How experimental was Microsoft's 'experimental banner' in File Explorer? Microsoft's hurried backpedal over advertisements in File Explorer has industry watchers concerned. The Windows Insider Team has form when it comes to accidental emissions. There was the surprise rollout of 20H1 in 2019, for example, and the bundling of a bug that wiped the data of some users with the October 2018 Update of …
Seeing as a developer at Microsoft had to write the code, that the developer was going to have been instructed to write the code, that a planning session or hundred would have been had to plan the functionality, that the infrastructure to host and control the adverts would have to be built, deployed and scaled...
It's neither accidental nor experimental. It's just yet more belligerence from Microsoft and in treating customers, mostly paying customers, as cash cows and people to force advertising on.
It is possible that if they've used some common code between File Explorer, and another component in Windows (for example, a rendering engine also used for a Web Browser), it may be possible that if the advertising code is in the rendering engine, that a flag turned on for the Web Browser might unintentionally affect the File Browser.
But this is about the only way I can conceive that it could be by accident.
I always think to myself, if I wasn't a fan of tech who was happy to waste hours of my life, would I put up with tacky adverts in Windows 11 or use Gnome 3... Which one is more wasteful of resources? Gnome 3's "triple buffering" isn't exactly tempting. KDE (since 4.x) is also a heavy monster.
I really do hate them all. It is 2022 and the interface of Windows NT 4.0 from ~1996 was arguably more crisp, more consistent and used less than 16MB of RAM.
Light WM and predominantly command line is what I have settled with but I am not thrilled by it.
Gnome and KDE have always been heavyweights, relative to the PCs of the day. But then I've always thought that each Windows release was designed for next year's computers too.
I've also always preferred a lightweight desktop. There's that freedom worship-word again, we each get to decide.
> I really do hate them all. It is 2022 and the interface of Windows NT 4.0 from ~1996 was arguably more crisp, more consistent and used less than 16MB of RAM.
Nostalgia ain't always what it used to be. Personally, I run a lot more stuff than I did back in 1996. At a much higher resolution than the 1024*768 CRT I had at the time.
And across three monitors and two graphics cards, to boot. And then there's all the stuff in the background, like realtime audio mixing, etc.
Modern GUIs may chew up a lot more resources than they used to, but they're also dealing with a lot of stuff - and adding a lot of value-add stuff to boot. Even if (as with office software), everyone uses a different subset of said features.
OTOH, my preferred dev environment is a Terminal window with a dozen tabs on it, most of which are running Vi. Swings and roundabouts, or somesuch...
> Nostalgia ain't always what it used to be. Personally, I run a lot more stuff than I did back in 1996.
> At a much higher resolution than the 1024*768 CRT I had at the time.
Strangely I was never brought up with Windows NT 4.x. I have since visited it much later whilst writing a couple of research papers on digital preservation. In many ways separating it from potential nostalgia almost makes it even more impressive.
Check out Windows NT 4.0 Terminal Server, you can access it via rdesktop at any resolution you want. 8192x4096? No problem. Also compare the bandwidth and performance requirement of our current solutions of VNC, SSH/X11 and Wayland's pipewire. It is so very impressive. The intelligent protocol of RDP does have many benefits to our (simpler) raster approach we use today. X11 was intelligent but it kind of fell apart once many GUI toolkits like Gtk+ unfortunately became raster images for useless eye-candy.
> Modern GUIs may chew up a lot more resources than they used to, but they're also
> dealing with a lot of stuff
I actually disagree with this. Not to keep singing NT 4.0's praises (haha!?) but the desktop environment has *so* many more features than Gnome and KDE. Not just in customization but also integration with the lower level systems. Possibly the cross platform support of modern desktop environment makes that a little harder but frankly Gnome is so Linux-centric these days that that excuse is gone.
> OTOH, my preferred dev environment is a Terminal window with a dozen tabs on it, most of which
> are running Vi.
To be fair my environment since (Watcom's) Vi and DesqView really hasn't changed since I moved to (n)vi and tmux. I don't exactly think I am a luddite, it is just that desktop and GUI programs have literally no progress since the DOS days.
