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Windows 10 Is Just 'A Vehicle For Advertisements', Argues Tech Columnist (betanews.com)
A new editorial by BetaNews columnist Mark Wilson argues that Windows 10 isn't an operating system -- it's "a vehicle for ads". An anonymous reader quotes their report:
They appear in the Start menu, in the taskbar, in the Action Center, in Explorer, in the Ink Workspace, on the Lock Screen, in the Share tool, in the Windows Store and even in File Explorer.
Microsoft has lost its grip on what is acceptable, and even goes as far as pretending that these ads serve users more than the company -- "these are suggestions", "this is a promoted app", "we thought you'd like to know that Edge uses less battery than Chrome", "playable ads let you try out apps without installing". But if we're honest, the company is doing nothing more than abusing its position, using Windows 10 to promote its own tools and services, or those with which it has marketing arrangements.
The article suggests ads are part of the hidden price tag for the free downloads of Windows 10 that Microsoft offered last year (along with the telemetry and other user-tracking features). Their article has already received 357 comments, and concludes that the prevalence of ads in Windows 10 is "indefensible".
Microsoft has lost its grip on what is acceptable, and even goes as far as pretending that these ads serve users more than the company -- "these are suggestions", "this is a promoted app", "we thought you'd like to know that Edge uses less battery than Chrome", "playable ads let you try out apps without installing". But if we're honest, the company is doing nothing more than abusing its position, using Windows 10 to promote its own tools and services, or those with which it has marketing arrangements.
The article suggests ads are part of the hidden price tag for the free downloads of Windows 10 that Microsoft offered last year (along with the telemetry and other user-tracking features). Their article has already received 357 comments, and concludes that the prevalence of ads in Windows 10 is "indefensible".
If you purchase home or Pro you get ads just the same. Only Enterprise, I believe, doesn't have them.
Also, if you like playing Solitaire games, brace for ads. Unless you pay a yearly subscription fee.
If you buy something, prepare for a deluge of offers and rewards in email.
Right here https://www.linuxmint.com/down..., enjoy!
And there's ads on the internet.. and on TV.. and at the bus stop. Its almost as if advertisers want you to see their ads all the time!
Meh. Sure its a bit annoying to get ads in software you pay for but that's hardly a new phenomena -- pay $20 for a movie and enjoy 15 minutes of ads for future movies, cars etc. Buy the dvd for $40 and get the same treatment. Yadayada.
I'm not saying its a good thing. Or even something we shouldn't complain about. I'm just saying its systematic everywhere. To the point that its more surprising that they waited this long to toss advertising hooks into Windows.
That said, I never see ads. Its not that hard to find the option to turn them off in the start menu (though I don't recall where off hand.) And I turned Cortana off after the first time it took 10+ seconds to find a program in my start menu (ie: the first time I tried using it) since it feels like it needs to search the entire interwebs first Using Bing no less. And I do many if not most things through the start menu (though I imagine I'm in a small crowd on that one) so I didn't even get to the point of considering the privacy implications -- the sheer inconvenience of the "improved" search function had me running for the "off" slider on day 1.
Disable Cortana. Disable the "suggested content" in the start menu. Disable a few of the "notifications" that spam you to buy Office or whatever every other day, and install Spybot's Anti-Beacon. Its certainly more steps than necessary but once done, you have a reasonably decent and usable OS again.
No offense man, but there are actually applications that folks use that have no Linux variant or replacement that performs on equal footing with its Windows counterpart. Some of us actually require a bit more than a few Xterms and a compiler or two :D
I know everyone loves to say: " Switch to Linux " as the end all, be all answer to the problem but, for some of us, you simply can't. So we improvise.
Examples of some software I use that require Windows:
Zbrush
The entire Adobe CC Suite of products
Rhinocerous 3D and Brazil Renderer
KeyShot
Corel Painter
3DS Max
My DSLR Camera Control Software
The vast majority of Steams Libraries
My solution to Microsoft and their bullshit is rather simple: For the Windows 10 unit, I keep the workstation off the internet. When I have to reauthenticate with Adobe's servers, my ACL's allow connections ONLY to Adobe Servers. Nothing else.
I see no ads.
I see no updates.
All of my software works as expected all the time since the aforementioned updates aren't allowed
Microsoft sees no telemetry.
I still run Win 7 on a physically separate system for my Steam and VR stuff.
I run Mint in a VM when I want to roam the net.
The whole nvidia thing is a moot point; you don't even need to get that far to see the ads. Here's a collection of ads that have been found on Windows 10:
Ad to install Microsoft's shopping extension:
https://www.cnet.com/news/wind...
Ad to buy tomb raider from Windows store:
https://www.howtogeek.com/2432...
(Side note: This is why Microsoft no longer allows you to disable the lock screen on desktop systems. Yes, you can turn the lock screen ads off, but Microsoft wants you to get used to seeing it there meanwhile.)
Ad to browse bing for rewards points:
http://core0.staticworld.net/i...
Ad to install Office:
http://images.techhive.com/ima...
Ads to buy Solitaire:
http://images.techhive.com/ima...
(Side note: Windows 10 now includes lots of freemium and trialware apps in general, like Candy Crush, which is another form of advertising. Also, didn't solitaire used to be totally free?)
Ads in the share tool:
https://betanews.com/wp-conten...
(In that screenshot, most of these apps aren't installed, thus these are ads to install these apps.)
Ads in the ink workspace:
http://cdn.windowsreport.com/w...
Ad telling you to stop using firefox:
https://i.stack.imgur.com/l6JL...
Ad telling you to stop using chrome:
http://www.laptopmag.com/image...
Another ad telling you to switch to edge for bing rewards:
https://www.howtogeek.com/wp-c...
Ad telling you to subscribe to onedrive:
http://images.techhive.com/ima...
Ad to buy apps on the start menu:
https://davescomputertips.com/...
So TFA is correct, windows 10 IS an ad platform.