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Microsoft has gone too far: including a Game Pass ad in the Settings app ushers in a whole new age of ridiculous over-advertising (www.techradar.com)

submitted 4 months ago by lemmee_in@lemm.ee to c/technology@lemmy.world

259 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Windows 11 is getting out of hand with its push for advertisments, frankly - remember the recent full-screen pop-up to persuade users to install Edge or other Microsoft services? Then another advertisment was placed in the Start menu, and now Microsoft has finally worn my temper thin - with a new Game Pass ad coming to the Settings app.

This will likely arrive in the July update for Windows 11, or at least it’s almost certain to do so. It was present in the latest preview update Microsoft just released for the OS (and quickly paused due to a bug, but that’s another story). It’s also worth noting that the ad has been present in earlier test versions of Windows 11.

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[–] pycorax@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I'm not sure why that is so hard to believe. I use Ubuntu and Windows at work daily and Windows at home. I know the challenges of both and Windows at worst just annoys me with them forcing the new Outlook app on me. Everything else just works. Plays games amazingly, Visual Studio is uncontested, syncs nicely with my Android phone and I have no driver issues whatsoever. Don't have to go diving into the command line to change settings either.

The only time Linux works perfectly for me is on my Steam Deck and that's entirely because Valve has handled all the driver issues for us on that hardware.

[–] supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz -1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Outlook is atrocious what on earth are you talking about? Just trying to use it at work it is so frustrating and the UI is horrendous for everything. Truly even basic things like trying to read when a meeting actually starts just from looking at the calendar is a headache, and because all of this is proprietary unlike with Linux, tough luck, that is how things are and you can’t do shit to change it. Neither can an experienced computer user trying to help you.

I am sorry you really don’t have an accurate handle on the state of things anymore, I think you are stuck in your ways and stressed out by life and you don’t realize that emotion and lack of mental plasticity is leading to you assume everyone else is as stuck in their ways as you (including your future self when you are able to feel less overworked and stressed).

Windows is atrocious at this point, search doesn’t work and purposefully confuses new computer users about where is being searched and what is being searched. Ads pop up everywhere in the UI and will continue to spread like a terminal cancer in the UI.

Search on windows also just sucks and takes ages with the default settings (an inexperienced computer user will be using).

The file manager on windows in most marquee windows programs like word, excel etc.. all open up an entirely different file manager half way through the process of saving a file in perhaps the most insane UI pattern to keep from the mess that was Windows 8 (even though I actually really liked the core idea at first).

Windows is buggy AND windows is constantly playing head games with its user by trying to force them to use the edge browser. It is very very confusing to a new computer user what the hell is even going on.

I mean, Windows illegally changed the entire operating system countless people had without getting consent because it would look good for their numbers.

Seriously you are WAYYY out of your league if you are going to claim a nice Linux distribution on good hardware with good driver support (such as some dells or thinkpads) is categorically wayyy worse than trying to use a windows laptop in 2024….

…please get your head out of the sand :)

I mean do you want to get into the massive security vulnerability at a tactical and strategic level that Microsoft’s co-pilot represents? This is endgame for business security, Windows is in a worse spot than it has been in probably a decade at least and they deserve it. IT people and corporations have to seriously wonder if Windows even cares about following the law, which makes trusting Windows for the software relied upon by their company a complex question indeed…..

It used to be that Linux was better ideologically because it gave you agency over your computer, but now things have gotten so much worse that the reason is practical and no longer ideological.

[–] pycorax@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I don't think you're talking about the Outlook I am talking about because I'm talking about the Outlook Mail and Calendar apps, not the Office ones. And that's fine and dandy about proprietary software and all but frankly I haven't really seen any non-proprietary mail apps that look aesthetically pleasing. But that's besides the point, it's a matter of personal preference when it comes to visuals after all.

You don't have to come here and assume you know everything about me simply from my choice of OS and invalidating my experiences with personal attacks no less. If your rant here is trying to convince me or anyone else who is reading that we should abandon Windows because of the reasons, you have stated, you are failing terribly I'm afraid. Not everyone has such high standards as you have and it's frankly patronizing for you to think that I or anyone else have not considered these options when it affects our workflow. If anything, people reading this are gonna be dissuaded of Linux because if this is the kind of tone and experience we're going to get when we try to, well, it's a lot less stressful staying away from Linux.

It's somewhat concerning that you have such a strong obsession over the topic that you would go and whether intentionally or unintentionally offend people and I hope that you are a much more pleasant person to converse with outside of this topic or even this site.

I'd also like to add, nowhere did I ever mention using laptops. All my experiences are with desktops that I had a hand in building from scratch. So I'm not sure what you're even getting at with those assumptions.

Have a good day sir.

[–] supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz -1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

I don’t think you’re talking about the Outlook I am talking about because I’m talking about the Outlook Mail and Calendar apps, not the Office ones. And that’s fine and dandy about proprietary software and all but frankly I haven’t really seen any non-proprietary mail apps that look aesthetically pleasing. But that’s besides the point, it’s a matter of personal preference when it comes to visuals after all.

... I am not just talking about little details and preferences here? Windows products are increasingly broken and dysfunctional at every level. Features don't work, features are randomly changed and broken, nothing is consistent, core features of the computer are made opaque, any given Linux package manager is about 1000000 times more trustable than the ad ridden, sketchy, bloatware filled Windows store where you have to hunt for actually useful and trustable tools. One of my old bosses had his work windows computer update to a new windows OS without really asking him (technically it did, but then it just kept scheduling an OS upgrade until he missed it). It didn't break his computer, but he had thousands and thousands of hours of cad drafting work on that computer and Windows could have EASILY fucked up in the update process, or the old software we were using could have EASILY not been compatible. Windows basically flipped a coin for whether they were going to utterly grind my bosses business to a halt and cause utter panic or just have the computer update. This is not "user friendly" software design, this is not "easy to use software made by an extremely competent software company".

I’d also like to add, nowhere did I ever mention using laptops. All my experiences are with desktops that I had a hand in building from scratch. So I’m not sure what you’re even getting at with those assumptions.

....because for 99% of people who are going to be using a computer for light email, research and text editing work they are going to be using a laptop? I don't really understand what about my argument doesn't apply to windows prebuilts that have good driver support for linux...?

It’s somewhat concerning that you have such a strong obsession over the topic that you would go and whether intentionally or unintentionally offend people and I hope that you are a much more pleasant person to converse with outside of this topic or even this site.

I think it is completely reasonable to be upset when someone is condescendingly foreclosing the possibility that something can happen when the evidence they are using for it is outdated and they refuse to update it in their heads. The only response at that point when someone refuses to re-evaluate their position and continues to "speak for the group" when they really don't represent the group anymore is to make it even clearer that they don't speak for a group, and I am sorry if my method offended here, I believe your heart is in the right place but please stop trying to tell us about how stupid and unwilling people are to learn new things. Please please please just keep your mouth closed, it doesn't help anyone, period. Even if you were right, there would be nothing to change in our actions as it would just be hopeless to even try?

This isn't 2015, a good Linux distribution is as polished, easy to use, and easy to explain to a newbie computer user as Windows is. If you aren't ready to accept that shrugs I mean fine but don't push your outmoded narrative into conversations that might actually convince someone who doesn't know about Linux that it isn't worth checking out as a serious alternative. You are actively doing damage to the future of this software movement by dismissing it offhand like this.