(Hopefully my ramble had *some* useful points in)
> Modern GUIs may chew up a lot more resources than they used to, but they're also
> dealing with a lot of stuff
often more than the user can or needs to. One thing I've noticed using multiple screens people never seem to organise themselves well enough to find things faster than they could re-start them.Its like having a proper desk!
In 30 years it has got a lot better.
Windows for crashgroups
windows ME (Multiple exceptions you couldn't count them)
Windows 95 (crashes per month)
windows 2000 (crashes per 2 years roughly 5 a day in my experience)
windows XP (10 crashes - roman numerals a week persistently)
Windows 7 (3 crashes and 4 reboots a week)
Windows 8 (reboots per fortnight it tends to slide to a near stop and refuses to move rather than crash)
Windows (10 reboots per 2 months)
Windows server properly fed falls over less than once a year nowadays.
The point about symbiosis is that the parasite needs to eat enough to survive without killing the host.
Microsoft spend billions on creating windows so that everyone loves it, then give it away almost free with a new PC which people use for 10 years expecting updates without subscriptions. Then people get upset because Microsoft try to monetise it, someone has to subsidise Windoze phone!
30 years ago I struggled to open one decent spreadsheet, 1 document and 4 browser tabs. I now have 10-20 times those numbers open all the time.
Visual studio is still like lifting a cart horse on your little finger, sometimes it breaks!
Having supported most leading UNIX variants with professional support contracts in place, systems falling over is not uncommon. It happened less because you only ran approved applications on such boxes and the pricing for everything is 4 to 8 figures 10 million+ was the most expensive box I worked on , it broke regularly.
Note I know you pay a portion indirectly to Microsoft for a windows license with a PC but compared to
a SCO licence at $1000 etc cost is almost nothing.
I think Microsoft possibly should be more clear about the offering
1. Windows business with subscription - No ADs ever!
2. Windows home with cheap subscription - No ADs!
3. Lapsed subscription / 'free with the PC' its like watching American TV more ads than programs.
Now are you prepared to pay an annual subscription to avoid ads?
Buy an Amazon Fire tablet (based on a free O/S) you get offered 2 versions
1. with ads
2. without ads + £10. Note the O/S is still firmly connected into the Amazon eco system so its easier to buy from them.
That seems pretty clear to me.
Well in the case of M$ it hasn'tbeen for a lack of trying. Problem is the Windows 9x / NT4.x GUI was as close to sher perfection as it got. You can keep your touchy (Windows H8, and Windows X Live Tiles.), and on that subect what the Hell is Disney+ lurking on my Windows x Pro?
Mores the pittly that Hackentosh won't be around in the nex five years. :(
As far as I can tell, and I've only been using computers since 1975, all of those 'free udpates' I get from Microsoft on a monthly basis are only due to bugs in their code. They're so good at producing bugs that some of the 'free updates' are actually better bugs than they were attempting to fix.
Don't remember there being any advertising in "Windows for crashgroups" and MSDOS before it, so it would seem ad related bloat has got a lot worse over the decades.
I wonder if MS are taking their ad design cues from the bottom of the barrel websites, where ad's are the content and the real content is the filler around the ad's...
XFCE4 is almost fine. Getting rid of the icons is easy (desktop icons are always inaccessible because there is an application window on top). Getting rid of the last panel requires a quick web search (panels use up space that I want for the application on that virtual desktop). A few minutes setup and I have a window manager that does only what I want it to do.
KDE is not that bad compared to other software. The resource hogs are browsers.
Is any supported version Windows better than KDE? I doubt it.
XFCE works nicely, but I have moved back to KDE because it work more smoothly and with less hassle than any other DE (on any OS) that I have tried. Even more so if you use KDE apps because they interoperate well (e.g. from the file manager I can right click on a file and send it to a mobile device through KDE Connect) and the number of shared libraries means they are not memory hog mogs. It has good support for things like remote filesystems (including sftp which is really usefull) , lots of useful features and widgets (screen colour changes, quite a few actually useful widgets etc.)
The Windows interface before Windows 95 was deliberately crippled by Program Manager, the sole reason for existence was to avoid lawsuits by Apple. I don't think Windows 95 was much better but at least it had a tree menu avoiding oodles of windows opened just to start a single program.
