux might not be user-friendly, but at least it's not actively user-hostile.

Unfortunately, GNOME is most certainly actively user-hostile. I don't have the links handy, but some high profile devs have made some pretty explicit comments about how having any room for user customization, even hidden in advanced tabs or config files, is an inherently bad thing. One of them even said he "dies a little inside" every time he hears someone say that "Linux is about choice."

Some of their more notorious antics here have involved screensavers (not something I hugely care about myself, but they engaged in a very long and deceptive campaign where they pretended they were interested about doing screensavers "right", but in reality they were just trying to nix them entirely) and then forcing auto-suspend on laptop lid close... and then mocking their critics with a giant "press this button! You now have 10 minutes of sleep-free laptop closing ability, feel free to run!" 'workaround' app.

There's a lot more to the Linux desktop than Gnome, of course (KDE or XFCE being good places to start), but it's worth remembering just how we arrived at this point. GNOME was becoming the standard... and then they shot themselves in the foot repeatedly because they thought that the secret to desktop Linux's success must lay in treating users like shit, because that's what AAPL and MSFT do. And then in response to that, Ubuntu created Unity, and then KDE got a small bump but nowhere near what it deserved to get (probably because people were still smarting over the KDE 4 debacle), and XFCE got more stable and usable (if still a bit barren)... and here we are today. We still haven't recovered from the damage wrought by GNOME's user-hostile policies; in fact, in the aftermath of Windows 8-10, I believe that desktop Linux might have even made it into the (low) double digits if it weren't for the lingering effects of the GNOME 3 bomb.

Re:Trust

[Anonymous Coward]

No one ever said Linux was for you. But go ahead and see whether it is easier to get games to run on Linux than it is to get rid of the user-hostile aspects of Windows 10. If nothing else, you could always run the program inside a Windows VM with no or very carefully firewalled internet.

And yes, for now it may be easier to just use the still-sane Windows 7, with WSUS offline updates and automatic updates disabled and this will still be easier than fanangling a Windows program to run on Linux. But Microsoft has thought of this too, which is why they're replacing the previous individual updates with a large update with all the security patches and all those patches people have been carefully avoiding.

no longer

[Anonymous Coward]

Just wipe and installed Ubuntu yesterday, It's just not worth it anymore. It was hard saying goodbye to those Steam games in my library that I can no longer play, but i've given up on microsoft.

Re:So glad I don't have any computer with Windows

[houstonbofh]

Been running Win 10 since summer, yet to see an ad. Seeing one would probably make me change my tune, although I do have anti-beacon installed. I've played around with Ubuntu a few times, but you know what? When I hook my Win 10 laptop up to TV with HDMI cable, it works. When I do the same with Ubuntu, no sound. That's why people don't use it.

When I hooked a web cam up to Linux, it worked. When I did it in Windows it did not. This is why people use Linux.

This was totally true, but it sounds silly, don't it?

Unsurprising

[OneHundredAndTen]

What can you expect from a criminal organization? Consider yourself middle-fingered, Microsoft.

Toolbar? What Toolbar?

[freeze128]

What the hell is the "Windows 10 toolbar"? Do you mean the TASKBAR? Or maybe it's the toolbar in Microsoft Edge, or Internet Explorer? It's hard for me to take this article seriously when the submitter cannot even identify the proper component of the operating system.

Re:Toolbar? What Toolbar?

[Anonymous Coward]

If you don't know what he's talking about (and using the proper name for), you're the toolbar.

Re:Toolbar? What Toolbar?

[Anonymous Coward]

Perhaps if you RTFA you'd clear your confusion up.

We don't need no stinkin' browser share...

[zarmanto]

Gee, I had no idea that Microsoft was so adamant about minimizing the market share of Edge. Because this is a sure fire way to guarantee that Windows users have no interest in ever launching their new fledgling browser. Kudos to you, Microsoft, for advocating for third party browsers! Hey, I'll be more then happy to help out, by tossing those pesky Edge shortcuts on every Windows 10 box I come across...

