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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".
Sounds like Google envy to me.
On the other hand, I don't actually recall seeing a lot of ads in my Windows 10 installation. Maybe Mark Wilson is just installing the wrong kind of software?
TFA is false and absurd! Windows 10 is not 'just' a vehicle for advertisements.
It also spies on you.
Microsoft has lost its grip on what is acceptable
I agree.
In fact, they lost the grip when they first shipped MS-DOS that was a decade behind other operating systems with its single tasking and lack of memory protection and small memory limits and being a decade late to the internet and subsequent security clusterfuck when legions of insecure machines finally got online. Culminating now with spyware and adware built right into the OS itself. That does not even talk about their unacceptable business practices and abusing their monopoly to damage open standards and hold back personal computing. This is a company of foul colour.
There is a simple solution for all of these problems. Do not use their OS, if you find it unacceptable. It is unacceptable to me, so I don't use it. Problem solved.
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.
Are you sure about that? Both myself and my coworker were given Windows 10 Pro laptops, fresh install, no third party bloat. I started to complain about all the adverts and set about turning telemetry and ads off by any means neccessary. Meanwhile he says "I don't have any ads on mine". I walk around and there's literally big blinking animated squares advertising computer games on his monitor. Some people are so desensitised they can't even identify adverts that are staring them right in the face.
Ok this is going to sound like a shameless plug for Linux.
Win 7 was my last used OS from MS. I do have a win 8.1 VM I use on very rare occasions. ( Win 10 won't install as an upgrade on it. ) Win 8.1 was possibly the worst operating system I have ever worked with. What's with these invisible hot spots on the screen that you must magically know exist. Hot spots that just happen to be where the close on a window is. The tiles that are of No use to anyone that every used a computer. And the nightmare navigation of tiles menus and dialogues that essentially have no flow. The command line still after all these years is so utterly broken that only professional that live in the OS would understand it.
Now you have a Windows 10 that is like the article points out is simply and ad machine. Ad's which I expressly do not want to see. Do not want to have at all. Ads that eat resources. Ads that are yet another vector for infection and attack on my computers.
I want none of this garbage. Over the years I have used well probably all the major OS's out there. Some minor forks probably not. I have basically migrated everything to a Linux OS of some flavor. ( Some BSD in there ) And I've automated all of them. All my hosts do automatic updates, All hosts are scanned for the bad dudes. Even my routers and modems are now Linux. I've implemented a DNS blackhole for ads and malware. I've implemented backups and snap shots of all hosts. And I have built a central Network/Device health status that monitors basically everything.
All for the cost of the hardware alone.
Most of the shops I work in the first thing I do with the corp issued laptop is to clone the horrible MS OS nightmare they have on it to a VM image and run it as a VM on the same host. I then replace the original OS with a Linux variant. Now all of a sudden I have the ability to do all the corp BS stuff but I also have the ability to run my own development and test lab on that corp issued laptop.
Windows has gone down this path of making my computing life a royal pain in the backside. Where as Linux in the last few years has become fantastic OS for small tasks, server tasks, and even as a desktop. It's almost like MS doesn't want our business. Without MS as the OS there is very little if anything compelling me to purchase and use the other MS office tools. MS office tools are pretty horrible but since they don't play well at all with the whole computing eco system these days I really have no need to use them. So if the OS is annoying as hell and the alternatives aren't and the apps I use run on all OS's and/or browsers why do I need MS anymore?
( Excuse the typo's I'm dyslexic so it's difficult to see errors. )
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.
I remember when it was the Dells and Gateways of the world who were so desperate to scrape any profit out of their razor-thin margins that they'd load their machines up with this shit.
You get what you pay for.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
The worst part of Windows 10 is the telemetry stuff along with dial home crap.
I don't know if this is a region thing or because I extensively thrawled configuration options, but I don't have any ads whatsoever on my Windows 10.
But Microsoft needs to change direction on this urgently. Fire everyone involved with these hamfisted stupid decisions before they completely ruin the reputation of an OS that otherwise would be just fine.
Ridiculous unacceptable stuff like the completely unethical forced upgrade strategy, all this crap about not being able to fully opt out of telemetry and dial home stuff, and now the ads everywhere where it does not belong. Hell, not even Chromecast would put ads on places like file manager, task bar and notification area. No sane OS ever would. This is pop-up ads with malware infected Flash stuff level.