Since then there have been several attempts to incorporate the ideas of Taligent with vayring degress of success.
The worst advertisers of the world are fully exploiting FOSS to power their users exploitation and ads slinging systems and networks. Without FOSS, they could not probably scale so much because the sheer software costs would have blocked them well before, or they would have to invest a lot of money into writing their own. So beware what you wish.... it could come with a lot of poisons attached.
... successful computing professionals choose FOSS because it scales, it works and it is cheaper.
Microsoft used to say that malware slingers used FOSS. What IT purchasers heard was "professionals skilled in IT security choose FOSS".
If software does not do what I want my choices are:
FOSS) Fix it myself or hire a programmer at a competitive rate to fix it.
Proprietary) Beg the monopoly supplier to fix it. Buy the next version and hope the fix is included and new breakages aren't.
Perhaps the worst advertisers of the world are not entirely dim.
"FOSS) Fix it myself or hire a programmer at a competitive rate to fix it."
Can't remember having to fix anything. It must be pushing 20 years since I wrote a line of C and that's because I was being paid. This stuff Just Works these days.
"Proprietary) Beg the monopoly supplier to fix it. Buy the next version and hope the fix is included and new breakages aren't."
Well, if you want to beg Microsoft to fix things, good luck. Personally, I'll stick with the FOSS route.
Edit: I'll just throw this in. One thing I did like about Windows back in the day was the cardfile program. It's one thing they dropped along the way. I don't think it can be made to run at all in W10. And that is one thing I have just written for myself - using Lazarus. If I had any reason to I could port it to Windows.
No, I'm saying they chose it because they HAVE NOT TO PAY. They can exploit "free labor" and build their exploitation and ads slinging system at a tiny fraction of the price they would need to pay if they had to pay licenses or invest in building that code themselves.
Sure, FOSS enabled both you not to pay software, and Google and Facebook reach that scale with huge savings. And now Microsoft wants too its slice of the cake since now you can't pay software with money, you have to pay it with your own life and become and ads consuming drone.
"Perhaps the worst advertisers of the world are not entirely dim."
Of course, they are very cunning - let others work for them for free - and keep all the relevant code proprietary, and make boatloads of money.
Awake me when Google open source its search engine, data analysis and ads broker/auction system....
Nokia phone my third or fourth true Android phone likes to reboot regularly.
Raspberry PI is a lovely toy but until it booted off disk was almost useless in production due to SD card woes.
XBMC / KODI on various platforms was just patch after patch.
Windows phone mostly worked.
Windows media player the same.
Business wise at a recent job no one knows how DB2 or AS400 works and just follow guides plenty of us could use SQL server to a high level etc. I probably could understand DB2 & AS400 if I wanted. I sussed AIX, HPUX & Oracle on my own but it would take too long to provide value.
Tried. Ended up with a number of computers that won't start unless I re-install windows and a bunch of people sneering at me when I had the audacity to ask for help.
It's a pity, because I'm all too aware of the situation with Windows, but until I can find a Linux that I can install from a USB that detects and sets itself up for the hardware I'm trying to install it on with minimal intervention, I'm stuck...
"... unless I forgot to get the nvidia build for certain distros..."
... and therein lies the problem.
Hardware and me have a history, ever since I destroyed my first Atari ST trying to upgrade the memory. Anything that requires my knowing exactly what my hardware spec is and entering details/downloading specific drivers etc. just plain doesn't work - hence the various PCs that are now good only for either a Window re-install or doorstop duty.
Why this happens, I don't know. Maybe I angered some heathen gods or something in a past life :) But right now, the fact that whenever I've done a Windows re-install, it's picked up what hardware I've got and configured it at least to the point of being operational is what keeps me tied to MS.
I have to ask. Is your hardware particularly unusual, and do you have any significant needs that really require the latest, greatest proprietary graphics hardware?
