This one simple ad destroyed any goodwill I have towards Microsoft.
Microsoft begins showing an anti-Firefox ad in the Windows 10 start menu
191–200 of 578 posts
Re: Microsoft begins showing an anti-Firefox ad in the Windows 10 start menu
#192One of the many reasons why I hate Windows 10. Just get out of my way and let me use my computer how I want. I'd put on my "smug Linux user" hat but to be honest my distro of choice (Ubuntu) has Amazon search integrated by default. The only saving grace is that it can be easily, completely, and permanently removed with just a couple of commands. Seriously considering a Macbook for my next computer at this point.
The amazon stuff was always easy to remove and didn't keep coming back. Also, nothing stops you from using a lighter-weight desktop, like lxde or i3wm, if that's your priority.
Re: Microsoft begins showing an anti-Firefox ad in the Windows 10 start menu
#193Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think part of the issue is that it is on the OS level rather than browser level on a specific website but I agree, they are all shady.
that, and also we paid for the windows license.
Once, maybe; Windows' business model has changed, they are only charging for Windows 10 OEM now and have stopped trying to publish a new paid version every few years. Their business model is recurring payments now like Office365 and OneDrive, but also ads inside of applications and I presume selling your usage data to third parties.
Re: Microsoft begins showing an anti-Firefox ad in the Windows 10 start menu
#194Earlier quoted context omitted.
> How is this shady Largely because it's Microsoft. Everyone else does cross promotion of their products but some people hold a special place in their heart for hating on Microsoft. It usually manifests itself with frothing at the mouth, exposition about how they were sued as a monopoly, and they're the devil. It's as if Microsoft was breaking into homes in the 90s and swapping your Macs out for PCs. Someone will res…
I've never had google ads randomly pop up on my desktop environment. When that starts happening, maybe you have a point.
> my desktop environment.
Is your desktop environment Chrome OS?
Do you get Microsoft ads whenever you visit google.com from the Chrome Web Browser?
Re: Microsoft begins showing an anti-Firefox ad in the Windows 10 start menu
#195Earlier quoted context omitted.
> How is this shady Largely because it's Microsoft. Everyone else does cross promotion of their products but some people hold a special place in their heart for hating on Microsoft. It usually manifests itself with frothing at the mouth, exposition about how they were sued as a monopoly, and they're the devil. It's as if Microsoft was breaking into homes in the 90s and swapping your Macs out for PCs. Someone will res…
I've never had google ads randomly pop up on my desktop environment. When that starts happening, maybe you have a point.
I live in a browser half the time; the browser IS the desktop environment.
Conversely, I don't use the start menu. At best I hit start and type the application I use. But on my Windows machine I mostly live inside my browser and Steam / game libraries, which are pinned to my start bar.
Re: Microsoft begins showing an anti-Firefox ad in the Windows 10 start menu
#196Earlier quoted context omitted.
I entirely understand alxlaz's position, buy my solution was exactly sticking to better window managers (in terms of long term support). My workstation is Linux since '98 or '99, and since then I've used GNUstep for about a decade, then i3 and now sway (basically i3 for Wayland). I'm free from the breaking changes alxlaz describes. I just checked, and GNUstep is pretty much alive. Even that change was caused by me wa…
Ah, I'm in a similar-ish boat, I use WindowMaker :). This isolates me from most, but definitely not all dubious changes. I've been down the tiling WM rabbit hole a while ago but it's just not for me, I like the mouse, I like icons... It's a little unsettling that there are two ways to get a stable experience: using window manager from 1998 (OK, ok, WindowMaker is still maintained-ish, in fact a very tiny portion of t…
> (...) getting used to a workflow akin to that of Windows 1.01 (i.e. a tiling WM)
Not really, unless it's a tong-in-cheek remark. Tiling window managers use virtual desktops and programmable positioning of windows to produce a predictable layout. Windows 1.01 had neither of those.
Add muscle memory to it and, if you can endure the learning/customization curve, you get a very efficient window manager. Whenever I'm alt-tabbing in search of windows in Windows or OSX I feel I'm using old software.
Re: Microsoft begins showing an anti-Firefox ad in the Windows 10 start menu
#197Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've never had google ads randomly pop up on my desktop environment. When that starts happening, maybe you have a point.
Google lives in a browser. Your average consumer's computing rarely leaves the browser today. Apples to oranges.
And probably due to that GOOG’s tracking is way more intrusive. But yeah, the bandwagon isn’t going to jump on itself.
Re: Microsoft begins showing an anti-Firefox ad in the Windows 10 start menu
#198Earlier quoted context omitted.
Tasteless maybe, but I don't think it's shady.
Microsoft went through an extended process with the DOJ about almost this exact thing in the day of Netscape Navigator -- using market power in operating systems to try to gain advantage in the browser market. That's unethical and generally illegal under antitrust law.
Key point: at that time. It’s not an absolute.
Re: Microsoft begins showing an anti-Firefox ad in the Windows 10 start menu
#199Microsoft doing shady stuff again. It's really a shame. The engineering that the teams at Microsoft put to the kernel and the actual operating system at large is amazing. But then some Product Management division decides to shove this shit down people's throat and, for me at least, ruins all the fun of what would is otherwise an amazing piece of an operating system. I paid for an operating system, just let me use the…
> Microsoft doing shady stuff again. Seems anything but shady? On the start menu in full sight and just explicitly suggesting their browser over Firefox. Doesn't even claim anything about either browser, just suggests theirs! Seems as honest and upfront as any advertising could be? 'Try our band of coffee' effectively.
It's bullying non-technical users into thinking that Firefox is old.
They can be shy to ask anyone if Firefox is viable in fear of being ridiculed and they might end up thinking that Firefox is bad for months or even years.
Perhaps they could have gone down a different road:
> Still installing browsers from internet ? Edgium is here, faster and pre-installed. Try it out!
Re: Microsoft begins showing an anti-Firefox ad in the Windows 10 start menu
#200This, and every other screw-up in the same vein, is why those of us old enough to remember the Halloween documents don't buy the whole "new Microsoft" thing. Want to get me to try Edge? Great -- instead of a passive-aggressive ad, try telling me how it's better than Firefox and why I'd like to use it instead. What will it get me? Better privacy? Better performance? Better development tools? Cynically, it's amazing th…
Over the last couple of years I've been coming round to the fact that microsoft aren't necessarily a major problem now, compared to google and amazon at least. Doesn't take much to put the shields back upto full. I just don't understand why people run windows. Maybe I just use computers wrong, having been on linux for the last 20 years, but my family (who I refuse to help with IT needs) are all far happier on chromeb…
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