Re:So glad I don't have any computer with Windows

[mlw4428]

I dual boot. I got a Thinkpad Yoga from the Amazon Prime sale. Windows 10 was on it, but I upgraded to 10 pro using an external dvd drive and a full "scratch" install. It installed, no problems whatsoever. Ubuntu installed and then wouldn't boot. It would just there with the Ubuntu boot logo cycling through its dots. I tried the newest version and then the LTS version. No go. Linux mint: failed to install, same issue. Fedora installed, but I'm used to Ubuntu. I did try the Elementary OS and it booted...but I'm not looking for a crapple knockoff....so I installed my choice of UI and the Ubuntu repositories. Now touchscreen is crap, there's no tablet mode (Yoga folds to become a tablet). I had to manually edit some INI files to get the backlights to work on the keyboard.

The fact remains: Windows is easier to use. It does what I need it to. I haven't had an ad in Windows 10 yet and I upgraded quite a while ago - when MS first announced it. I've never had a bad update either. My PC was homebuilt and my OS install was a fresh copy. Maybe that was the difference: quality hardware and a truly clean OS install from the get-go. Ubuntu is great and maybe when Unity supports a proper touchscreen experience, I'll remove Windows altogether from my laptop.

It's still not the year of Linux on the desktop. Maybe 2017, maybe 2025.

Re:So glad I don't have any computer with Windows

[Anonymous Coward]

So, I guess Windows 10 is for the meek, and as we know, they will inherit the Earth.... right?

Wasn't that the cheesemakers?

Re:And this is a surprise? Why?

[WaffleMonster]

Microsoft has shown that the Windows 10 customer base is willing to put up with these types of pop-ups. Does anyone really think that Microsoft had no plans to show ads in order to monetize the Windows 10 users?

Nobody here, but what percentage of the overall user base knew that when the clicked that big annoying update button staring them in the face? How many knew their privacy and ad settings for the superficial good they actually do would be randomly reset constantly and most deliberately by Microsoft?

Why in the world did Microsoft go through such great lengths to get its customers to upgrade to Windows 10, if they were not planning to gather customer data and monetize it.

I guess I'm the outlier in that I don't deem it acceptable for businesses to intentionally leverage their own customers ignorance to their advantage.

Some may feel otherwise but remember the golden rule we can't all know everything. If everyone you rely on to get shit done is out to trick you or otherwise screw you over in the name of profit it is hard to see how society does not end up in the sewer. I would assume most would not deem it acceptable for their own mechanics, doctors and lawyers to engage in similar behavior.

Your files are encrypted..insert credit card to...

[Tyr07]

New windows 10 anti-piracy feature to ensure no one has stolen your equipment.

Secretly encrypts all of your files and then disables access to them. You need to provide your credit card to unlock the files so they can 'verify' the owner of the PC is the correct owner. There's a small security processing charge that goes with it.

It spreads this secure features via floppy disks, usb drives etc to other system not infe..protected by windows 10.

I would not mind using Edge

[Anonymous Coward]

if I could just be certain that it does not spy on me. But I can't, same goes for Chrome. Firefox is the only major browser with big support that feels safe, at the moment.

Windows is for playing games.

[number6x]

This used to be true, but Windows 8 and 10 have changed that. The difference between Windows 7 and Windows 10 is much greater than the difference between Windows 7 and Linux Mint Cinnamon (or Mate). The move to Office 365, a subscriber service model, is also leaving many users cold. They are not moving from office 2000 or 2007 to 365. When Microsoft tries to force the choice and end support for the old versions, then Libre Office may start looking very good to many, formerly, loyal Windows fans.

I've been using Linux as my main desktop and laptop OS since 1997. Windows does not have support for the software I use. I used to be a pretty good hack at Windows back in the 3.0/3.1 days. Windows 95 was a nice upgrade. However, the cost of compilers, powerful databases, source control tools and other programming related software had me starting to use Linux more and more. I knew a lot of people back then who used to just pirate the tools they needed on Windows, but I didn't believe in stealing what I needed to work. After using Linux for a while, I knew I was done with the Windows environment. Linux is so far superior for my needs, there really is no comparison. (YRMV)

If you're happy with the Windows ecosystem, that's nice for you. I've gotten rid of a lot of aggravation in my work life by abandoning that platform decades ago.

Re:Windows is for playing games.

