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Windows 11's default mail client will show ads starting 2024

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Re: Windows 11's default mail client will show ads starting 2024

#91

When I switched to Linux in university, it was as an idle curiosity and the pleasure of knowing my OS was FOSS. I knew I was sacrificing a bit of practicality, but like the person that works on their vintage motorcycle in the garage, the hassle was part of the fun. I would often run Windows on a second machine or at work though, I felt equally productive in both Linux and Windows. Fast-forward a decade and the Linux…

Same thing happened to me. 10 years ago using Linux on the Desktop was tricky but worth it for me. Now it's almost the opposite, my Linux desktop feels smooth and unobtrusive compared to Windows, and rarely has any problems!

Re: Windows 11's default mail client will show ads starting 2024

#92

Why does Microsoft even bother with a desktop OS these days? They have moved on to The Cloud like everyone else, so people can buy Word and not their OS. All Windows really has is a long tail of legacy apps (many of which are very good, and people don't want to give up) and games, and that has to look like a dying business model. (Unfortunately, games are pretty sticky, because they own a game console, and everyone w…

>if you port your game to Linux, you can't be on Xbox Thankfully Proton exists, so technically developers don't have to go out of their way to 'port' to linux :) Its great that Valve started investing in Linux for gaming, as they are nowhere as misguided by greed like Microsoft is.

Yep, Valve have done so much for Linux gaming!

That said, I know they probably did it because of the threat of the windows store vs steam, but we've really benefited.

Re: Windows 11's default mail client will show ads starting 2024

#93

I never imagined myself using a Linux desktop everyday, but I don't want to pay Apple for 64gb of RAM and an acceptable number of monitors via my docking station, and Microsoft is just becoming terrible. Going to have to figure out what to switch to... Yikes!

You can put Linux Mint on a bootable USB and try it, to see if it works well with your hardware. Mint is a great first Linux for former Windows users, since its desktop has a similar layout and it comes with a lot of free, good software, and maybe the best GUI software package manager ever. Other distros have other advantages - I'm a happy NixOS user now - but Mint makes an excellent first Linux.

I've been on Mint Cinnamon for probably close to 10 years now after spending the first half of my career developing applications for Windows platform with MS tooling and backend. I saw the direction they were going with Win8 and made the switch and have never looked back.

My main desktop went out of support earlier this year, but it has been so stable I can't be bothered to rebuild it. I have apps for everything I need from photo and video editing and management, to gaming, to productivity and development. My newer laptops have more recent builds and likewise have worked without issue. Really the only speedbump I have are a couple of Windows only things like a Dymo label printer and some automotive tuning software, so I run a dual boot on one XPS 15.

Unfortunately at work I can't run Linux so I use a MBP as it's far better than Windows, however it still infuriates me regularly and I don't use any other Apple products. I've previously contributed to Mint and was recently thinking I need to send some more money, so thanks for the reminder!

Re: Windows 11's default mail client will show ads starting 2024

#94
post #66

It'll only show ads if you don't pay for O365. And Google do the same with GMail. I am paying for O365 family so none of my family get that. And I think I paid £59 for it last time with some voucher scamming. That gives everyone, 6 people in my case, 1TB storage, all the office desktop apps. I don't think that's a bad deal, especially compared to the shafting you get from Apple these days for icloud.

So they are trying to strong arm people into paying for a subscription by giving them a worse experience with ads until they do. Paying for it at that point is just letting Microsoft know that they were successful and should continue to implement more ads into things.

Well I was going to pay for it anyway because I want Excel, Word and OneNote and the storage so shrug.

Stuff isn't free!

Re: Windows 11's default mail client will show ads starting 2024

#95
post #13

Microsoft seems determined to make all of the wrong choices for Windows. I tried the New Outlook after having issues with the default mail app. I was greeted with a message "To add your iCloud account to Outlook, we need to sync your emails, contacts, and events to the Microsoft Cloud." I'm sorry WHAT?!? You're telling me that to use a local email service I need to sync with Microsoft servers? Someone here please tel…

Acompli, the mobile mail app Microsoft bought and rebranded as Outlook, was like Newton and other email apps of its day - it used OAuth and cloud APIs to check messages on its servers and then created a combined inbox by sending push notifications to your phone as it received new emails on your behalf in the cloud. It sort of sounds like maybe the same infrastructure was borrowed here to set up the iCloud account in…

the entire concept of having the users provide their credentials to a third party for them to access their accounts to provide a service is one of those things that should be included in the anti-phishing training. i don't care if the service doesn't provide a proper API for third party access or not ESPECIALLY if it is for a cloud provided service. if it was a locally running app, i might consider it only slightly less egregious.

