Ads in the OS

I am considering seriously to start using Fedora instead of Windows. And I have not had particular good experiences out of the box with linux (things breaking here and there for no reason). But lately I have been exactly having the same situation with Windows (start menu stops working, computer refusing to turn off and restarting instead, context menu stop working...)<p>The ads is also another problem, I am a mini sysadmin controlling not only my computers but my parents one. And I need to keep their computer in a safe state that they dont get in trouble by a misleading ad, but also, unable to do something because of an anti-ad pop up or similar.<p>And having them being stressed out because onedrive&#x2F;office365&#x2F;nobackups pop up is asking stuff they dont understand is getting on my fucking nerves.

IMO there should be at least the possibility of paying for an ad-free experience, whatever the monetary value of that per user might be.<p>I used software called RaiDrive on the desktop a while ago and they have an ad-supported free version - there is a banner that shows up on top&#x2F;bottom of the app window, IIRC: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.raidrive.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.raidrive.com&#x2F;</a><p>If developers need money but users want free software, wouldn&#x27;t that be a possible option in the case of OSes and desktop software, in addition to that being the status quo on mobile? Then smarter users who don&#x27;t want to pay can use a PiHole or something like that, users get the software and devs get some additional money, OR people can straight up pay for an ad free version and&#x2F;or more features, or use an open source alternative.<p>I think the only thing holding us back in that regard is a lack of proper sandboxing for most desktop software, e.g. the user data that you agree to give it, rather than having spyware&#x2F;PUP getting installed and so on. I do wonder why there are no good reputation ad networks for desktop software and such, say, AdSense for Windows&#x2F;Linux.

&gt; I think $MS is innovating in some areas that, if nothing changes, Apple will ape to great fanfare in a few years<p>IMO too late. Pretty much my entire network that I&#x27;m aware of refuses to use Microsoft anything - Windows, Teams, Visual Studio, .NET etc. The only exception to that are gamers but these people seem less and less as we all get older.<p>I enjoyed writing C# back in the day, its a great language, but I probably never will again.

My dilemma: choosing between Windows that has too many ads and is increasingly buggy, a Linux desktop environment that requires lots of time to configure and always has <i>something</i> not working, or a Mac computer that has atrocious RAM and SSD markup. (A mac mini that matches my current $500 pc with 32GB&#x2F;1TB would cost $1,899.) I decide to live with Windows and find ways to turn off the ads or ignore them.

I switched to Linux last year and it&#x27;s an absolute dream in comparison.<p>Using Windows when Linux is available is just like using WhatsApp when Signal is available. It&#x27;s a matter of mass-adoption and really not much more (ie the platforms are nearly functionally identical). So help spread the word! :-)

Advertisements are dangerous, not annoying.<p>Inevitably they open network connections to untrustworthy content.<p>One of the best unintended side effects to happen in recent months was that the NSO group weaponised ads, via the ad-serving infrastructure at least in mobile devices, as a means to deliver malware.<p>They couldn&#x27;t have stuck a knife into the heart if a nicer industry.<p>Now the mere presence of &quot;advertisements&quot; is a legitimate cybersecurity concern. Adblockers, and configuring browsers to stop ads is at the same level as firewalls and updates.<p>Advertisements baked into the Windows operating system is no mere question of &quot;annoyance&quot;, it&#x27;s a sound, rational reason to dump Microsoft in favour of something more secure.

Slowly boiling myself away from this and subscription software. The last few months have been moving my data to portable formats, open source software and on disk rather than in the cloud. The first step was to move away from macOS to Windows ironically because I can dispose of the Apple hardware and use my target hardware and what remanining software I am locked in to will work on windows. I&#x27;ll boil the last few things off on that then migrate to Linux.<p>The biggest problem remaining is what to do with email as I need access to it on the road and I&#x27;ve got used to outlook&#x2F;o365 for that. A half decent neutral IMAP service would do the job. Any recommendations?

I was very confused when I booted a Windows VM the other day and a mini Freddie Mercury appeared in the taskbar’s search box.[1] Turned out that it would have been his birthday, but it’s an odd thing for an OS to do.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;mastodon.social&#x2F;@robinwhittleton&#x2F;111011217374727839" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;mastodon.social&#x2F;@robinwhittleton&#x2F;111011217374727839</a>

My current internal struggle is which is the better trade off. Fight ads on Windows 11 or fight getting games to work on my Linux Distro of choice. I should just dual boot and fight both battles at the same time.

Sometimes I get the impression that nobody knows O&amp;O Shutup exists. Yes it sucks that such a third party app is necessary but Windows 10 is basically unusable without it. I have literally every disable option possible selected except two. One that makes the network applet know if there&#x27;s a connection and one option about Windows update without which even manual updates don&#x27;t work. (I remembered that it&#x27;s actually 4 the other two having to do with camera and mic permissions)<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.oo-software.com&#x2F;en&#x2F;shutup10" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.oo-software.com&#x2F;en&#x2F;shutup10</a>

Would like to know what they consider to be innovations in Windows with 11. I mostly see it as a step back.

What I don&#x27;t understand is how this is acceptable to enterprise IT departments at, say, Fortune 500s. It would have been an embarrassment 20 years ago for employees to be receiving these kinds of ads, news, and games from within the OS. What happened? When did people stop caring?

Apple is just starting this journey with ads in settings. More to come...

I recently upgraded to 11 22H2 and didn&#x27;t have to deal with most of this, likely because I&#x27;m using Enterprise. I highly recommend using it instead of the consumer SKUs.

The moment games either natively support linux or Proton becomes less of a hassle to use, I&#x27;m dropping Windows entirely. Until then, running a de-shittified Windows 10.

I switched to linux 23 years ago and it&#x27;s been awesome

Microsoft, having made huge enemies of everyone in free software, seems to now see business as its new target to antagonise. I genuinely don&#x27;t understand what they are playing at with Windows. They seem to be gladly sacrificing the one thing keeping people tied to them.<p>I remember when OEM Windows came with a bunch of crap. Now there is no version of Windows that isn&#x27;t full of crap.

Why is my OS an ad platform?

I bought my first Mac in ~30 years because of the ads in Win11. Yes, you can (kinda) disable them I&#x27;m just not interested in fighting that sort of nonsense in an OS

The day my Arch Linux install starts showing me ads is the day my laptop gets world record air time while flying out the window.

Turns out it&#x27;s about Windows. It would have helped if it had said so.

I switched to Ubuntu five years ago and it&#x27;s been a fab experience.

side info: Buying a Windows 11 Pro license currently costs $199.99 USD<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;archive.ph&#x2F;I8V1w" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;archive.ph&#x2F;I8V1w</a>

I feel your pain friend.

I have modified a few things in the group policy editor and installed startallback.<p>It&#x27;s a couple of hours but I am sure I would&#x27;ve wasted much more time trying to get win32 and directx applications to run on Linux. So there&#x27;s that.

This subject is so tiring. We get it. Change the settings and move on, or just use another OS. Microsoft doesn’t have a monopoly anymore.