So Microsoft is one of the most valuable companies in the entire world. They have a stranglehold on corporate America, power a huge the cloud infrastructure, hold one of the largest sources of telemetry/user data, and are the defacto standard of PC environments worldwide.
Why in the fuck do they need to pivot to ads? I’m genuinely curious. Even if they lost 50% of their entire business they would still be one of the most profitable companies in the world.
Because when you have shareholders, there’s no such thing as “we’re profitable enough”. Shareholders always demand more. Ads means more profit, at least in the short term. Next quarter profits are all that matter to public companies.
It’s obscene, but it’s the way it is.
I think it’s the same reason games offer a cash shop for things you can get in-game. Sure they’re making billions but why not billions plus ad revenue? I don’t agree with the practice but the answer always comes back to money.
Would be nice if pivoting to ads caused them to lose 50% of their business.
Sadly it won’t.
Better question is “why not”?
Isn’t it obvious? Start Menu is being used by every windows user but is not generating any revenue Serving ads will enable them to better support the platform and provide more advanced features. Ad supported version is better than making it a subscription like some third party apps have done. Start8 I think, basic copy of Microsoft’s Start Menu but paid.
I have a feeling that this year is going to be the year of the Linux desktop.
If there is a recommendation that satisfies:
- A nice looking UI with good fonts, and a clean interface.
- The ability to run random Windows applications with minimal fuss.
All without needing to use the terminal, then that will likely win the battle.
A nice looking UI with good fonts, and a clean interface.
Pretty much anything beats Windows in that regard.
The ability to run random Windows applications with minimal fuss.
I mean if you REALLY can’t find a FOSS alternative, Bottles has been extremely successful and easy for me…
All without needing to use the terminal
This is the biggest hangup for me. Even if there is a GUI, most instructions will send you into the terminal nonetheless.
Pretty much anything beats Windows in that regard
Fonts have looked like shit on Linux for years, if not decades. The poor UI and lack of polish has been a big problem in design communities for a long time, and to many it’s one of the reasons why Linux is less favourable to Mac and Windows.
This is the biggest hangup for me. Even if there is a GUI, most instructions will send you into the terminal nonetheless.
For all the deserved shit that Windows gets, it “just works” without ever needing to touch config or a terminal. Until a Linux distro and window management system can get this part right, it’s silly to call it a desktop replacement for the average person because it’s not trying to be.
The poor UI and lack of polish has been a big problem in design communities for a long time
I dunno what to tell you except that it’s not a problem now.
For all the deserved shit that Windows gets, it “just works” without ever needing to touch config or a terminal.
Most people don’t need to use anything other than a browser, which works fine.
I don’t think so
So maybe next year will be the year of the Linux desktop
Last year was the year of the Linux desktop, but only for me personally.
Good thing I use Ubuntu for >90% of my computing now.
If they could inject the ad’s into your veins, they would.
The second Win 10 stops receiving security updates, it’s Linux for me.
It’s time to switch.
Killing myself one day🤦♂️
MESSAGE FOR EVERYONE : Just switch to Linux 😃
Why yourself? Let M$ kill itself.
You’re right 😂
it was already full of ads on win10
Yeah, lol people forgot what ads are. News feeds, Xbox and other office apps you haven’t bought yet, are also ads, just their own products.
If you have to stay on windows check out: https://github.com/Open-Shell/Open-Shell-Menu
I have been using it on my work laptop over a year. Nice piece of software 👍️
This looks like it is solving a different problem but also useful. If you are saying it is better to disable everything and keep the original start bar. I prefer disabling everything and keeping a consistent start bar style from yesteryear. Either way thanks for the link. I’ll added it to my tool list!
Thank you microsoft for doing bad changes to the windows operating system im sure linux users will enjoy this
I’ve used Linux on every PC except my gaming PC for years. This year I made the final leap because of decisions like this from Microsoft.
Very few games have failed to work, the ones that have are all from Epic and they fail because of their shitty anticheat software. The only other things I feel the lack of are paint.net and the Affinity apps.
Pinta is a fork of an older version of paint.net: https://www.pinta-project.com/ I have no idea if it is any good. I just thought that this might solve your problem.
I have Pinta, it’s ok but lacks a lot of the plugins I used and hasn’t been too stable. The graphics editing thing is something that will,just take time for me to rework my workflows. Gimp is great, I’m just not used to it.
I keep seeing headlines like this all the time. I’m over here like “This has already been a thing for years”. Whenever I’d setup a win10 pc for someone, I’d have to clean the ads out of the start menu as part of the setup. So I ask again, how is this any different from the bullshit we’re already dealing with?
Microsoft: how can we get even more money while enraging everyone?
I stopped using Windows in 2008 (juggling between a mixture of Linux and Mac OS). One of the reasons, is that at that time I thought Windows was legitimately a mess.
Over time, I thought it got a bit better when seeing it on friends’s computers.
Due to laziness, Windows 11 got installed on my office computer (which I use 1% of my time) and I thought it was honestly pretty good (as in, I never thought about switching back, but it was fine to use it when necessary).
Now that they plug in ads, I’ll certainly want to switch back /s
I think that this betrays their plans: Windows will go “free with ads”, with an ad-free version that is subscription only. That doesn’t hurt their bottomline since the governments and companies of the western world will still go subscription in order to get support. The ones who don’t have enough money for that (individuals, small countries/companies, small municipalities), they will go “free with ads”. I mean, practically, Windows is free even right now. They have oem serial numbers that activate the OS for free, legally, to be reused. So why not make it profitable, it’s their thinking. Also, on newer builds of Win11 you can’t avoid logging in without an msn account.
That is the Trap. Pre-installed Windows is not free, you pay for it in the price of the PC, the same PC without OS is almost ~€100 cheaper. A lot of vendors offer now PC only with FreeDOS, where you can select to install Linux, paying only the CD or USB or install Windows, paying it’s license (€100-120).
