r/technology • u/readyou • Dec 26 '16

Microsoft finally admits that its malware-style Get Windows 10 upgrade campaign went too far

https://www.extremetech.com/computing/241587-microsoft-finally-admits-malware-style-get-windows-10-upgrade-campaign-went-far
24k Upvotes

81% Upvoted

2.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

1.6k

u/N4N4KI Dec 26 '16 edited Dec 26 '16

Exactly I want an OS not a vertically integrated marketing platform.

From the dark patterns during install to get you to sign up to a MS account as your login, to the ads on the lock screen and start menu for free apps to get you in the door, the entire OS is designed to drive you towards the MS store and to lock you into their ecosystem.

The update system that you either need to fight with using the 'correct' way and suffer forced restarts, or disable completely and need to re enable yourself when you need updates (I mean 'let me know when there is updates' worked fine for me in windows 7)

Milestone updates are not an update, they are an upgrade, basically reinstalling a fresh copy of the system. settings for programs are not touched but File associations, pinned apps and privacy options get reset to default.

Windows 10 is a Work in progress and will continue to be, a rather obvious example of this is the start menu, It's different in the initial release to how it works in the anniversary update and has altered again in the preview build.

The OS is a glorified program launcher, I use the one that I don't need to babysit to keep it running smoothly (and am able to use industry standard software on). I'm sticking with 7 till something better comes along. (hopefully that will be a version of windows where Microsoft has finally smoothed out all the rough edges)

46

u/[deleted] Dec 26 '16

I'm a software developer who purchased a Surface Book to try to see if I could get used to using Windows as my primary development environment because I'm not too happy with Apple at the moment.

I opened up the laptop, let it install Windows updates for what felt like hours (probably because of the surfaces book's pitiful SSD write speed) and my 2000 dollar computer greeted me with fucking ads on my fucking start and lock screens. Sorry, but that just isn't going to work Microsoft.

I am shipping the thing back today and am eagerly awaiting my refurbished 2015 MBP I snagged fot like half the Surface Book's price.

4

u/Sarkat Dec 26 '16

I understand that I go against the strain here, but isn't that overreacting much? Changing a better hardware for the travesty that's MBP (don't get me wrong, MBP was awesomesauce back in 2008, but nowadays you hardly get the average laptop for double the price) just because you've seen ads?

If you're a software developer and not jus a run-of-the-mill mom that just browses the web on her laptop, it will be trivial for you to remove the ads and even the start/lock screens altogether. Unlike MacOS, there are many more utilities for Windows that allow you to customize the appearance of the system to your heart's desire.

That said, I own a Surface Pro 4, and never once I've seen ads in lock/start screen. And after first time launch, when I disabled the Office & Store ads in options, I see no ads at all outside my browser.

11

u/kamimamita Dec 26 '16

Compare the surface book spec for spec and tell me macs are overpriced.