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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".
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. )
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.
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.