[thegarbz]

The difference between Windows 7 and Windows 10 is much greater than the difference between Windows 7 and Linux Mint Cinnamon (or Mate).

Bollocks. The login screen now has a picture of you and there's a search bar on the taskbar. If users don't understand tiles or use them (most don't as far as I can tell) the rest of the OS is pretty much a carbon copy of Windows 7 with square edges (because rounded edges are so 2009)

Look there are a good many reasons to move to Linux, you can really do without garbage posts.

Antitrust

[kat_skan]

Isn't this an antitrust violation? If just bundling a web browser was then surely changing the user's preferred apps to their own and opting users in to advertisements they've already opted out of in the guise of a security update ought to be.

Re:Antitrust

[Anonymous Coward]

Microsoft learned their lesson and has paid the necessary bribes this time.

Re:Antitrust

[Anonymous Coward]

Isn't this an antitrust violation? If just bundling a web browser was then surely changing the user's preferred apps to their own and opting users in to advertisements they've already opted out of in the guise of a security update ought to be.

More fundamentally, this is a Bill of Rights violation. A right can be asserted under the 9th Amendment that all advertising and offers (whether for goods, services, political causes, even religion) must be opt-in, whether delivered via email, regular mail, operating systems, door-to-door, billboards, or phone.

This in no way conflicts with the 1st Amendment. The 1st Amendment limits Congress - and the Bill of Rights is a higher legal authority.

There are lots of people who would assert such a right - we can see this just from the posts folks make here, or by talking to people - and hence the right exists independent of voting, or lobbying, or the decisions of government officials - that's the nature of a legal system where the people have unspecified rights "retained by" and "reserved to" them in the highest law of the land (9th/10th Amendments).

Nor can any contract be used to bypass this, unless the sole purpose of the contract is to opt in (no bundling) - as avoidable complexity in the legal system - including contracts - violates the right to ethical practice of law by creating an artificial demand for the services of lawyers. When contract law comes into conflict with the Bill of Rights, the Bill of Rights wins.

Similarly, copyright law can not be used to bypass this - the contracts created as part of copyright law are just as subject to the right to ethical practice of law as anything else.

Microsoft's lawyers are violating their oaths to uphold the Bill of Rights, which disqualifies them from engaging in the practice of law or holding any other position of public trust or responsibility. Microsoft's executives are also violating the Bill of Rights - which disqualifies from hold being executives of a publicly held corporation (and since they're breaking the law, this denies them the benefit any "golden parachute" clauses).

In practice, it's really hard to get many people to comply with the Bill of Rights - the world has a lot of sociopaths (people who don't really think other people are real, and hence have no ethical or moral qualms with doing harm to them - whether it is physical harm, or stealing a portion of their lives).

Further, the legal profession has a massive ethical conflict of interest with respect to complying with the Bill of Rights - they want people to be subject to lots of annoyances, hassles, even fear - in order a create a demand for the services of lawyers - and to achieve that they pretend to respect the Bill of Rights while violating it egregiously. They're also terrified of the right to ethical practice of law, since it necessarily implies the lawyers don't get to decide what it ethical for the practice of law (any more than engineers or doctors get to decide what is appropriate for their professions).

This whole situation is massively unethical - but so was slavery, and so was Jim Crow - and the lawyers as a group didn't do anything about those either until society finally got fed up and forced the issue. Entropy increases in a closed system until energy is exerted from outside.

Occasionally some of the symptoms of this legal ethics problem are cured, or things are fixed in a small way, but the underlying disease is not treated - and so the cancer simply manifests itself in new ways. Lobbying, campaign contributions, influence over selection of judges, and other aspects of corrupt government (US-style) keep the disease from being cured - and both major political parties are complicit.

About 20% of Adam Smith's monumental work on capitalism - The Wealth of Nations - was about the need for regulation to prevent capitalism from running amok - but in three centuries we still haven't managed to fix a log of the problems - and they're worse in the USA tha

Re:if they insist it's their computer, ought to pa

[I4ko]

With bing rewards they actually pay you. you can get as much as $1.50 a month - a $5 gift card every 4 months or so.

