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Microsoft is using malware-like pop-ups in Win11 to get people to ditch Chrome

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Re: Microsoft is using malware-like pop-ups in Win11 to get people to ditch Chrome

#301

Post by myaccountonhn »

hot_gril wrote: post #271
JohnFen wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Apple isn't too annoying I find Apple to be too annoying for my tastes. Less annoying than Microsoft, but that doesn't mean much.

It's that vs the annoyance of using Linux. Which is worse? I've been there, diagnosing bluetooth and wifi issues, dealing with free vs non-free drivers, finding out Netflix won't run in 1080p/4K, going down the Flash rabbit hole back then, dealing with sleep issues, having sound not work, jumping ship to whatever DE is best supported, messing with WINE for the plethora of non-Linux-supported apps, it never ends. A "h…

I just switched to a 6 year old laptop I had from Mac and installed Linux on it. Everything worked great for my use case. I think this depends so much on the hardware you use.

Re: Microsoft is using malware-like pop-ups in Win11 to get people to ditch Chrome

#302

Post by jodrellblank »

TheRealDunkirk wrote: post #161

When I was in 8th grade, one of my teachers was out sick, and the principal took over the class for the day. He talked about frames of reference. To illustrate the point, he asked if we had seen the movie, E.T. Of course, we all had. It was the Star Wars-level blockbuster of the summer of 1982. He asked if we remembered the bus scene. None of us could. "You know, 'Uranus?'" Oh, right. Yes, we all remembered that line…

You start off with a maybe interesting point (Matthew 7:3) and then instead of the obvious conclusion "all software / operating systems are full of flaws, their advocates don't notice the familiar ones and do notice other ones" you go for "windows users are dumb hurr hurr"? Isn't the point of your frame of reference story that it's not "headteacher smart, students dumb" but "headteacher attention drawn to different things than student attention"? I aggressively deal with annoyances in Windows, I run Windows 10 Pro in the UK and stay away from cloud services and Edge and Bing so maybe I don't see as many adverts as others?

Yet recently on Ubuntu Server I mistyped a Ceph command related to Rados Block Device (rbd), transposing the last two letters I wrote "rdb". Ubuntu told me:

    user@server:~# rdb
    
    Command 'rdb' not found, but there are 22 similar ones.
    
    user@server:~#
What is anyone supposed to do with that message?? That is incomprehensible that someone would go to the effort of programming that message thinking it was in any way useful. How did that make it past code review and Canonical bundling into mainline Ubuntu server? It can go with the Ubuntu Server installer which, when there's no network connection asks if you want to continue installing without network access and when you say yes the next step prompts for a proxy server address to get to the internet and the step after tries to connect to the internet to apt update - just running through that one single time or even thinking it through is enough to show the problem there, but apparently Canonical developers ... didn't do either? Or the Ubuntu minimized install option which installs without a text editor of any kind despite being a bloaty 6.3GB and managing to include bash, dash, readline, Python3 and Perl, but 1.7MB of vim.tiny is too much; designed by Silicon Valley doofuses with gigabit internet and no idea of the value of a billion bytes?

The specks in Windows are barely noticable in comparison to these planks. Or compared to the poor functionality of macOS finder against Windows Explorer. These are among the hundreds of other digital annoyances Linux users put up with all day long which they "don't understand and can't fix" or rather, which their reference frame has excluded from consideration. (see also: Zawinski's Cascade of Attention Deficit Teenager's development model[1] - they're so used to broken software replaced with broken software endlessly that they can't imagine anything else). Wait, which is the speck and which is the plank? The lesson is Linux users/developers dumb hurr hurr, was it?

[1] https://www.jwz.org/doc/cadt.html

[edit: have you opened Windows Notepad and pressed F1 for help recently? You'll be greeted with a Bing search for 'get help with notepad in windows'. Who is that supposed to help??].

Re: Microsoft is using malware-like pop-ups in Win11 to get people to ditch Chrome

#303

Post by mrguyorama »

macintux wrote: post #292
mrguyorama wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny, billboards have been banned here in Maine for decades, and small businesses do very very well in this tourist driven economy. Meanwhile you cross the border to new hampshire and are immediately pestered with garbage advertising that provides no benefit to your life.

There’s a difference between a destination and a waypoint. If I’m driving through, say, Georgia, I’m not there as a tourist, I’m desperately trying to get away from it, probably via the interstate. But I’d rather stop at an interesting restaurant that I spot via a billboard than whatever fast food chain happens to be camping out at the next interchange.

Funny, because the billboards I see always seem to be for places like McDonalds, not the hole in the wall, niche place where you get an awesome plate of food for $10, because they can't compete with the fast food industry for billboard space.

