All I want is to be able to give companies my money in exchange for not being spied on, manipulated, or locked into some walled garden. I can't for my OS - I have to use free gnu/Linux because everyone else treats me like crap.<p>Is my money not good enough for them? This is getting absurd
Amazon has lately been putting ads on prime video for other prime video shows. I have a feeling we're rapidly going towards most paid services having ads.<p>Also, on prime video, occasionally, pressing the fast forward button won't skip the ad. I'm sure it's one of those "bugs" that just <i>happens</i> to force the user to do something the company wants but the user doesn't but I have a feeling it might just stop working all the time and we'll be forced to sit through the whole ad on a paid service.
Anyone remembers just 5 years ago, Microsoft had a huge campaign about how everyone got "scroogled" by Google? Especially this ad about Google reading your mail to devliver you ads? <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iI1ominSL_c" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iI1ominSL_c</a><p>Oh, how the time has changed!
Slight tangent, but @jammygit mentioned in this thread:<p>> "All I want is to be able to give companies my money in exchange for not being spied on, manipulated, or locked into some walled garden....Is my money not good enough for them?<p>Can someone elaborate a bit on this idea? Are we at a point where there is something more valuable than money itself? Data? Is this the point where Google et al can say "Nah, we actually don't want your flat out subscription fee cause that's pennies on the dollar compared to what we can get with our data collection efforts"<p>I've made snarky remarks to this kind of thinking in the past but I didn't take it too seriously. Does anyone else see this becoming a real problem?<p>If company XYZ offers service/product A, should I be able to buy that product/service <i>flat out</i>, (if I'm financially able) without bells and whistles <i>even if</i> company XYZ insists on adding bells and whistles? (i.e., data collection). Is that somehow a sort of right as a consumer?
Is it at all ironic that I get a page that is trying to force me to turn off my ad blocker when I am trying to view a link about Microsoft putting ads in their Mail app?
Just another step towards the inevitable announcement of a "free," "promotion-supported" version of Windows. For decades, the beige-box industry was supported by doing things like including trialware antivirus, browser search bars, and shareware games on top of the OS. Why shouldn't Microsoft put the crapware on the machine directly, and eliminate the middle man?<p>I would hope that this would allow them to split the codebase, and make other, paid versions (professional, enterprise) that didn't have ANY of the tracking or advertising -- and didn't require extensive GPO manipulation to turn off -- but that's probably too much to ask.
And I thought Windows 10 couldn't get any worse.<p>After the latest update, my hard drive wheezes like an asthmatic climbing his 25th flight of stairs on startup.<p>Just a long list of problems with Windows 10
So crazy how far behind Windows is to OS X. Even basic GUI stuff (animations, smoothness, etc) are not even a comparison. This is just another example. Ridiculous.
They also do this on the web version of Outlook. [1].<p>And you could see that the ads are littered all over the place. And their ads don't really make sense anyway, as for example, the ads that I see are something that:<p>- I am not interested
- Irrelevant as the products have no use for me
- Unable to purchase as the products themselves are not available locally where I am located.<p>They should probably train their algorithms for ads to ensure that it is something interesting (or at least would compel the consumer to look). For example, I noticed that in Instagram, the ads are more targeted, and they usually remind you of stuff that you have recently searched.<p>[1] <a href="https://imgur.com/a/fcmyMMf" rel="nofollow">https://imgur.com/a/fcmyMMf</a>
Dear Microsoft,<p>As a vocal critic of the Linux Desktop, your horrifically misguided attempts to "improve" Windows since Windows 10 have so degraded the experience of using it that I am now only 2 reasons[0] away from switching anyway, so at least I don't have to pay for the privilege of using crappy software.<p>I would ask you kindly to cease your endeavors to kill off the Windows Desktop and personal computing in general, but having dealt with you I know that it is your policy to ignore user feedback.<p>[0] 1. I hate package managers as an application installation paradigm, and 2. GPU drivers still perform worse for my card, if you must know.
Not happening. <a href="https://twitter.com/fxshaw/status/1063518498104664064" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/fxshaw/status/1063518498104664064</a>
So, my uncle needs a new computer and he needs Windows 10 on it. How can I make sure that he is not being spied on and psychologically manipulated by ads right from the beginning? Is there a professional version of Windows 10 with none of those shenanigans I keep hearing about?
This wouldn't be bad if I could uninstall that app but the button is gray on my machine. Same for the Xbox apps that I am guaranteed to never need. Weird feeling.
Seriously you can charge for a piece of software or you can put ads in it. I'm fine with either. But don't do both.<p>Exactly how many dollars more would I have to pay for the Win10 license to not see ads? I'd like that thanks.
Microsoft continues to demonstrate that it's worst enemy is itself. There's no way that throwing ads in the default Mail app is going to make them more money than it costs them in the long run.
What does HN recommend as a better Win10 email client? I'm familiar with Thunderbird and I'll probably switch to it if nothing else, but I'm not a huge fan of the UI/UX.
I suppose this is a consequence of making all future versions of Windows essentially free by adopting "Windows as a Service" release process. When everyone upgrades to Windows 10 there won't be anyone left to buy it anymore so they need a new source of income to replace that.
when someone says "let's monetize X", what they're really asking is, "how can we burn all that developer goodwill we've worked really hard to earn". So maybe go looking for another revenue channel?
I currently use this on my Surface because it's more touch-friendly than Gmail's website, but it looks like I'll be moving on.<p>Any recommendations for a touch-friendly (i.e. <i>must</i> be UWP) mail app for Windows?
I wish we could see a breakout of what Microsoft estimates the advertising revenue of littering their OS with ads (I'm leaving internal quality related telemetry separate) is versus the brand value loss for those that don't want to use something like ChromeOS for privacy reasons.<p>I don't care if you can turn it off, if ad revenue is now meaningful enough to MS that it will be interleaved throughout the OS then it's now a non-option for me.
I only read personal mail in the web browser, its too much to maintain a mail app if you have to do more than enter much more than enter your username and password.
Stuff like this is why I have moved to Mint and macOS for my personal everyday computing. I used to love “classic” Windows (XP and 7, even Vista to some degree). I still use Windows 10 Enterprise on one of my government-issued project laptops, but that’s almost a completely different OS in many ways. I don’t think you can even buy the Enterprise version for personal use, because if I could, I would.
I am currently using mailspring[0] and it might be the best email client I've ever used. Highly recommend it, it blows window's built in client out the water.<p>[0]: <a href="https://getmailspring.com/" rel="nofollow">https://getmailspring.com/</a>
that's not a big deal for me, I know how Microsoft going to play ads.<p>I have put all the ips of ads and microsoft in hosts file. I don't see ads in skype more.<p>If this day would come I will dump all microsoft store app. I am using dws lite for disable all uwp grabage in my windows 10
Well, there's one more reason not to use that piece of garbage. It's not like it was usable to begin with, so splattering it with ads is sort of like if a tree falls alone in the woods.<p>It's breathtaking how bad the Windows Store and the apps available there remain, what, four or five years now after the start of this Modern Windows/UWP push. Complete miscalculation.
Pay for Windows, get bloatware and ads. Pay for Mac OS...don't.<p>Use Google, get everything for free subsidized by ads. Pay for Windows, still get ads?<p>Hmmmmm
I don't see a problem with this. People mention how you "pay" for windows, but the cost of windows is not a fixed price, it's a recurring price thanks to Microsoft's support system and backend services. Putting an ad into the email client is no different than what Google does, minus the small upfront cost that Windows charges. Don't want ads, pay for Outlook or use a Mac/Linux. Easy.