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Microsoft plugging more ads into Windows 11 Start Menu

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Re: Microsoft plugging more ads into Windows 11 Start Menu

#551

Post by navane »

GuB-42 wrote: post #421
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…

File management in Windows is, I think, the best for a consumer OS, on par with Linux (sometimes better, sometime worse, depending on your distro). Not because it is good, but because Microsoft can't keep up with the others when it comes to messing up file management. iOS: you essentially don't have files, just internal storage for apps Android: you have files, but they are making it really hard to access them MacOS:…

The basic file manamegment in windows is good. But its the inconsistency that kills it. Saving a file in the new word is ridiculously awful.

click on file, in the top menu bar. Instead of a drop down menu, a ribbon apears from the left. The word file is nowhere to be seen.

click on save, two columns appear, filling the entire screen. Left column: Onedrive, Sites, This PC, add a place, browse. Right column: a list of sharepoint locations, that i have visited recently, without any tree structure. I don't want to use any of the cloud solutions (onedrive, sites, any sharepoint), I want to store it locally.

click on This PC. The right column changes: file name, extension, new folder. But it doesn't tell me where I am on this PC, even though it shows me a couple subfolders. But it doesn't show my my current path. So I look back into the left column.

click on Browse. I get the old save menu, with a fully functioning explorer.

Re: Microsoft plugging more ads into Windows 11 Start Menu

#552

Post by johnisgood »

com2kid wrote: post #239
JohnFen wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> using an Android phone (that hasn't been de-googled) without a Google account. This is still very doable (or, it was when I got a new phone a couple of years ago). It wasn't even hard to avoid using a Google account.

> It wasn't even hard to avoid using a Google account. And then you launch any of the included apps. Chrome wants you to sign in, calendar wants you to sign in, photos wants you to sign in, not to mention Google photos pushes notifications ads trying to sell photo albums. The photo app will also try to sell you a premium subscription to store your photos online. The phone is very much designed to be used with a Googl…

There are alternatives to all of those apps from F-Droid. I have stock Android, and it works just fine without logging into a Google account.

Re: Microsoft plugging more ads into Windows 11 Start Menu

#553

Post by ragazzina »

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.

iOS already shows ads in the Settings menu.

Re: Microsoft plugging more ads into Windows 11 Start Menu

#554

Post by account42 »

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…

> Does every program need to support offline account? (what about MMO games?)

MMOs are all about connecting to other other people, hard to do that offline. Reductio ad absurdum is not a valid argument for social issues.

I do however think that all multiplayer games should publicise their server components, at least when the operator shuts them down.

> 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 "equally represented" - my computer is broken now.

Security updates and bug fixes should not mean forced functionality changes, yes.

Re: Microsoft plugging more ads into Windows 11 Start Menu

#555

Post by johnisgood »

snvzz wrote: post #324
artogahr wrote: post #297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

hold your hand... if you have a hand to begin with. Most beginner users won't be able to follow most things in the Arch wiki.

I installed Gentoo when it was new with far less handholding. I was a child. If you're literate enough to be able to read the wiki, you can manage to install, use every day, and get good at, Arch Linux.

Yup, I installed Gentoo more than a decade ago, I was about 13, and my native language is not English.

"Most" beginners just lack the patience and energy or motivation and cannot or do not want to follow instructions or read documentation at all.

If you do not have enough dedication, just go with a beginner-friendly distribution or whatever.

Re: Microsoft plugging more ads into Windows 11 Start Menu

#556

Post by qikInNdOutReply »

handity wrote: post #197
JCWasmx86 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Companies should really accept a "No" from their users. No I don't want to use a microsoft account just to use my computer. (Without jumping through hoops) Don't ask me again the moment I say "No". You can see the same with all those dialogs that only have "Yes, do $THING" and "Remind me later".

Users should learn to say "no" to companies. The surveillance advertising economy is not some hapless mistake that companies will suddenly wake up to one day and realize the error of their ways. Whatever Microsoft "should" do is just wishful thinking. Change will come from users or regulation, and regulation seems unlikely.