These are ads for alternatives

[Anonymous Coward]

At work, I have Windows 7 or 10 (all new systems are Win 10). IT is a Microsoft shop. Nothing but IT controlled Windows on the VPN & Wireless and they check. Sorry to the Macintosh & Linux users in the company we just bought. Luckily, IT can control the ads.

I need something that lets me do multiple ssh sessions and a web browser. I also need something that can run VMs. I use Linux at home and Cygwin at work. I have a scanner w/ OCR that requires Windows 7. It runs in a VM on VirtualBox or KVM.

The wife needs genuine Office so she has Windows so she has Windows just for that. 90% of the time she's using Chrome & web applications.

My son has Steam on Windows. He had it on MacOSX and it wasn't enough.

My daughter uses Facetime on her iPod touch. She also has a Linux laptop (used systems are great!)

90% of everything else that everyone does is web based, We use iPad/iPhone, Chromebooks, Android, Linux, Macintosh, Windows and Chrome.

If Windows ads start getting in the way of running Steam, Office and Chrome, they're going to move to another platform like I have with Linux.

Re:So glad I don't have any computer with Windows

[Anonymous Coward]

Been running Win 10 since summer, yet to see an ad. Seeing one would probably make me change my tune, although I do have anti-beacon installed. I've played around with Ubuntu a few times, but you know what? When I hook my Win 10 laptop up to TV with HDMI cable, it works. When I do the same with Ubuntu, no sound. That's why people don't use it.

When I hooked a web cam up to Linux, it worked. When I did it in Windows it did not. This is why people use Linux.

This was totally true, but it sounds silly, don't it?

You act as though stuff working in linux and not windows is as frequent an occurrence as stuff working in windows and not linux, which is obviously false.

Re:So glad I don't have any computer with Windows

[war4peace]

I upgraded from Windows 7 (2-year-old installation full with various software and games and whatnot) to Windows 10 in August last year. The machine works very well. I saw no ads, ever, and I don't use Bing or Edge. I use Chrome and occasionally Firefox.
Then I installed Ubuntu on a spare HDD on the same machine. Fresh install. My headphones were not detected and didn't work (Logitech G930). Then I followed various tutorials from the good ol' Net and managed to bring them to a working state. Surround button does nothing and microphone breaks off consistently.
My keyboard and Mouse (both Logitech, G510 and G700s) have basic functionality enabled, but none of the extra features work. There is no Logitech Gaming Software alternative for Linux.
While I would be willing to use an alternative OS, I am certainly not going to replace all my peripherals for that reason. Yeah, it might not be Linux's fault here, but as a regular user I don't care whose darn fault it is. That particular OS combined with that particular hardware doesn't give me the experience I need.

No means no

[Anonymous Coward]

"he turned off the ad settings again -- and once again, Microsoft reinstated them."

Perhaps Microsoft needs a court to teach them that no means no.

Suggestion, not "ad"

[Ayanami_R]

See above.

Re:Suggestion, not "ad"

[wonkey_monkey]

What is an ad, if not a suggestion by someone for something they want you to buy/use?

Re:Suggestion, not "ad"

[Ayanami_R]

The problem is that the definition of an "ad" becomes muddled, "ad" eventually means almost anything that someone disagrees with in regard to a notification on their system. Technically, you could call a modern smartphone setup experience an "ad." See how silly it gets?

Plus you can turn this off anyways in settings, so anyone that's "triggered" (see what I did there) can fix it.

Re:Suggestion, not "ad"

[wonkey_monkey]

so anyone that's "triggered"

The gun that shot my paw had a trigger! That's 15 years of counselling down the drain. Thanks Obama!

SubjectIsSubject

[p0p0]

What is the best tool right now to get right of Windows 10 "features" and telemetry? I have a tablet that dual-boots Android and Windows 10 Home and I've tried a couple different things and can't, for example, remove OneDrive from the system.

The first thing I did was set my connection to metered so that it wouldn't immediately download a ton fo updates and fill up the tablets relatively small SSD.

Re:SubjectIsSubject

[Anonymous Coward]

I use Spybot Anti-Beacon.

Re:SubjectIsSubject

[Anonymous Coward]

The best tool is either Linux or BSD.

Nothing else really works - MS embedded some of the IP numbers in the software, so you can't easily redirect it.

