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Microsoft Advertisement Inc.

neil.computer

191–200 of 212 posts

Re: Microsoft Advertisement Inc.

#191
post #4

Microsoft had the dominant consumer operating system since the 1980s. Using that advantage (and not innovation and quality !) they were able to grab substantial chunks of other markets: Word processing, commercial compilers, cloud computing etc. Next up is digital assistants and advertising. What is the alternative for average consumers ? Chrome books ?

> What is the alternative for average consumers ? Chrome books ? GNU/Linux! Any mainstream beginner friendly GNU/Linux distribution like Linux Mint or Ubuntu will be descent enough for average consumers. Unless you are heavily dependent on Adobe softwares(even then, you can consider dual boot), they are now much more elegant than windows. Getting quality support from forums is actually much easier with GNU/Linux. Las…

> I'm currently using Arch

Thank you for telling, how would anyone know otherwise.

Re: Microsoft Advertisement Inc.

#193
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What is the alternative for average consumers ? Chrome books ? GNU/Linux! Any mainstream beginner friendly GNU/Linux distribution like Linux Mint or Ubuntu will be descent enough for average consumers. Unless you are heavily dependent on Adobe softwares(even then, you can consider dual boot), they are now much more elegant than windows. Getting quality support from forums is actually much easier with GNU/Linux. Las…

As much as I love all that Linux offers and working with it, the culture isn't there for Linux to be mainstream, and it's not even about feature parity or user-friendliness anymore. It's that the minimum standard offered by Microsoft, Google, and Apple is quite good and many of the annoyances that folks who do have a preference on OSes and such are not bothersome in the least bit to your average user. The problem wit…

> the average user is completely attuned to and just accepts the advertising without question. 10 second ads randomly played as part of an App is just seen as normal; the barrage of randomly placed animated banners, auto-play videos that scroll with you, over-zealous sign-up requirements are absolutely the norm now as the big players have made this a reality,

This is pavlovian conditioning at it's finest, yotube users know they need to wait a few second of ads before they can press > button, they know they need to accept EULA and a few pages TOS, Privacy Policy and whatever before they can use the damn thing. Slowly but surely people learn that the number of choices they have are limited and they simply have to bow down to the digital feodalism of today.

Re: Microsoft Advertisement Inc.

#194
post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sadly still not compatible with all applications.

Maybe it’s time to find alternates? I have a really hard time imagining there’s anything other than specialized control software that won’t run on Linux and is worth that .

I just realized my message was wrong in the context. The price was not 3 times 300$ but 3 times the regular price of a Windows 10 Family license. Basically, the price I am seeing on Amazon is 345$.

Re: Microsoft Advertisement Inc.

#195
post #42
post #25

Just use Linux. It's really that simple.

Its not like this is the solution for everything. It's not even about ease of use, its mainly about the availability of software. About 80% of the software my colleagues use on a daily basis is not available on Linux (not including MS Office, although LibreOffice is definitely not a sufficient replacement) Sure, this is an issue of users in an enterprise environment, but your average PC user is more likely to use the…

LibreOffice Calc isn't Excel, that alone makes Linux distros unappealing for most Office users.

Re: Microsoft Advertisement Inc.

#196
post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Unless you're completely inept with your computer there's really no reason to use the voice interface. I think we already learned this lesson otherwise Dragon Dictate would've taken off decades ago. I must be completely inept because I find saying "Hey Cortana, remind me to abc at xyz" right when something occurs to me a lot more convenient than opening my web-based calender and going through the rigmarole of settin…

I'm with you there.

You fellas can be the exception in that you're not inept but you found a use where nobody else really has (or discovered).

Re: Microsoft Advertisement Inc.

#197
post #78
post #21

Advertisement is not a cause of the problem. It's just an effect of a deeper one. The cause and effect chain goes like this: money-based world -> profit-oriented economy -> advertising.

Windows is a sold product with no free tier. isn't that the profit? it was part of the price I paid for the notebook. and they still make me see ads? that's a business model publishing would die for.

Publishing arrived there first. You're paying to buy newspapers and magazines but they still make you see ads.

Re: Microsoft Advertisement Inc.

#198
post #21

Advertisement is not a cause of the problem. It's just an effect of a deeper one. The cause and effect chain goes like this: money-based world -> profit-oriented economy -> advertising.

There are ways of making money ethically, and failing that, legislation is there to keep things in check. This is why (in most of the developed world, at least) you don't see people in the street fighting & robbing each other all the time.

Legislation (laws) doesn't (always) protect ethic principles

https://keydifferences.com/difference-between-law-and-ethics...

This means you can act unethically and legally at the same time.

Re: Microsoft Advertisement Inc.

#199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't get this kind of comment. I bought a surface pro 2 years ago. I had to turn off the promoted apps and uninstall a few commercial games. But since then, no commercial ever appeared on my start screen. Not saying it's good to bundle commercial app. But its not hell either, like Google pushing you to their services every time you use their search engine or YouTube... And I think it's really bad practice to use s…

And I don't get that kind of bootlicking mentality. Google services are (mostly) free. Advertisements come with the territory. As for 'pushing', I'm using the search and youtube daily and I don't even have a google account. Windows 10 Pro is 200$. In what world is that acceptable to bundle spyware, crapware and advertisements with it? >And I think it's really bad practice to use scripts that break standard behavior o…

It's 200€, and my computer that is 10 years old can be kept up to date. Upgrades are really fast. I really think that it is a rock solid operating system that opens up a lot of possibilities for developer while offering long term compatibility and stability. At least windows leaves you the possibility to remove any promoted app or suggestion. But like I said. I still think they should stop that ridiculous behavior. Just saying that the os is nonetheless great.

Re: Microsoft Advertisement Inc.

#200
post #4

Microsoft had the dominant consumer operating system since the 1980s. Using that advantage (and not innovation and quality !) they were able to grab substantial chunks of other markets: Word processing, commercial compilers, cloud computing etc. Next up is digital assistants and advertising. What is the alternative for average consumers ? Chrome books ?

MS didn't use their OS to get word processing and compilers. There was plenty of competition in the 80s and early 90s. MS by almost every measure had the best products in those categories.

That's bullshit. What Microsoft did is bundle Office with all computers, at no cost. They used their monopoly position in operating systems to crush wordprocessing and spreadsheet companies by bundling a free alternative that would read the competitor's file formats. Competitors, with no other source of revenue, died. Once they were dead, Office was no longer free.

This is a classic example of how a company with a monopoly position in one product uses that power to create a monopoly position in other products.

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