Just say no to Nestle. Cook your own food! Same goes for piracy, if they feel violated by me not being customer, dont go to the government and its laws as company. Just try to exist without the could-be-customers. Boycott the pirates, by doing nothing.

Re: Microsoft plugging more ads into Windows 11 Start Menu

#557

Post by snvzz »

ragazzina wrote: post #549
snvzz wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Typing (or pasting) a command into a terminal will always be more reproduceable than anything GUI.

The issue is discoverability.

The terminal does not tend to be hard to discover on Linux.

It is right there ready to use.

Re: Microsoft plugging more ads into Windows 11 Start Menu

#558

Post by ChuckNorris89 »

yadingus wrote: post #465
ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had to use Ubuntu at work and the experience made me hate it to the core. My experience: Gnome it ships with is too opinionated with no basic configuration options without installing 200 extensions which may or may not work, no option to turn off the touchpad when an external mouse is pugged in, no hibernate option because z-ram or something, no fractional scaling because "pixels aren't fractional" to quote Gnome d…

> I can't ignore an OS Tbf most of the issues you describe are with Gnome. I've been using linux for 7 years and I touched Gnome once for 5 minutes and hated it. Never had any of the other issues you mention. Screen tearing in X11 is very easy to avoid for example, literally two lines in a config file, much simpler and faster than all the registry key garbage you have to do on windows.

>Never had any of the other issues you mention.

That doesn't mean they don't exist for other users. SNAPs are garbage. I need hibernate. Hibernate does not work on Ubuntu. I need fractional scaling (125%) for my eyesight. That does not work well on Ubuntu or even on other distros, while it's absolutely flawless on Windows. I need HW decode for watching youtube videos on my laptop. That doesn't exist by default in any Linux distro. Your average user won't want to fiddle with Wayland, VA-API and chrome flags, read on the Arch wiki, just to get something that works out of the box on Windows.

You can't tell me with a straight face that those are not relevant issues for an OS for the average user, even though you personally might not have them because you're a tech professional proficient in Linux who lives in the terminal or something.

>Screen tearing in X11 is very easy to avoid for example, literally two lines in a config file

Yeah, two lines which can brick your display output if you don't know what your doing and just blindly copy-paste stuff off the internet that's out of date or not compatible with your distro or hw/driver configuration. Let's be real here, no average user is gonna want to fiddle with the terminal to not have screen tearing because you know who doesn't have screen tearing out of the box? The Windows 11 installation the came on your Walmart laptop.

>much simpler and faster than all the registry key garbage you have to do on windows

Screen tearing is non existent on Windows and I haven't had to touch registry keys in over 8 year, and I'm sort of a power user. I feel like your view on Windows seems outdated and based on FUD you read online not on long term personal experience.

Re: Microsoft plugging more ads into Windows 11 Start Menu

#559

Post by chongli »

account42 wrote: post #546
marcosdumay wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't come with client consciousness. MS's deal with computer manufacturers makes them pay more if they want to not install Windows on all of the computers they sell. And when some decided to just sell computers, you know, unbundled, the way that maximizes consumer choice, they were framed as criminally enriching from piracy and lots of governments felt into them with all their rage. It's not the client's fault that…

No one is powerful on their own. Power is derived from other people going along. Always.

Powerful people use threats of violence (the law, the police, the army) to centralize wealth and power while externalizing costs. Most of these costs are minor (such as annoyances with Windows advertising) on an individual basis but result in large profits for the powerful.

It’s a sad fact of reality but that’s how it is. You want to change things? Then you need to organize people to back your cause. But then if you succeed you become one of the powerful. And as we all know, absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Re: Microsoft plugging more ads into Windows 11 Start Menu

#560

Post by illiac786 »

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…

> Harassing them seems more likely to make them angry than to make them change their minds.

I think the sad reality is that more often than not this is how large corporations win, users do cave on average. Only the most passionate, the most engaged ones, the ones posting here for example will refuse to give in...

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