Re: Simple (+5, Fucking Funny)

[Anonymous Coward]

Hmm. Now I know why that ad gir the gimp mask appeared. And then the follow up ad for viagra.l and nipple clamps. I'm not sure how they do it, but it's a time saver. The family reunion is saved!!!

Re: So glad I don't have any computer with Windows

[buchanmilne]

From what I can see, the Logitech G930 headphones seem seem to work out-the-box (but you may not have known where to look) although maybe missing some features:

http://blog.brendel.com/2011/0...

For the keyboard, did you try g15daemon? See e.g. https://ubuntuforums.org/showt...

This offends me

[wonkey_monkey]

I'm greatly offended by this. Not the ad - well, okay, that's pretty bad - but by the fact that they used the word "Wanna".

When Microsoft's Windows 10 deadline passed, many heaved a sigh of relief, thinking that Microsoft's obnoxious popup reminders had finally been laid to rest. Surprise! Microsoft's at it again

But it still is laid to rest for those who heaved a sigh of relief, because we're still on Windows 7.

Dell

[Groo Wanderer]

Dell has some pretty spiffy laptops with Linux pre-installed, up to date ans supported drivers and the rest. They also sell Steamboxes.

You dont even need windows for office anymore

[voss]

Office 365 runs fine in linux or chrome os on a chrome browser.

Re:You dont even need windows for office anymore

[Anonymous Coward]

You misspelled LibreOffice.

Re: You dont even need windows for office anymore

[Anonymous Coward]

You misspelt "misspelt".

Re:if they insist it's their computer, ought to pa

[Anonymous Coward]

Remember what happened to all of those companies? [...]

NetZero is still around
You can still get paid to watch ads

and maybe more to the point, some modern companies are strongly defined by the ad-supported, free service model:
Google search, mail, etc
Facebook
Yelp
weather (weather.com, accuweather, etc)
and pretty much any website whose primary use isn't to conclude a financial transaction.

Re:So glad I don't have any computer with Windows

[houstonbofh]

You act as though stuff working in linux and not windows is as frequent an occurrence as stuff working in windows and not linux, which is obviously false.

Not obvious from the sample set here, which was my point. And if you want to go larger just google "no Windows 10 driver" and see a lot of people with problems on Windows that may "just work" on Linux. Got a number of free printers that way.

Re: So glad I don't have any computer with Windows

[war4peace]

Well there is a difference between "seem to work" and "did work".
As for the other peripherals, the amount of manual work I would have to put in to set up each profile for each game and each application makes that solution simply not efficient.
I might calculate my time efficiency differently than most, but my rule of thumb is: if it takes me more than twice as much to achieve a goal in method B than method A, I'd not use method B.
So if I can set up a profile for a game, complete with auto-switching, key backlight color and G-keys in 5 minutes under Windows, i would spend 10 minutes under Linux for the same outcome. But if I have to spend an hour for 1/3 success (key remapping but not auto-switching, nor backlight options)... nah.

Re:if they insist it's their computer, ought to pa

[Anonymous Coward]

WHOOP-DEE-DOO!
(Man I really hope your post is sarchasm, my meter is a little off this morn. Coffe! Stat!)

Re: So glad I don't have any computer with Windows

[mlw4428]

It was missing quite a few features out of the box that the Windows software includes - but yes, as a basic headset/mic it worked. For a true gaming headset, all of the features that a gamer (or even a movie watcher) would want are disabled and not working. That pretty much highlights the general Linux experience. You get the "basic functionality" about 99.9999% of the time - but then again I'm one of those who doesn't buy "basic" cheap hardware. The whole mentality of "well it works to my needs" doesn't cut it. Hardware should work 100% to the functionality expected when it was designed.

I realize it's not entirely Linux's fault, but the fault is there and glaringly obvious. That's why plenty of people do not use Linux. If I cannot get my $250 pair of headphones with trackpad, 3000 buttons, and changing colors on the microphone to work, then I have zero reason to switch. That's the mentality for 99% of PC users.

Is it really so bad?

[duke_cheetah2003]

Windows 10, so far, has only pestered me, via notifications, to try Office 365 for free. I think it drops a notification once a week or two? I dunno, I just clear it and get on with my life. Is this really bad? I don't think so. Would no advertising be better? Of course.

