Microsoft Targets Chrome Users With Windows 10 Pop-up Ad (pcmag.com) 172
Google Chrome users on Windows 10 are apparently being treated to a new experience: a pop-up ad. From a PCMag report: If you have Chrome installed and the icon present on the Windows Taskbar, chances are you're going to start seeing a pop-up advert appear suggesting you install Microsoft's Personal Shopping Assistant Chrome extension. Microsoft touts it as "Your smart shopping cart across the web." Opting to install the extension results in Microsoft monitoring which products you've searched for and viewed while using Chrome, and then offering to compare those products to find the best price. There's also alerts when prices change, and the ability to track products across all your devices. Of course, Microsoft will make money if you opt to purchase any products using the Assistant.
Windows 10 makes computers Great Again! (Score:4, Funny)
I think Windows 10 is awesome! It walks right up to your computer and grabs it by the pussy, and I think that'll make computers Great Again! You should all stop using that 'linux' thing you all keep jabbering on about and just use this instead!
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Once again, anyone who adopted Windows 10 is naive beyond belief. I hope they enjoy their further ads and spyware.
I logged in to became an insider to run Win10 6 months before it's public release. While downloading I read the Tos, they were out of their minds to think I would of allow them to do this to my computer. The same Tos used by the public now.
I had to log into win10 this weekend to set up an account, I haven't had access to Hotmail in many years (8?) yet before they locked it up I had set my email to be forwarded to Gmail, and as problem downloading Win8 - seeing if logging in would help (it did).
My logging in
Wait who's computer is it again? (Score:4, Insightful)
Just yet another reason to uninstall Windows 10.
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The OS and applications define what it does. Hint, hint.
Re:Wait who's computer is it again? (Score:4, Insightful)
Recall this old anti-Linux quote: Linux is only free if your time is worth nothing.
The "free" Windows 10 upgrade sure seems positioned for exactly that type of criticism.
Re:Wait who's computer is it again? (Score:5, Funny)
BSD: Free as in Speech
Linux: Free as in Beer
Windows 10: Free as in Herpes
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You forget something important in that Windows 10 isn't free anymore if you didn't take advantage of the 1 year window. So its more like:
BSD: Free as in Speech
Linux: Free as in Beer
Windows 10: Free as in full price expired meat.
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As an Australian I do often wonder where it is you get free beer from.
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As an Australian I do often wonder where it is you get free beer from.
You download the code and compile it for yourself...
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I don't have experience with OpenBSD and NetBSD, but for FreeBSD, dual-booting with Linux should be relatively straightforward.
I guess your issue is a mismatch between BIOS/MBR and EFI/GPT partitions tables. In "guided" partitioning, FreeBSD uses GPT exclusively. If you had installed Linux first on a MBR, it won't work and you have to go in manual partitioning. You only need a single partition (FreeBSD calls them slices), and then you can sub-partition that slice (typically for a simple setup, a few GB in /
Beer? (Score:3)
BSD is free like the Grimm fairytales.
Sometimes you're shared the stories and you're allowed to reshare them, e.g. from Gutenberg. Sometimes you're not. E.g. from Disney.
BSD gives you the freedom to take it, modify it, distribute it and not allow the recipient the same benefit.
"Free as in beer" doesn't imply the knowledge nor right to start a brewery and produce your own. It's ridiculous to say Linux is free as in beer.
Re:Wait who's computer is it again? (Score:4, Insightful)
Just yet another reason to uninstall Windows 10.
While I agree, I get just as pissed at Google that I have to close a advertisement for Chrome any time I use gmail or youtube for the first time from a new browser. It would be one thing to use the normal ad space to hawk their own stuff, but no, they have to be more intrusive.
Re:Wait who's computer is it again? (Score:5, Informative)
My wife is also getting notices from somewhere in Windows 10 that her Chrome is eating up her battery and using Edge would reduce battery consumption by 50%.
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As am I, and notices about Edge being faster than Chrome. I have seen no way to turn them off, and they are quite obnoxious.
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Just yet another reason to uninstall Windows 10.
Bingo. I really don't want my OS to advertise its particular brand of crap to me.
Re:Wait who's computer is it again? (Score:5, Insightful)
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This. Totally.
Its not like the backwards compatibility that MS waste massive amounts of resources on maintaining actually works well in real life anyway.
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Wow thank goodness Captain Anal is here to save us all from the dangers of possible slight misunderstanding.
