This is what drove me to GNU/Linux. Was OS X user, saw how Apple censors GPL software from App Store, and saw 8-year-old kid with iPod touch getting his allowance stolen by a solitaire iOS game that charged him real money to cheat when he got stuck (which you can do with real cards, obviously) <i>while</i> advertising at him to eat at McDonald's. I decided I couldn't trust Apple anymore, and no way would I trust Microsoft.<p>This is so blatant. Like there's nobody who can reasonably make the argument "yeah, but how else can we fund the development of solitaire computer games?" It already existed. This freemium / ad-infused software trend is effectively extortion.
To be fair to Microsoft, you used to have to pay for Solitaire to get your free copy of Windows, now they've unbundled it you can get Windows 10 for free without having to buy Solitaire.
I feel like these titles are pretty disingenuous, as far as I'm aware you get all the functionality of the old Solitaire game and more for free without being shown any ads at all, while the ads are only in a new game mode.<p>Not to say I wouldn't prefer there to be no ads at all, or that I don't find the price extortionate, but these articles seem a bit overblown.
Microsoft's official statement on this:<p>> Microsoft Solitaire has been free to play for the past 25 years on Windows, and continues to be free to play on Windows 10. Users can access and play everything within the game for free, including new premium features like Daily Challenges and Star Club. The Microsoft Solitaire Collection game experience and Premium Upgrade features such as Double Coins for Daily Challenges, and removal of advertisements, is identical to the Windows 8 version that has been available for purchase for years<p>Source: <a href="http://www.windowscentral.com/heres-what-microsoft-says-about-windows-10s-version-solitaire-and-its-free-play-model" rel="nofollow">http://www.windowscentral.com/heres-what-microsoft-says-abou...</a>
The games have been moved to the Store since Windows 8.1 (or is it 8?). See: <a href="http://windows.microsoft.com/en-au/windows-8/solitaire-minesweeper-hearts" rel="nofollow">http://windows.microsoft.com/en-au/windows-8/solitaire-mines...</a> & <a href="http://www.howtogeek.com/122145/what-happened-to-solitaire-and-minesweeper-in-windows-8/" rel="nofollow">http://www.howtogeek.com/122145/what-happened-to-solitaire-a...</a><p>Not sure when the ads and IAPs were added. I bought a new Windows 8.1 machine a month or so ago and the version in the Store already included the IAP prompt.
I get the feeling it was a suggestion from an enterprise customer. The other thing: it isn't needed anymore to teach people how to use the mouse. It was amazing how that one game taught a lot of computer haters how the mouse worked. That damn card game was an addictive motivator. Not a bad lesson to learn if you have an interface concept that you want people to learn and practice.
I have older family that are winows solitaire addicts. The windows 8 options were just bad: Huge fullscreen only, sounds, fancy menus you have to navigate first...<p>I copied sol.exe and cards.dll from their retired XP machine.<p>Works great, just a bit small now. (Aislerot solitare from Linux is a clone with scalable cards, I wish windows' solitare went that way.)
I wish I could go back and check but didn't this happen with Windows 8.1? Seems weird to be outraged now as opposed to back then (unless I'm wrong of course).
Ads inside an operating system (startmenu) and in applications that are included by default (Solitaire). I never saw that, not in Android, not in iOS, not in OSX. All telemetry, key and audio capturing and auto-cloud-upload, peer-to-peer-updates, forced updates, ...these new "features"/annoyances aren't well received. What's going on at Microsoft campus?<p>On iOS one can simply deactivate Siri and iCloud, that's it, two settings. On Android it's almost as simple (remove GoogleNow widget, use Samsung/HTC/Sony/etc. non cloud-only apps). Windows 10 requires 25 settings to be changed, and two can only be changed in the Enterprise edition, and to decide yourself which updates should be installed the very expensive Enterprise Long Term Servicing Branch edition is required. What's wrong with Microsoft? Who would trust such an operating system? Nadella seems to be the worst CEO of Microsoft to date; he receive advance praise unjustified for earlier work that still Ballmer decided. Microsoft should fix that.
The outrage!<p>In reality, I think Microsoft is suggesting we compare Solitaire from different vendors, and go that route, instead of using what they provide. They are so thoughtful!