A bit excessive on the anger over a stupid notification that goes into your notification taskbar icon periodically.

Bottom line for me: It's not intrusive enough for me to be bothered or care.

Re:Is it really so bad?

[Stan92057]

Um the guy choose to not see ads or notifications Microsoft changed those setting foring its will on those users and you saying well why get upset its only a few ads. comon dude you cant be that naive. This isn't about ads or notifications its about Microsoft forcing its will on those who have made their own choices. no they don't want the ads no they don't want the notification. i hope MS gets taken to the cleaners for changing people setting and forcing people to view ads after they have clearly disabled that option.

Re:Is it really so bad?

[spire3661]

The point is 'who controls my computer, MS or me?'. The problem is there are too many people like you who think its not a problem to have less than root on your own personal machine. In the end, I should be effectively God to the system.

The best way to get customers is to be HATED

[Anonymous Coward]

seriously - companies spend millions of dollars on advertising to try to make potential customers like them. But then they go out of their way to piss off people, for virtually no benefit.

would it not be more profitiable, to figure out what annoys the hell out of your potential customers, and STOP DOING IT...? Rather than doing it, and then spending hundreds of millions on advertising and branding.

Rofl windows er Phondose 8.1

[Anonymous Coward]

HEY stupid ...if i wanted a phone operating system on my pc ...it would i dunno BE A DAMN PHONE...thats why you say its optimized its a damn phone OS....

and it looks like a 5 years old made it....
AWFUL(X5)

overwatch lol

[Anonymous Coward]

OH you mean the sony game on a sony network that's very very very secure....ROFL sorry man you blew it right there....

Re:overwatch lol

[Calydor]

Since when was Overwatch made by Sony?

Nice try, wanna play again?

Re:if they insist it's their computer, ought to pa

[Anonymous Coward]

Ah, awrighty then!

Re:Your files are encrypted..insert credit card to

[spire3661]

You joke, but we are starting to see the spread of forcing 'true ID' to make things work. Twitter flat out requires a phone number now (so it gets tied to a real world person), as does CS:GO if you want to progress into the higher ranks.

Re:Your files are encrypted..insert credit card to

[Tyr07]

I think for certain systems verify ID can be a good thing if the proper checks and balances are in place so they're not used for the things they shouldn't be.

I'm always torn. You want to play in ranked games and tournies? Verifying you're not a cheater by knowing who you are, so if caught, you can't just make up a new name sounds like a good thing.

Same for a lot of things that get scammed. If they did it on facebook to prevent bullying, it could be good. No more harassing people into suicide.
But that requires we trust the people who have that information. Do I trust them? Nope.

They have their own agenda and will fully use everything they know about my life to further it. Being it get more money from me, make me buy X product, limit my freedoms to further their wallet, increase their control etc.

Well, when we finally have our AI overload who is impartial and unforgiving...

Who's controlling YOUR computer??

[ScottDB]

Well, when Windows10 was forced on you and/or you bought a new Windows10 computer, AND you agreed to Microsoft's terms, then you agreed to let Microsoft control YOUR computer. That's to be expected from Microsoft after all the crap with the forced Win10 downloads when you click on OK.

Re:So glad I don't have any computer with Windows

[Anonymous Coward]

Worked for me.

Sure, I had to select the desired audio device. Most motherboards have one built in now - the HDMI audio is frequently the second audio device.

I suppose you didn't know how to select the audio device?

Re:Thanks Mellenials!

[Anonymous Coward]

If it wasn't for your apathetic generation who rolled over and accepted that paying for Xbox live was ok while the rest of us enjoyed free online gaming, Microsoft might have got the lesson that consumers aren't willing to put up with a deluge of invasive bullshit while being bent over and paying for it with a smile on their faces.

And we can thank that young crowd for Obama and Hilary's mistakes in Libya too.....

But then that young crowd came to their senses and backed Bernie. Yeah, they "Felt The Bern" alright ... by getting Bern-ed by the mainline Democrat party that realized Bernie was all about Socialism and perhaps Communism ... and Bernie had "hood-winked" the young crowd into following him.

