Microsoft plugging more ads into Windows 11 Start Menu • Hacker News Board

Re: Microsoft plugging more ads into Windows 11 Start Menu

#411

Post by jm4 » Tue, Apr 18, 2023, 10:51 PM UTC

NoMoreNicksLeft wrote: post #190

websap wrote: post #15

It's outrageous that once a great OS builder, is now resorting to pushing it's subscription services through it's OS. Imagine MacOS and iOS showing in menu ads, I hope Apple never stoops to this level.

When were they ever a great OS builder? It was always mediocre at best, and that not very often. For many years, I had hoped they'd pull an apple and run linux under the hood with a graphic shell that made it look like Windows. But times have moved on, and it will never again be an important enough product for them to fix in that manner now.

I'm not a Windows user anymore, but I think you're selling them short. Windows has been a very good OS for 20+ years. If you think it's bad now, you should have seen it during the Windows 95/98/ME era. Around 2000-ish, they started getting serious about security and they began the conversion of their mainstream OS to the NT kernel. Since then it's been rock solid and the backwards compatibility is second to none.

It's really just the shitty UI more than anything else. The ads and paid placement are an embarrassment, and they still have an inconsistent UI going back to Windows 8. I guess you could throw in telemetry too.

I have just as many gripes about MacOS - probably more. I have really disliked that OS for several years now. I feel like I have to conform to it rather than have it work for me.

These days, I'm a happy Linux user. It's not perfect, but it's the best of the big 3 for me.

Re: Microsoft plugging more ads into Windows 11 Start Menu

#412

Post by booleandilemma » Tue, Apr 18, 2023, 10:51 PM UTC

pjs_ wrote: post #393

I like the ads. They spice up my day and give me something fun and interesting to look at when I'm bored at work. Plus I find it positive to see adverts for useful and enjoyable products and services. Thanks Microsoft for putting these ads in my Start Menu where they are handy and easy to find. Maybe they could also put some adverts for products and services that are relevant to my interests into other parts of the o…

Good idea. I would love text ads every time I open PowerShell. Sort of like fortune on Linux, but obviously more practical.

Re: Microsoft plugging more ads into Windows 11 Start Menu

#413

Post by jiggawatts » Tue, Apr 18, 2023, 10:52 PM UTC

dahwolf wrote: post #309

bottlepalm wrote: post #78

It’s funny for what is essentially a ‘file manager’ Microsoft makes it hell to manage your files. My friends and family and constantly confused by the 10 different interfaces there are for file management. Desktops are a mess of of half trash files. The cloud integration the file explorer is a confusing mess. The UI for saving a file from Office is the absolute worst. I’ve had to help someone just save a file and it…

Same for "My Documents". If they are mine, then why are 7 trillion programs and processes dumping their random garbage in it? Or how about Modern office programs, where saving something to disk instead of the cloud is now many clicks away.

Because the KPIs for the OneDrive product managers is based on usage.

They have to break your workflow for their bonus.

Re: Microsoft plugging more ads into Windows 11 Start Menu

#414

Post by bluedino » Tue, Apr 18, 2023, 10:55 PM UTC

JohnFen wrote: post #54

> As Microsoft puts it: “We are continuing the exploration of badging on the Start menu with several new treatments for users logging in with local user accounts to highlight the benefits of signing in with a Microsoft account (MSA).” What is Microsoft really thinking here? You have to go out of your way (and probably do a web search) in order to figure out how to install Win 11 without using a Microsoft Account. So…

I mean, maybe 0.01% of us will switch to Linux and WINE, and that will show them.

Re: Microsoft plugging more ads into Windows 11 Start Menu

#415

Post by jiggawatts » Tue, Apr 18, 2023, 10:57 PM UTC

whywhywhywhy wrote: post #51

Please please MS just put someone in charge with taste who can veto this trashy rubbish. Whatever gains you're perceiving from this on your profit chart isn't worth the compounding deterioration of your products experience.

You’d have to have the power to upset people, take their personal income (bonuses) away, or even fire them outright.

People like this don’t get promoted in large established organisations. They have to be there from the beginning. All of the “asshole CEOs” are in this category. Think of Jobs, Gates, Elon, or Bezos. They all built massive corporate empires by not accepting garbage from their underlings, but this kind of brutal criticism is not nice. Eventually they get replaced by nice managers like Tim Cook, Sundar Pichai, etc… and quality starts heading downhill.

It’s a corporate cycle that’s been going on for centuries.

Re: Microsoft plugging more ads into Windows 11 Start Menu

#416

Post by Tommstein » Tue, Apr 18, 2023, 11:09 PM UTC

theodric wrote: post #351

snvzz wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Arch Linux. Great community and excellent documentation wiki that'll hold your hand every step of the way.

