Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Microsoft begins showing an anti-Firefox ad in the Windows 10 start menu

news.softpedia.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

251–260 of 578 posts

Re: Microsoft begins showing an anti-Firefox ad in the Windows 10 start menu

#251

Post by New_Horizon »

robbyt wrote: post #220
tracker1 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel largely the same... they build some really cool things, and developer division, the azure guys and .net core guys I've talked to are all great... why are they so heavy handed on the windows side of things, I don't get. Just auto-update edge and put it in a pinned taskbar position with a new icon and a notification bubble... no need to disparage anything, it'd be more assertive and less annoying at the same tim…

Great people don't work at crappy companies.

That's a pretty silly idea. So anyone working for Walmart is a monster? Can't be a good person and just taking the best job you can find for yourself and your family?

Re: Microsoft begins showing an anti-Firefox ad in the Windows 10 start menu

#252

Post by maw »

switchbak wrote: post #225
sitkack wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One that isn’t true and two these comments are thought terminating. Please be more careful next time.

Maybe I'm getting old, but there's a real arrogance to telling someone how they should think. Why not tell them why you think they're wrong (and leave it up to them to change), instead of making naked assertions and telling them to change?

Hey, at least you're not being told how you do think.

Re: Microsoft begins showing an anti-Firefox ad in the Windows 10 start menu

#253

Post by derefr »

aneutron wrote: post #6

Microsoft 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…

> I paid for an operating system

Mind you, most Windows home users haven’t paid for an operating system. Either because they’re pirating Windows (e.g. most of the Asian market) or because they’re using an OEM license that Microsoft sold basically at cost (after CapEx:OpEx conversion of R&D expense, ala pharma companies.)

The only profit “Windows” as a product makes, at this point, is 1. Whatever tie-in channel partnerships they can sneak in (like the Candy Crush ad in the start menu), and 2. The cross-department budget Windows gets from Azure as lead-gen revenue (given that Windows is gradually becoming ever more tightly integrated with the Azure SDK, such that it’s only natural to use Azure to build a backend for a Windows app.)

Re: Microsoft begins showing an anti-Firefox ad in the Windows 10 start menu

#254

Post by NilsIRL »

iso1631 wrote: post #59
alxlaz wrote: post #20

This, 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…

> I just don't understand why people run windows

I've seen so many good answers but to me, the main one is that people don't know there are alternatives.

I know virtually no one in "real" life that knows what Linux is. Windows is pre-installed and people just roll with it. Some are aware there's this thing called "Mac" that it is more expensive and that's it.

Re: Microsoft begins showing an anti-Firefox ad in the Windows 10 start menu

#255

Post by derefr »

tracker1 wrote: post #10
aneutron wrote: post #6

Microsoft 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…

I feel largely the same... they build some really cool things, and developer division, the azure guys and .net core guys I've talked to are all great... why are they so heavy handed on the windows side of things, I don't get. Just auto-update edge and put it in a pinned taskbar position with a new icon and a notification bubble... no need to disparage anything, it'd be more assertive and less annoying at the same tim…

> Just auto-update edge and put it in a pinned taskbar position with a new icon and a notification bubble...

Ah, but some users don’t even use the taskbar. They want this ad to be visible to their tablet market, too. And for screen-reader users, presumably. Microsoft seems like the kind of company to be concerned about the accessibility of their ads.

Re: Microsoft begins showing an anti-Firefox ad in the Windows 10 start menu

#256

Post by idoubtit »

metalliqaz wrote: post #130

I dread the web we will get if Firefox dies. Could you imagine the only major browser being created by the largest advertiser?

Firefox accounts for about 5% of browsers used. It's not dead, but far from thriving, and many web sites ignore Firefox to the point they are not compatible with it. Yet I have not seen a major impact of this quasi-disappearance.

Re: Microsoft begins showing an anti-Firefox ad in the Windows 10 start menu

#257

Post by Octoth0rpe »

derefr wrote: post #253
aneutron wrote: post #6

Microsoft 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…

> I paid for an operating system Mind you, most Windows home users haven’t paid for an operating system. Either because they’re pirating Windows (e.g. most of the Asian market) or because they’re using an OEM license that Microsoft sold basically at cost (after CapEx:OpEx conversion of R&D expense, ala pharma companies.) The only profit “Windows” as a product makes, at this point, is 1. Whatever tie-in channel partne…

> because they’re pirating Windows

With you so far...

> because they’re using an OEM license

... which they paid for. If MS is undercharging for those OEM licenses (that is, sum of R&D costs/ongoing maintenance costs is lower than sum of sale prices), that doesn't mean the OEM (by extension, the user) didn't pay for it.

Re: Microsoft begins showing an anti-Firefox ad in the Windows 10 start menu

#258

Post by kyriakos »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #136
moomin wrote: post #21

Reminder that “New” Microsoft Edge is just Chrone with different spyware. So yeah, I’m still using Firefox thanks.

FWIW, Microsoft did add tracking prevention tools much like Firefox and Safari have. So they did add the common browser feature Google refuses to integrate. Privacy-minded people who insist on using Chrome should switch to Edge over Chrome. But I refuse to contribute to the Chromium monoculture.

I'm probably getting downvoted for this but I switched from Google's Chrome to Microsoft's and i've seen a significant increase in performance especially with a lot of open tabs. Microsoft definitely removed something or optimized. And indeed they have anti-tracking features which google doesn't and ublock origin works unhindered.

Re: Microsoft begins showing an anti-Firefox ad in the Windows 10 start menu

#259

Post by geddy »

aneutron wrote: post #6

Microsoft 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…

>I paid for an operating system, just let me use the damn thing in peace will you

It's always been about control. You can apply this to damn-near everything too. "I paid for an operating system, let me use it as I see fit" "I paid for an internet connection, let me use it how I want" "I paid for a laptop, let me upgrade the RAM" "I paid for a phone, let me install whatever apps I choose / let me replace the battery" etc etc.

It's everything infuriating about modern computing in a nutshell. Every company wants absolute control over everything you do. And if they can't have that, they want _data_ on everything you do.

Re: Microsoft begins showing an anti-Firefox ad in the Windows 10 start menu

#260

Post by JonathonW »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #193
disiplus wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Were OS upgrades ever a significant profit center for Microsoft? Prior to the free Windows 10 upgrade, most users I know of would only get on a new version of Windows when it came with a new computer.
Post reply on HN