If you are bleeding edge hardware wise, then Linux, pretty much any distro, may struggle to get more than VESA resolutions if the graphics card is not supported (yet) by the open-source drivers and the manufacturer has not provided a Blob of otherwise for their proprietary driver. But this is no different from Windows, where the vendor has to either supply a driver, or have one entered into the Windows driver database. They could do exactly the same for the major Linux distros, but often they don't, or delay submitting it for some time. The difference is that they are more diligent for Windows, because otherwise they would not sell their hardware!
But if your using anything older than about 6 months, and are using a mainstream distro, I would expect it, with the the open source drivers, to just work out of the box. If they don't, then you're doing something wrong, possibly overthinking the problem and trying to do more than is really necessary.
You do have to be aware that the Blobs come from the chipset vendor (Nvidia, AMD/ATI or Microsoft for example) rather than the board manufacturer, and for the first two, the provide a single Unified Driver that will support several generations of hardware, rather than a specific one for a single generation.
There are a couple of other exceptions. If you have very old hardware, and try to use the graphics vendor supplied blob, they may well have dropped support for that device. The open source drivers will almost certainly work.
The other main exception is if you're using an obscure device. Not so long ago, I put Ubuntu on an HP Thin client meant to run a Windows terminal client that uses a VIA Eden SoC (it's exceptionally low power, and completely devoid of fans or spinning disk, but is x86_64 and PC architecture, so more mainstream than, say, a Raspberry Pi), and trying to find any driver for that which worked at resolutions beyond VESA proved a little complex (mainly because of the build in the repos. and the fact that I use LTS releases that have a HWE, which complicates the dependencies). But this is a real piece of obscure hardware.
Please let us know what is so unusual about your hardware that makes it difficult to put Linux on. I've not really had any problems with x86 32 or 64 bit hardware (with the minor exception of the thin client) for over 10 years or so. I've never been left a system that would not even boot unless I'd done something strange and unusual to the bootstrap, and that would be entirely my fault.
And it would be interesting to see whether just doing a simple install, accepting all the defaults, would result in a working system.
Installing Windows isn't any better. It's considerably worse, in my experience.
I have installed many distros of Linux on many PCs, and the experience is pretty universally what you ask for. Boot the USB, tell it where you want it to go, let it do its thing, reboot, use. Maybe you have some hardware where this is not the case, but I can't say anything about that, since I don't know what that is.
As far as the nVidia drivers: In Ubuntu, you can go to the Driver Manager in the system settings (think Control Panel) and click the radio button for the latest nVidia driver (the one marked "recommended") and hit Apply. Other than that, Linux is ready to go when the install finishes.
Getting Windows set up is a lot more work than that. The last time I tried it, the Windows installer immediately told me a driver for something was missing, and that I had to tell it where the driver was before the installation could proceed. What thing that needed a driver was it talking about? Was it something simple that I could ignore and get sorted once Windows had been installed, or was it something that would block the installation? It didn't say.
I tried to get it to continue without installing anything, but that didn't work. It was something that would block the installation, and Windows couldn't be bothered to tell me anything about what the item was. If I had the PCI ID, I could search it and find the driver. If I had the "pretty" name for the thing, I could do the same. I had a pretty good idea what it was getting at (my NVMe SSD), but at this point your wish for a simple, easy install had already been thwarted.
That was on a three year old laptop, not some bleeding-edge thing whose drivers had not yet trickled into the base Windows install. By contrast, I'd installed Linux on it three years ago, when it was brand new, and not had any such problems.
The same laptop came with a crappy one-channel wifi card, so a year or two ago I swapped that for an Intel Wifi-6 (AX200) card. Booted Linux as usual, and my wifi connection authenticated and worked as it always had, with no delays or issues.
Then one time I decided to boot into Windows 10 for some reason. I didn't use Windows for anything beyond testing to see how things work in Windows so I could compare it with Linux, so it was surely something like that.
I tried to go to a web site to download some thing, only to discover that the wifi no longer worked. Windows had no driver for my new wifi card. I had to go download the driver, but normally I do the downloads via wifi, which wasn't working, so it was an extra layer of irritation. Of course, I have an ethernet cable (and USB A and C ethernet NICs) handy, so I used that to go to the Intel site, find the driver, then download and install it.
In Linux, all I had to do was turn the PC on after installing the card.
