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.

Cool

I'm learning more and more about Linux while using Linux Mint

It's pretty cool NGL

Although not the same, this has been going on for about two years now. Jensen Harris, a former MS engineer, criticized the ads as well as the design of the new Start Menu, over here: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1564399431545667585.html

The second Win 10 stops receiving security updates, it's Linux for me.

I have a feeling that this year is going to be the year of the Linux desktop.

Good thing I use Ubuntu for >90% of my computing now.

If they could inject the ad's into your veins, they would.

HOW MANY TIMES DO WE HAVE TO TEACH YOU THIS LESSON OLD MAN

KDE Plasma 6, and their distro KDE Neon, are both really good.

There are many very friendly Linux communities on Lemmy who can help you get set up.

Cool. I just started testing Nobara

it was already full of ads on win10

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.

Aight time to try and learn Linux for the 10th time and see if someone without strong console knowledge can use one now.

This is why Linux rules tbh, little to no rules what so ever in terms of customizing your desktop whilst also not having shit like this too like having so much bloat and constant ads, like telling you to install edge everytime whilst protecting your privacy too.

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.

Microsoft: how can we get even more money while enraging everyone?

This is pretty much how you destroy a good product. Hello Linux!

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?

Killing myself one day🤦‍♂️

MESSAGE FOR EVERYONE : Just switch to Linux 😃

This is the best summary I could come up with:

The software maker will use the Recommended section of the Start menu, which usually shows file recommendations, to suggest apps from the Microsoft Store.

“This will appear only for Windows Insiders in the Beta Channel in the US and will not apply to commercial devices (devices managed by organizations),” says Microsoft in a blog post.

The app promotions can be disabled in the Settings section of Windows 11, but it appears that Microsoft will enable these by default.

Microsoft is seeking feedback on the changes, so it’s possible the company could decide to ditch these ads in development builds of Windows 11 if there’s enough feedback that suggests they’re not going to be a popular addition.

Microsoft started testing ads inside the File Explorer of Windows 11 last year before disabling the experiment in beta versions of Windows 11.

Microsoft has been experimenting with ads inside Windows for more than 10 years.

The original article contains 222 words, the summary contains 152 words. Saved 32%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

It's like they want to go out of business

This is amusing. They might as well replace the wallpaper with an ad.

Maybe this is why you can't have a toolbar on the taskbar, to force you into the start menu more.

The wierd part is, if i think about my star menu usage in win10, there hardly is one. The important programs are on the task bar. The Startmenu isn't as much needed as used to be. Still sucks though.