Yeah, that young crowd are next to worthless inheritors of what's left of the finest nation that ever existed on this planet.

Re:So glad I don't have any computer with Windows

[thegarbz]

When I hooked a web cam up to Linux, it worked. When I did it in Windows it did not. This is why people use Linux.

When it doesn't work in Windows, you download the manufacturer driver and click install. When it doesn't work in Linux you pour endlessly through forum posts, look for guides on which kernel module is giving you grief, why the damn device isn't isn't showing up because some udev script isn't configured correctly, then you attempt to compile the vendor's driver which will typically fail the first 6 attempts and then for some reason you find the magic command that suddenly makes all your problems go away, and that command is full of regex strings. This is why people use Windows.

Of the tiny marketshare of Linux on desktop users I will bet you a marsbar that the number of people who chose Linux because they couldn't get some commodity desktop hardware running under Windows is so close to zero it may actually be zero.

Shit we can't even get through a month on slashdot without hearing how poor support or performance is on commodity GPUs under Linux. When we can do something basic like play games without issue or boot up a common laptop, only then we can start talking about switching to Linux for superior desktop hardware support.

Re:Your files are encrypted..insert credit card to

[spire3661]

I fear a future where you have to have a cell phone to be a citizen. These are the first steps to that.

Re:So glad I don't have any computer with Windows

[mrprogrammerman]

You can schedule updates if you're using professional or even disable Windows Update through group policy. Even though there's no group policy editor for Home I imagine the setting would sill apply.

This is the best thing to happen to Windows 10

[MrKaos]

This has got to be the killer feature that gets people from Win7 and 8 to Windows 10. Everybody loves advertisements piped directly to their desktop because they *have* to look at them.

Thank you Microsoft for this great new feature.

Re:Skype Resets User Settings

[Anonymous Coward]

I hate the way Skype decides you want it to automatically load at startup. I turned that off, but Microsoft switches it back on when Skype updates.

Re: if they insist it's their computer, ought to p

[Anonymous Coward]

Pepperidge Farm remembers.

uhhh

[Anonymous Coward]

I remember the paper clip animation from ~1992, not like this is new, it's not new, to be surprised. Where's the manual if it was written at all.

Re:uhhh

[Anonymous Coward]

Dude! You should take some time to really construct some detail into your post.

otherDude! And then what would happen?

FirstAnonymousCowardDude! I don't agree or disagree with either of you or myself... There is an inherent probability to expect failure of anything, even the expectance of failure. I guess what I meant, is that advertisements are different that OperatingSystem Animations. In someway, none of this really matters in the process of creating a reduction based on what ...

I remember the paper clip animation from ~1992, not like this is new, it's not new, to be surprised. Where's the manual if it was written at all.

Well, I am an anonymousCoward. Sometimes I know better to apply question(s) and not to mention those questions, unless...

MS can play that game too; CFAA+DMCA

[knorthern knight]

Next thing you know, your new PC comes with a shrinkwrap EULA that requires you to allow MS ads before you're authorized to log in to your computer. Bypass that, and you're committing unauthorized access, and the elite will get you just like they got Swartz. What's that you say? You wiped Windows and installed linux? That constitutes circumvention of DRM, and is a felony under the DMCA.

Give MS the shaft.

[Anonymous Coward]

I love Linux more and more every day.

Re:if they insist it's their computer, ought to pa

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't know about where you live, but in my country that's not worth the productivity loss from using Bing.

Win10 Popup Ads

[Amorak1]

Get over the popup ads! Jaysus! Man, I get tired of people complaining about companies doing their business. You get a hell of a lot more out of software and websites than they ask in return. Been listening to this crap for over 20 years. Just stop and think for a moment. If you had to pay the real cost of everything you use, you couldn't afford to use it.

Why has this not happened to me ?

[Anonymous Coward]

I never have any of these issues.

Re: So glad I don't have any computer with Window

[buchanmilne]

Gnome15 (https://gnome15.org/features/overview/) may do what you want with similar investments of time.

[drinks LinuxMint Julep]

[Anonymous Coward]

Reminds of 15 years ago with them free internet connections where you had an advert bar in exchange for a free connection.

Pass the popcorn :)