Re: Microsoft is using malware-like pop-ups in Win11 to get people to ditch Chrome

#304

Post by myaccountonhn »

codalan wrote: post #294
ta988 wrote: post #154

Now wait for the same PM to go work on vscode and github. "We see .idea files in your repository, do you know that VSCode can make your hair grow again" "You are running Linux, but have you tried Linux in Windows with WSL2, free 30 days license by clicking here"

A big reason for me to start learning Emacs again is due to the inevitable rot of VS Code. I'm even playing around with Neovim a bit. VS Code is like milk, but with an unknown expiration date. At some point, it will be spoiled by MSFT injecting their marketing garbage into the experience. This will take priority over improving performance and fixing bugs. And they've already added spyware into the software by default…

Same reason I switched, eMacs 29.1 does have an initial hurdle I needed to get through but now it’s very productive and it feels good to ditch vscode.

Re: Microsoft is using malware-like pop-ups in Win11 to get people to ditch Chrome

#305

Post by pxc »

userbinator wrote: post #112
thesuperbigfrog wrote: post #5

"You might argue that this is Microsoft’s operating system, or that when using Microsoft’s browser and search engine it’s well within its rights to try and sway people away from Chrome." "Microsoft’s behaviors here are totally beyond a simple webpage prompt. I shouldn’t have to be dismissing pop-ups that appear on top of my apps and games, or ones that magically appear after I update my copy of Windows." Windows 11 i…

What should Windows 11 users do to let Microsoft know that such behaviors are intrusive and offensive? Downgrade to Windows 10. If enough users did this, they might realise that people still want to use Windows, but without the user-hostility, so will be more incentivised to change things back to how they were instead of just squeezing harder on what remains of their userbase.

> > What should Windows 11 users do to let Microsoft know that such behaviors are intrusive and offensive?

> Downgrade to Windows 10.

Windows 10 introduced things that would have been (and were) deemed unacceptable by people who care about things like this at the time, too. You could have said all this about Windows 8 or Windows 10 with a retreat to Windows 7 being the prescription. Many people did.

The only message a move like this sends is that if Microsoft moves slowly enough, people will accept basically anything as 'the less user-hostile alternative'.

Re: Microsoft is using malware-like pop-ups in Win11 to get people to ditch Chrome

#306

Post by WarOnPrivacy »

stetrain wrote: post #38
WarOnPrivacy wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I got a Windows Notification the other day while playing a game telling me about a "Grand prize giveaway" By my exp, I'd wager it was a third party using Windows' baked-in nag system, via Chrome. That is, you've got a bit of crapware in Chrome that is sending notifications and Chrome cheerfully forwards them to Windows. I see this on customer systems with some regularity. Degrading a user's experience seems to be o…

No, it was a Microsoft Rewards promotion. Something I don’t recall opting into. https://promos.microsoftrewards.com/US/en/SS/88/rules Edit: Chrome isn’t even installed, I use Firefox.

> No, it was a Microsoft Rewards promotion. Something I don’t recall opting into.

Cool. I appreciate you solving the mystery.

Re: Microsoft is using malware-like pop-ups in Win11 to get people to ditch Chrome

#307

Post by b800h »

brettermeier wrote: post #39
b800h wrote: post #9

Windows, the Lada of operating systems. I had to try and get my wife's laptop working with the VPN the other day. Worked fine on Mac and Linux, but on Windows, I had to uninstall a load of drivers and then do a registry hack. What a pile of shite.

I don't know what you tried to install, but in my experience installing stuff on Windows is way more easy and error-free than on Linux systems.

I wasn't installing anything, I was trying to make the built in functionality work.

Re: Microsoft is using malware-like pop-ups in Win11 to get people to ditch Chrome

#309

Post by jrm4 »

hot_gril wrote: post #268
jrm4 wrote: post #104

I want everyone here to completely get over the fantasy fairytale idea that Microsoft can be moved on this by typical "consumer feedback" types of responses. We've been here too long, and we know what Microsoft is and what they do. Switch operating systems, or push for EXTERNAL changes in law and policy. The other stuff is futile .

My way of dealing with this is simple, I just don't care. If I were forced to use Windows at work, it'd be annoying, I might curse a few times, but I'd still get my work done at the end of the day.

Sure, but what I'd like to get more people to do (I do this, I teach IT for a living) is to think of it perhaps a little like ecology/ the environment? None of us can individually solve climate change, but that doesn't mean "do nothing."

First steps are to talk about it. We've handled shitty companies before, with regulation and other means, we could do it here. Or at least try, which is worth it.

Re: Microsoft is using malware-like pop-ups in Win11 to get people to ditch Chrome

#310

Post by jrm4 »

mrguyorama wrote: post #287
jrm4 wrote: post #104

I want everyone here to completely get over the fantasy fairytale idea that Microsoft can be moved on this by typical "consumer feedback" types of responses. We've been here too long, and we know what Microsoft is and what they do. Switch operating systems, or push for EXTERNAL changes in law and policy. The other stuff is futile .

This toxic shit is intentional , and the people who direct the business are very pleased with the money they are making. This will not change without force of law. The market is getting exactly what it wants.

Yup. The flipside being that, at least until recently, "the market" didn't know that Linux was an alternative here. It's starting to. Of course, half the people here in HN love that, and the other half actively and/or passively work against it.
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