One of the first things I have always done after any Windows installation is go to the Device Manager and look at all of the ! icons that represent components with no driver. Sometimes you can go to the PC manufacturer's site and get reasonably up to date drivers for all of the bits, but not always. If you want something more recent, it's always been necessary to hunt down the driver packages for each component and download and install them, one by one. Windows Update has never been able to find enough drivers to make everything work in any of the Windows installations I have done.
When I upgraded my Asus F8 series laptop to Windows 7, I had to hunt down the drivers on the web, since Asus only provided drivers for the OS they supplied on it, which was Vista. I got everything working, in some cases using drivers packaged by Lenovo and HP (since many OEMs don't issue their generic drivers to the public, and those were the drivers I happened to find from non-questionable sources), but it was a lot more work than setting Linux up on the same machine, where everything worked on the first boot.
That doesn't matter to most people, though, as they don't need to install Windows. It's already there. There are Linux laptops too... my Dell XPS 13 is one of those, having come with Ubuntu. I replaced that with KDE Neon (an Ubuntu descendant).
Just to be fair, I have to defend Windows a bit here. Since Windows 10 (and maybe before, I don't know), Microsoft provide an on-line driver repository which is queried during the device installation whenever it doesn't know the driver for a particular piece of hardware, and it works pretty well as long as you have a working network and Internet connection. Definitely a step up from previous Windows versions, and has some advantages over even most Linux distributions.
Still would not have helped you with your WiFi adapter, though.
@RyokuMas
...Ended up with a number of computers that won't start...
I started my switch to Linux with Mandrake in 2002/3 -ish and went with it through all its transitions (acrually, it was Caldera, but to my horror I discovered after three months that the GUI was proprietary and you had to buy a licence in order to keep using it). I am currently on Mageia 8 (eagerly waiting for 9) and have had minimal problems with getting a bootable machine. Problems I did have were either due to faulty hardware or because I wanted to push the envelope too far (or in my stupidity broke it when trying to install bleeding edge software not in the repository).
NVidia drivers (both proprietary and OS) has given me problems, but it seems to have stabilised now (although changing my graphics card may also have played a role - I could never catch it as being the culprit, though).
All my installs have been from USB (I do not upgrade to new versions). On Windows Rufus created bootable USB's, if memory serves, but otherwise I use ISODumper.
The neat thing about Linux is that, if you get your display wrong and the GUI refuses to run, you can always switch to a console (ctrl-alt-F2 or F3 or F4, etc) and fix it there - using Drakconf in the case of Mageia. I am sure other distro's will also have cli tools that can do the same thing. YAST on OpenSUSE is very good.
Once your have gotten round the differences between Linux and Windows, you won't look back. In fact, I am nowadays lost if I have to fix something on my better half's Win 10 laptop, and more often than not have to consult Google in order to find a fix (Windows' autofix solutions are even worse now than they were before - it is better to steer clear of it, as it is just a waste of time. I have yet to find a problem that WIndows can fix by itself, unless it is the simplest of problem).
Added functionality doesn't get there accidentally. Somebody has to write it and, bugs apart, that's likely to be deliberate. This is a little too elaborate for a bug. Unless whoever coded it was sneaking something in for their own gratification we must assume they were told to. Telling them to do so must surely imply that usage was at least considered.
Where then is the scope for accident? Possibly exposing it at this stage? Hmmm...
This is a little too elaborate for a bug.
Wow, that must be the understatement of the year... ehm, decade.
Not only is someone coding the front-end, but there is a whole back-end infrastructure too. You only get to do this when the "boss" is involved. Considering this is microsoft, a lot of bosses at many levels and departments are involved. The programmers (just) implement what is requested.
"Accidents" of this magnitude are less probable than an alien species making first contact and visiting our beloved earth next week.
Indeed. Features don't happen by accident.
"Oops, I threw together some random lines of code and they started displaying ads" doesn't cut it. If there was an "experiment", it was clearly to see how much protest this will trigger, and to progressively desensitize the victims enough ("oh, that old thing again") to make it a standard feature.
Features don't happen by accident.
