Someone there wants to go back to 20+ years ago when your friends mom’s Internet Explorer windows included 75 different toolbars and there was only a little bit of browser space left. The hayday of “Buddy Bar” is returning for your Edge, Outlook, and Taskbar. Next will be explorer and Excel. The future is looking bright.
Comment on Microsoft sneaks ads into the new Outlook for Windows
TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Of course they have. MS are putting ads everywhere in Windows. The revenue potential is huge and they have more than enough private information on everyone to do targeted ads.
Microsoft would be insane not to go down this route. It’s inevitable.
We need more devices for sale that don’t use Windows, because this won’t stop. Microsoft is a publicly traded company and their stakeholders demand infinite growth.
The only way to get away from this is to use some kind of FOSS operating system
Pantsofmagic@lemmy.world 9 months ago
pete_the_cat@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Also, Bonzai Buddy.
4am@lemm.ee 9 months ago
Man, I had a girlfriend once like 20 years ago who’s dad knew I was into computers and he was so proud to show me this neat Banzai Buddy software he found, he thought he was so cool.
That was the moment that I realized that, actually, something was wrong with all the adults on this planet.
ares35@kbin.social 9 months ago
the little purple desktop buddy could come back now.. powered by ai
pete_the_cat@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Parents loved that little purple fucker.
rottingleaf@lemmy.zip 9 months ago
It wasn’t official right from MS then. Some stupid people even behaved as if MS were the good guys (who’d also never do something like this).
1984@lemmy.today 9 months ago
The only way to get away from this is to use some kind of FOSS operating system
Been doing this for like 10 years now. It was easy to see the future of windows when windows 8 and 10 started sending user data to their cloud. Next step is always serving ads.
And people pay for Windows too. :)
f4f4f4f4f4f4f4f4@lemmy.world 9 months ago
You can turn off Microsoft’s ads, browser nagging, and data faucet, but as long as you are dependent on them for Windows Updates, that gives them an opportunity to undo your fixes and turn them back on.
FOSS software has a similar problem in which the program author can sell out to a less-friendly entity, and when you update the program it starts misbehaving (see Audacity, Simple Mobile Tools, etc.)
This is why I use Debian stable branch. Disadvantages: outdated software (but still get security updates) Advantages: outdated software (but still get security updates) 😅
1984@lemmy.today 9 months ago
The thing is, people have been saying “you can turn off feature x” since at least 10 years now, and while that is true for a while, the operating system keeps getting shittier. There is no reason to keep using something like that unless you have to. :)
f4f4f4f4f4f4f4f4@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Agreed. I dual-booted years ago; start menu ads made me wipe the Windows, and Edging their way back into people’s computers made me realize how meaningless the antitrust lawsuit was.
It’s a slow march toward subscription OS and when it’s their computer, people probably won’t be able to use the nice one-click registry hacks to remove the ads and spyware.
If there’s anything particular about your Linux OS that you don’t like, there’s likely a different distro that does it the way you want, or dig in and learn how to change it.
Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world 9 months ago
The problem is the alternative is Google who is already worse. Linux is needed but until mass consumers reject ads it will never go mainstream.
demonsword@lemmy.world 9 months ago
but until mass consumers reject ads it will never go mainstream
Cory Doctorow said that half of all Internet users use adblockers (dunno where he got that statistic but I tend to trust that man)
Gork@lemm.ee 9 months ago
We’re all living through the enshittocene, a great enshittening, in which the services that matter to us, that we rely on, are turning into giant piles of shit.
lol
linearchaos@lemmy.world 9 months ago
The bane of the public company. Once you get big enough that you’re no longer able to sustain 20% yoy growth your investors will force you to leave no stone unturned.
They’ve already put in telemetry
Next they’ll put in ads
Then they’ll sell subscriptions to get rid of the ads
Then the subscription will become the minimum viable product
Then they’ll put ads back in
HerbalGamer@sh.itjust.works 9 months ago
Then they get Premium subscriptions
Then they put ads in there and release the Ultimate subscriptions
etc etc
mmagod@lemmy.world 9 months ago
i feel like i’m not actually against ads. i’m against the abuse of ads, that take away from the user experience…
i won’t mind seeing an ad if it doesnt get in the way of what i need to do on the pc. i don’t need an ad popping up when im trying to work on something, launch an application, download a file, etc. an ad in the corner, big enough for me to be aware of it, but obscure enough to not interrupt me will serve its purpose.
problem is, ad exposure is non-regulated and i can’t believe how the constant ad spamming doesn’t seem to phase a lot of people.
TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world 9 months ago
I don’t think there should be any ads in a paid OS.
RootBeerGuy@discuss.tchncs.de 9 months ago
The Grand Nagus advocating for free and open source software… there must be a novel rule of acquisition I have not heard about yet!
borf@lemmynsfw.com 9 months ago
Rule of acquisition number 1,337: Embrace, Extend, Extinguish.
Taleya@aussie.zone 9 months ago
Sounds pretty on-brand for Rom
griD@feddit.de 9 months ago
It’s in the revised “wormhole aliens” edition .
Krzd@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Rule 69420: You shall sell the product, not be it.