The worst part of it all is that aside from those, Windows 10 is actually a good OS. But whoever is dictating to shove so much unacceptable crap in it is risking not only to make this the worst most scummy OS in history, but also to completely ruin Windows and Microsoft's reputation. I know there are plenty of Microsoft and Windows haters here on slashdot, but whether you like it or not, plenty of people still use and like Windows. Now, stuff like BSoD, malware and virus can be acceptable to a point from a technical standpoint. Vista and Me had a whole lot of problems making them some of the most hated versions of the OS, but those problems are in a whole category apart from Windows 10 problems.
All of the major problems in Windows 10 are not only intentional, they serve no other purpose than profiting from users. They have no other practical purpose than making money out of the misery, irritation, poor perception and degradation of user experience. It's like Microsoft is purposedly putting a BSoD scheme on the OS to take money from users. It's unethical, unacceptable and indefensible. It's abuse of power and they know it.
A freaking scummy practice that I would've expected from some freemium mobile app coming from some unknown chinese developer willing to make a quick buck, not an OS used by a huge ammount of professionals in business settings. What value has the Windows name for Microsoft to risk making it look this bad just to profit some more from users? If things continue this way, I dunno why a huge number of users would risk going for a Windows 11 or so. It puts a whole host of things that Microsoft invested truckloads a money at risk. Should I even consider going for a Microsoft backed Augmented or Mixed reality device if it's expected from the company to shove intrusive ads and turn their hardware into spying devices? Should I buy a console system that will try to harvest all the money the company can from me? Should I buy into this Continuum concept of one device for everything if this device is expected to keep pestering me with ads and sending my data back for whatever purpose? F that shit.
Dear 21st Century Society,
So, Windows 10 is nothing more than a "vehicle for ads", riddled with telemetry that spies on you? That's funny, I thought that was exactly what the fuck you turned the entire internet into.
You love your always-on listening devices in your home. You love your telemetry-riddled smart phones, smart cars, and IoT. You love your "free" products and services, and your addiction to social media narcissism. A EULA never stopped you from clicking "I Agree", and you don't care about your entire online identity being bought and sold.
You're proud to let the world know everything about you because you don't give a shit about security or privacy anymore. You haven't for years.
Anyone who assumes otherwise at this point is an idiot. I don't give a shit how many comments show up in some "revealing" article. Nothing will change. If Wikileaks and Edward Snowden couldn't change public perception, you can bet your ass Microsoft won't either.
Any OS with Windows and Server in the name is just a band-aid for normal windows enviornment. If you really want stability like what a SERVER should have. Try Linux or BSD or hell even OSX. Windows is the WORST desktop OS, Always has been and Always will be until they replace the kernel with Linux or BSD kernel. If youre being forced to use windows as a server environment, you need to take a step back and evaluate your situation. Windows OS has NEVER been safe. Every hacking convention has 20-30 0-day windows os exploits for remote execution that will be sold to one party and never released to anybody else, meaning will be hard pressed to be fixed. Also any "Server" written for windows and no stable server OS should not be used. That means they don't value security or stability. I know what youre going to say "But linux/BSD is so hard" Put your big boy booty shorts on, and man up. Learn how to be GOOD at what you do. I'm self taught. Im an electrician, But ive been using linux since i was a kid and realized windows sucks. Sure I broke a few systems, But thats how you learn. If you dont know how to break it, You'll never know how to fix it.
And, somehow, Microsoft is responsible of the shit that NVIDA puts in its drivers, obviously.
Given that Microsoft is making the only platform where it is possible for Nvidia to show said slideshow of adds, yes, indeed, Microsoft might be sharing a bit of the responsibility.
(e.g.: under Linux you add the 3rd party repository from Nvidia containing the driver to you package manager, and then let the package manager handle the installation as with any other base or 3rd party package. At most, some package manager can show *textual* release notes or licensing information.)
(on the other hand:
- the official market for NVidia on Linux is professional users who use the cards for art rendering, scientific computations, etc.
They pay already premium for the card. And there might not even be a human user to see the ads during the upgrade of some node on the compute cluster.
- the biggest market for Nvidia on Windows is mostly gamers.
So shove as much ads as possible down their throats to get them to buy even more extra useless gizmos.
And don't be afraid, they'll come back to the (overfilled with ads) installer next week, when they need the latest patch with hacks for optimise that week's new game.)