Re: Windows 11's default mail client will show ads starting 2024

#96
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had this exact same reaction less than a week ago and it prompted me to switch to Thunderbird. For years I've fallen into the "if not for gaming ..." camp of Windows users. But I'm getting closer and closer to just not caring about that any more and switching to Mac or Linux instead just to get away from Windows.

Gaming hasn't been an "excuse" for years. More games run on GNU/Linux than any gaming console, installed as easily as finding the game on Steam / GOG / itch.io etc. and clicking "install". I actually switched to GNU/Linux in college because I wanted to play video games less. This happened right before Proton was released in 2018. Let's just say that I was very unsuccessful in my goal when switching.

Maybe not an excuse for you, but there are still games that don't work out of the box, and the solutions for third party launchers are still fragmented and/or not feature complete, in comparison to its native Windows client. Let's take Heroic Games Launcher for example, looking at GoG: it does not yet track hours played nor achievements (they have work in progress [1]); Lutris on the other hand doesn't even have cloud Sync.

Proton is also no complete, perhaps one day it'll be, it's not quite there yet. I've stumbled on some games that don't work (Obscure 1, Resident Evil 0, Dark Messiah, etc) and games that didn't work in the past but now works, with some flaws that are hard to distinguish between Windows' and Linux's fault (Thief: Deadly Shadows).

[1]: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/05/comet-is-an-open-sourc...

Re: Windows 11's default mail client will show ads starting 2024

#97
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it's really there Battery life, display scaling, sleep & wake up issues, trackpad gestures, sound output, GPU-accelerated video playback... Just to name a couple of problems I hope not to encounter every time I decide to give Linux another chance, but I still do. To fix them, you need to run some arcane commands, edit some config files, compile your own kernel, ... I don't know. I'll have something that "just works…

On bleeding edge hardware: possibly. On anything that is a couple of years old Linux runs out of the box, usually is rock solid. It's a bit less flashy and in your face though, but I personally prefer that.

> On anything that is a couple of years old Linux runs out of the box

YMMV. Just yesterday, I discovered that the Debian installer doesn't include support for UFS drives, which have been available in laptops for 3+ years now.

(Explaining to my wife why I was returning the laptop I'd just bought wouldn't have been a great endorsement for "Linux runs out of the box".)

Coincidental bug report from mail list last week: https://www.mail-archive.com/debian-bugs-dist@lists.debian.o...

Re: Windows 11's default mail client will show ads starting 2024

#98
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note to self: the market for 3rd party windows mail clients is going to grow next year.

Just switch to Linux already. It's really there. Some compromises required, sure, but they are already far and between. Keep it for gaming if you need. But give Proton a try first. My almost 75yo dad switched recently. I swear I'm telling the truth: his main complaint was, after buying a new printer, he couldn't find the matching drivers. I told him just to print, and that was that.

If only there existed a viable Remote Desktop alternative for Linux.

I use Remote Desktop to log into my home PC when I'm at work or away. No need to have a powerful laptop and no need to worry about laptop getting stolen.

Tried all the Linux alternatives (latest round was last year). Yes there are functional remote desktop solutions, where functional means it actually works. But they're not really usable on a day-to-day basis and none of them are anywhere near the RDP experience.

I see some developments on the horizon which make me a bit hopeful though.

Re: Windows 11's default mail client will show ads starting 2024

#100

One of the things I’ve appreciated a lot about macOS and iOS is that the stock Mail app is focused more on being a good generic email client than it is on trying to sell iCloud or be a profit center. It’s served me very well for the handful of IMAP addresses I use, with exception to Gmail (which has a dodgy IMAP implementation). The Windows Mail client was on its way to becoming a close analogue to Mail.app but I gue…

I wish I wasn't tied to Gmail because it means I can't really use any other clients if I want instant notifications. And their official app has ads that look like emails.

I assume they must do that on purpose, right? Make their IMAP implementation bad so people will use their clients with ads? I'd kinda hope regulators would step in on something like that for a case like Gmail where they're practically the default email provider for most people.

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