Unless... Microsoft's programmer staff has grown to infinity and all the monkeys are hitting the keyboard.
This week its advertising, next week they will produce the collective works of Shakespeare, which they will advertise, in the file explorer, as their own innovation of literature, of course.
Added functionality doesn't get there accidentally. Somebody has to write it and, bugs apart, that's likely to be deliberate.
But it could have been an unofficial side project by someone on the team that accidentally got left enabled. Dog knows how many ideas and quick tests of mine have ended up shipping because it turned out other people liked them too.
They're not. They don't give a tinker's cuss about their customers - they're interested in revenue, and whether we're pissed off never even crosses their minds. They have their users cornered and it costs them nothing to pump promo at them. There's always a chance that some of the suckers will sign up to what's advertised, and in the meantime it's promoted at zero cost.
In my case, SWMBO is just about capable of dealing with Windows after years of training, but there are things she steadfastly refuses to learn, such as how to use our scanner. While I would at least consider working through the challenges of using Linux as the primary shared PC in the house, I shudder to think about the retraining process.
Also, gaming on Linux remains largely crap for various reasons. All my non-gaming hardware runs Linux, but getting Linux to run many games remains a non-trivial effort, which is not what I'm looking for as a form of recreation.
The easiest way to get Windows games to work on Linux is to use the Steam client and simply tick the box to use Proton when running them. Far easier than setting it all up manually in WINE, though Lutris makes that a lot more straightforward. I find the hassle of playing Windows games in Linux to be preferable to the hassle of running Windows and putting up with all that Microsoft has become. If we were talking about something like Windows XP or 7, that would be another story, but that era (where Windows was more or less meant to serve the customers' needs) has come and gone.
> use the Steam client
Yet another "your stuff doesn't belong to you, we only let you use it, for a while" subscription solution! I personally like to own my games, to be able to play them decades later, even when the original company which released them has long gone the way of the Dodo. I'm old-fashioned that way.
(And yes, I'm still playing some very old games, DOS Extender level of old.)
MS will discover (the hard way, as usual) that if provoked, a significant proportion of their users will actively seek to migrate away....
Recently I've seen any number of Win10 / 11 installs choke themselves to a halt. The OS gets slower with every "update", and performance eventually collapses to being unusably slow....
It's at this point that they try Mint or something else equally friendly, and there's no going back! I can't count the number of machines that I've reinstalled lately - all reasonably recent and quick laptops, and all with Windows in "Molasses Mode"..... Many people I know have made that move, and none have regretted it!
Windows file manager is crap compared to the competition on other OS, still not an option for opening multiple tabs? Come on MS this feature has been in most Linux file managers for years.
Stop spending all your time trying to fleece your users out of a few more pennies with ads and actually improve your software.
It's just typical of the arrogance of many companies these days. It is MY device, no data collection, no data should leave the device other than what is necessary ( really necessary, not additional info that has been decided by recipient of the request) to deliver or do the requested task. No adverts, if I have not asked for it should not be there. The OS is just the conduit between the meat sack in the chair and the hardware of the computer without requiring any online connection. About time OS developers realised this, everything else is bloatware. If I want a feature I can add it, download open source, or buy software, or install a feature at setup phase if I WANT it.
The push from a Windows install to hand over your life story and control to your data created in the use of your computer for ads etc is too much yet for some reason it qualifies as "legitimate interest".
MS & everyone else can stick their legitimate interest along with OS ads where the sun don't shine.
Yes that is correct it is MY device and THEIR software. Still doesn't excuse the unreasonable, unjustifiable data grabs, forced monetising of users, pushing of adverts into MY device. Its also correct that many, many companies do NOT respect the fact that the consumer OWNS the device. See moodern cars, TVs, Watches, media players, Tablets, phones etc. Almost every single device, even ones you fully own, still only pretend to be your possession as the makers refuse to give up control over it.
Yes been using Mint as a main driver when I can for many years now.
There should be no setting to hunt down.
Any optional software should be on the Store. People know about Stores. Let them search for their own upgrades.
The OS is only there to make the computer function. Stop confusing it with a sales pitch.