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
I run Windows 10 Professional on both my personal machine at home (I use remote desktop pretty often) and work machine, and I have never seen these adverts. Is it a home edition "feature" only?
None of your examples are walled gardens. Android is a garden, but it has no walls. EA, Activision, Valve... they don't even make gardens let alone a walls. iOS is an actual walled garden, but you didn't bother to name drop it.
I'm not complaining. I switched from DOS/Windows to Linux in 1999. But in my experience, most people don't want to hear about alternatives. Sometimes when they see my X terminals they say I must be some kind of a hacker, so I guess the whole Linux thing is somehow intimidating. As if that's the only way to use Linux, but I guess people are used to one single OS looking exactly alike on different users' machines.
It's basically the same Stockholm syndrome you see in failed relationships. People fear stepping out of the familiar territory, even if it would be better for them in the long run. Complaining about Windows or your spouse to your friends or cow-orkers is a shared experience.
Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
As someone forced to purchase new Windows 10 Licenses for 3 new-build PCs recently, I am extremely annoyed with Microsoft's strategy of using the Operating System to spy on and make money from their users. However, I don't see this situation changing - and here's why:-
When Microsoft licensed copies of earlier editions of Windows to large PC manufacturers [the likes of Dell, HP, Acer, Asus, Lenovo, and so on] they would charge something in the region of $15 per copy of Windows. That amount covered the cost of generating holograms and tracking the number of licenses issues, as well as adding [given the volumes involved] quite a bit to Microsoft's bottom line. However, this was quickly offset the moment you moved away from these volume channels to smaller vendors, local "Mom+Pop" PC support shops - because even though this channels were charged an awful lot more per license, there was also much greater piracy involved.
With Windows 10, Microsoft are charging $1.49 per month, or $9.99 per year to disable advertising just in their free desktop applications [i.e. Solitaire]. However, that payment does not stop your copy of Windows 10 from slurping vast amounts of usage data from your PC and sending it to Microsoft. Obviously, they then use that data to build detailed profiles which they sell to advertisers. Expect much more of this to happen in the future. The remarkable thing is, estimates suggest that Microsoft could be earning as much as $15 per year per user from this "sale" of their user base to advertisers and other consumers of bulk data.
So if you were Microsoft, and faced with generating an average one-off fee of $15 per paid copy of your OS, or earning $15 a year from "giving it away", which would you choose?
Much as I hate to say it, I think this is with us for good now. And, bad as it is, this isn't my greatest fear. No, what is worse is that my favourite GNU/Linux distributions could take a look at the Microsoft model and think, "Hey, we could do that" - and before we know where we are, everything has gone the Canonical/Ubunut route and all our favourite FOSS platforms are also shipping with spyware by default... Let's hope that doesn't come to pass...
I have two nVidia cards and regularly upgrade my drivers but don't see any advertising either. Same with general Windows 10 mucking about. I've been spending a lot more time on my system over the past 3 months as well and no ads.
I did buy Windows 10 Pro vs go with the downloaded version as I was building a new system and didn't upgrade my prior systems (still on 7). Maybe that has something to do with it?
[John]
Shit better not happen!
I want Candy Crush gone from my Win10 box. I have no interest in it. Apparently all of my clients feel the same.
But
It JUST. WON'T. DIE!
Worse, folks don't seem to associate that if they right-click and Uninstall, that next 10 minutes of slow internet/computer is thanks to background file transfer/install of Windows putting the crapware back on. They do it over and overand over in defiant hope it will magically disappear, under the mistaken impression they've done something wrong. (Along with Paid Wi-Fi, Minecraft, Twitter, etc)
Whatever happened to the old skool idea that the USER controlled the computer? Where, oh, where is Tron when we need him most??
Scott
"Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid."
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.
I realized this even before windows 10 back around the Vista era. All those stand-alone software updaters were starting to get out of hand. The Java Updater, The Flash Updater, and the various other updaters. What's more, about the same time they started to become marketing apps.
Although you paid nothing for windows 10, and Linux, Windows 10 costs you:
1. Bandwidth for advertisements
2. Screen space for advertisements
3. Privacy
If you don't need Adobe, use Linux. If you need adobe, learn GIMP.
Slashdot's rate-of-post filter: Preventing you from posting too many great ideas at once.