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Microsoft sneaks ads into the new Outlook for Windows (www.ghacks.net)

submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

You can turn off Microsoft's ads, browser nagging, and data faucet, but as long as you are dependent on them for Windows Updates, that gives them an opportunity to undo your fixes and turn them back on.

FOSS has a similar problem in which the program author can sell out to a less-friendly entity, and when you update the software it starts misbehaving (see Audacity, Simple Mobile Tools, etc.)

This is why I use Debian stable branch. Disadvantages: outdated software (but still get security updates) Advantages: outdated software (but still get security updates) 😅

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

The thing is, people have been saying "you can turn off feature x" since at least 10 years now, and while that is true for a while, the operating system keeps getting shittier. There is no reason to keep using something like that unless you have to. :)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Agreed. I dual-booted years ago; start menu ads made me wipe the Windows, and Edging their way into people's computers made me realize how meaningless the antitrust lawsuit was.

It's a slow march toward subscription OS and when it's their computer, people probably won't be able to use the nice one-click registry hacks to remove the ads and spyware.

If there's anything particular about your Linux OS that you don't like, there's likely a different distro that does it the way you want, or dig in and learn how to change it.