Install Arch, get everything working, and DO NOT install updates. I've never had another distro that would randomly render itself unbootable or break core functionality with such frequency with the simple weekly application of updates. Really distressing.

lolwut. My current Arch install has been going strong for over 12 years, and it has very rarely broken, and when it has, very often it's because I went a long time without updating, and/or the issue and fix are mentioned right on the front page of archlinux.org. Gentoo, on the other hand, is (or was when I used it) as you describe, where every other update would randomly break the system and they would tell you on IRC "don't use it if you don't like it, it's free," which was solid advice that I adopted.

Re: Microsoft plugging more ads into Windows 11 Start Menu

#417

Post by npteljes » Tue, Apr 18, 2023, 11:12 PM UTC

msm_ wrote: post #376

npteljes wrote: post #331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Companies should be regulated to offer No as an option, and to make that option for all intents are purposes equally represented. No other way will work. Abuse makes a lot of money.

Sounds good, but what does it mean in practice? - Does every program need to support offline account? (what about MMO games?) - Does every program need to support online account? (tongue in cheek, for people who prefer online services) - What if I don't want to install a particular Windows update because I dislike something about it? Right now I can stay forever on an obsolete version (I assume), but that's not "equa…

I don't think it's hard. If the software uses an online account, it should clearly say so before buying. Not just Windows, games often do this too, for example I just bought Bloons TD 6, and discovered that it didn't sync my progress over Steam cloud. Turns out I have to register, in order to be able to sync progress. Would have been nice to know beforehand.

Regarding the options I'm sure you have seen many cookie prompts. Often the Accept all is inviting, and the Reject all is smaller text, or outright hidden or unavailable. But there are cookie prompts that just have uniform buttons for Accept all, Reject all. Simple.

Now, I realize that no matter how I phrase this, it can (and would) be abused. I'm not clever enough to avoid that. But as I look at history, humans don't play nice just because. Many of the nice things that we have now all stand on regulation, which previous, bad behavior prompted. For a little example, the common charger for phones. If phone companies can be regulated into one charger standard, I'm sure we could also make software options look and behave equal.

Re: Microsoft plugging more ads into Windows 11 Start Menu

#418

Post by yarg » Tue, Apr 18, 2023, 11:12 PM UTC

ThatMedicIsASpy wrote: post #371

yarg wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried to play spider solitaire not too long ago. It used to be a clean simple application, now it's adware - literal adware in the professional version of a non-free OS. Utter fucking madness. I quit in disgust and had another go at Tumbleweed. Windows 11 made KDE better.

Valve (Steam Deck) using it and paying devs to fix things also helps.

Special thanks to whoever fixed the damned wireless.

Re: Microsoft plugging more ads into Windows 11 Start Menu

#419

Post by NoMoreNicksLeft » Tue, Apr 18, 2023, 11:15 PM UTC

jm4 wrote: post #411

NoMoreNicksLeft wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When were they ever a great OS builder? It was always mediocre at best, and that not very often. For many years, I had hoped they'd pull an apple and run linux under the hood with a graphic shell that made it look like Windows. But times have moved on, and it will never again be an important enough product for them to fix in that manner now.

I'm not a Windows user anymore, but I think you're selling them short. Windows has been a very good OS for 20+ years. If you think it's bad now, you should have seen it during the Windows 95/98/ME era. Around 2000-ish, they started getting serious about security and they began the conversion of their mainstream OS to the NT kernel. Since then it's been rock solid and the backwards compatibility is second to none. It'…

The shitty UI, the lack of a tolerable shell (Powershell isn't). It's difficult to get a clear picture of what processes are running if it starts behaving sketchy.

These things make it mediocre. Sure, it's not the dumpsterfire filled with radioactive cobalt that it was back in 1995 or so when I started using it... but if that's the best it can say, it's sort of like Cleveland's "At least we're not Detroit!" tourism campaign.

> I have just as many gripes about MacOS

Me too, as far as that goes. Not a fanboy. But it's tolerable, and I'm mostly too lazy to get a linux install up to a point where it wouldn't make me want to tear my hair out. If someone could do that for me, I'd definitely like it better than Mac. Just too far down the list of priorities for me I guess.

Re: Microsoft plugging more ads into Windows 11 Start Menu

#420

Post by lumb63 » Tue, Apr 18, 2023, 11:17 PM UTC

Good. Please expedite the fall of Windows. It’s slow, bloated, buggy, and sounds like it’s about to become more so.

I know it isn’t feasible for non-tech folks, but I haven’t looked back once since I left Windows for good. I haven’t touched a Windows PC since I left my last job last year, and I couldn’t be happier.