For those who can remember trying to get through boring shifts, Solitaire & FreeCell were essential on Windows 7. Have a look at what they have done to them in Solitaire Collection for a taste of what an Ad strewn Windows might look like in the future. Imagine opening an application which triggers a video advert (with sound) which you have to let complete before the app loads. That's what the Windows future looks like.
For what it's worth, Solitaire and Freecell from Windows 7 (and possibly all the way back to XP) are essentially standalone apps that you can drop into Windows 10. If you have the old files handy. <cough, cough>
No ads, no monitoring. The way it's supposed to be.
And then maybe kill the Microsoft Games/Store/adware.
This is concerning, and Microsoft do have form for this. They already slipped ads into the start menu for Windows 10. I can't remember seeing any in the start menu for Windows 11, but I don't currently have access to a Windows 11 machine so can't check, but I don't think there should be adverts in any part of the Windows interface.
Apple do not do this, but they do ensure that the App Store is easily accessible. Microsoft need to do the same. If Microsoft don't make enough money from Windows (and I don't believe that for a second) then fine, charge for it. Don't pretend it's free, then include advertising all over it..
Agreed, we need singular numeric - unary - computing. No need for computers to be entrenched in the gender discussions by offering holes (0) and pins (1).
Neutral computing it is. Holes are best because both computer and digits can hide recursively in the holes of the digits. Mine is the one with all 0 on zero sides and insides as well.
M$ will keep pushing this in some form or another until it IS accepted by a small minority, and everybody has to live with it. I hate looking at the pre-login screen of my win10 install( used rarely) but I have "Like what you see?" See how Hololens2 bla bla.... Micro$oft is using the power of holographic blaaaa blah... Win10 is as far as I will go with M$.
Lowly coder by day... Chaos thrill seeker by night. Rogue Engineer the biggest software companies and unleashes his mad code to the unsuspecting masses.
From slurping WIFI data via Google cars to slipping ads in Microsoft's workhorse OS. In any tech company, he is everyone and he is no one!
Where will he strike next? Find it next week!
Same Rogue-time, same Rogue-channel
This post has been deleted by its author
I finally got bored of having to turn off "features/adverts..." in every major windows update. I even used to maintain a fairly comprehensive PowerShell script to easily put my Windows 10 build back to how it was before the bloatware was re-added.
Then I moved to Linux Mint, never been happier, no bloatware, no junk and a very simple setup script to install/uninstall default apps for my own preference.
So much better!
About as likely as the Archbishop of Canterbury being hit by a falling gargolye while swimming off beachy head.
Anyway.... I suspect the solution to these ads will be either new file explorer, or the better solution of a new file explorer running on Linux mint.
And before the naysayers start up... USB stick in usb port and boot up PC... and the only faffing about I had to do was picking a password
I can't wait until I get to log 30 mins per work day for watching the MS Adverts required to be able to run the app. I'm sure that my boss will love me being unproductive for that 30 mins. I'm guessing that the "Pro" versions won't have any adverts. <LOL>
As for my home PC, I only keep that on Windows because very few games get released for Linux, probably not helped by the near infinite number of variants. I currently don't see many ads on my Win10 PC outside of webpages and I fully intend to keep it that way. For any new PC I buy, the seller will have to guarantee that there are no adverts as part of the bundled OS. I already see far too many ads on TV and on my Android Tablet/Phone (mostly in apps) so MS can shove it if they think they are going to push even more at me.
Advertising is absolutely the norm these days. That people are outraged the Microsoft may be planning to stick adverstising in Windows seems a little strange. People accept ads in all sorts of other software even when they appears in software and hardware for which they have paid.
And when is an ad not an ad? Remember the old paperclip in Office all those decades ago that used to give "helpful" suggestions until you worked out how to switch him off? He would sometimes suggest using Microsoft products or services that you didn't have installed.
And so the real purpose of Pluton is revealed...
When you have ads in the OS, switching OSes becomes a major problem. An OS that won't show ads becomes unauthorized software.
Move just a little further from ownership of the hardware to leasing the firmware of the hardware, and suddenly the ads can't be removed.
Microsoft always runs the EEE playbook, and it's never obvious until it's far too late to change anything.
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