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I suspect that Microsoft no longer considers normal people as their primary customers, at least as far as Windows goes. The only ones who fit that description are corporate clients, who can nearly always turn all this sort of nonsense off. For instance, we use Windows 10 + Chrome at my current employer, and I never see stuff like this. Apparently, everyone else is just an opportunity to be "monetized", or to act as corporate beta testers for the latest breaking Windows updates.
As sad as all this is, ther
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>> As a videogame developer, for starters, Windows is my primary market.
Don't you game developers realise that YOU'RE the ones making a rod for your own back here?
Seriously the way most of you continue to not also make Linux versions of your product leaves me with little sympathy for when y'all whine about windows.
If not for my gaming addiction, I wouldn't even have a Windows partition. I already do everything else under Linux. I've been hoping for for decades (literally) for game developers to fina
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He's still got $MegaBillions of Microsoft stock (which I'm sure he doens';t wanna see get devauled) but you're right he probably is little more than just the biggest shareholder now. Apparently he still is, even though he's been offloading MS stock for years. He's just doing it slow enough to not damage the market value for it. I guess he knows something we don't.
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Would be kind of hard to play the AAA games that are the only reason I have a Windows 10 machine if I did that.
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Just want to add a note here that my parent comment keeps getting modded down as -1 troll, even though its currently at +5). I've also noticed that anything anyone writes that even slightly criticizes Windows, no matter how logical or well-reasoned, also suffers the same.
I can only conclude that a) there's a whole bunch of rabidly hardcore Windows fanbois on here that dont understand what "troll" actually is, and are incorrectly modding on emotion rather than content, and/or b) Microsoft are performing soc
Punch the monkey! (Score:5, Funny)
Opera (Score:5, Funny)
And this is exactly why I run Opera! Everyone just pretends it doesn't exist.
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I've been running Opera since it was paid and the only browser in town with a tabbed interface... though I'm considering switching to Vivaldi I haven't checked recently but I think they finally have extensions.
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My main issue with Vivaldi is performance. I have it on my development machine for casual testing. The in-frame rendering is great, because it is the same Webkit based code as the other browsers, but the UI itself is absolutely sluggishly slow in comparison. Maybe that's been fixed recently, but over the first year of usage with it, that was also an issue on my testing rig.
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Originally it wasn't really feature complete after looking at it today it has extensions... I did notice the default setting had extra junk turned on and after installing an adblocker, turning off the diagnostic reporting, fiddling with privacy settings, changing up the theme, switching the startpage to a solid color background instead of an image and few other tweaks it appears to work much smoother.
Re:Opera (Score:5, Funny)
I run Oprah, sometimes it gets bloated, but then it slims down again.
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I run Oprah, sometimes it gets bloated, but then it slims down again.
Lol.
if I had mod points they'd be yours.... :)
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I'm impressed you can get Oprah to run, all I can get is a little bit of running, then it crashes hard.
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I'm impressed you can get Oprah to run, all I can get is a little bit of running, then it crashes hard.
The main problem I have is all the pop-up ads telling me I've won a car.
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Only problem I have with Opera is the fact that it is supper aggressive about "guessing" what you mean.
When I type something in the address bar, I want it to be literal, if there is a mistake or the domain doesn't exist, then I want to know that. Don't just guess or assume that I meant something else.
I know that all browsers do this to some extent these days, but Opera seems to be especially bad. Especially about local domain names or IP address entries.
Great business plan (Score:5, Funny)
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Innovation (tm)!
Is this method patentable?
Been happening for weeks now (Score:5, Informative)
I have all major browsers installed on my Windows 10 desktop at home. I use them for different purposes.
Whenever I launch Firefox or Chrome, I get a tooltip style pop-up above the Edge icon on the task bar which states that Edge is some % more secure than whatever browser I am launching.
It would do it every time too... not just on the first launch. Because of this, I unpinned Edge from the task bar... I think you could also turn off a setting but unpinning worked... so I didn't look further.
Pretty annoying. I also am pestered by ads in Bing search results to use Edge. It's like I am being punished for living in the MS ecosystem....
The thing is Google is no better. Every time I go to one of their properties in a non-Chrome browser, I get pestered to use Chrome....
It's just a new level of crap I have to ignore.
Re:Been happening for weeks now (Score:5, Insightful)
The thing is Google is no better. Every time I go to one of their properties in a non-Chrome browser, I get pestered to use Chrome....
It's just a new level of crap I have to ignore.
Actually Google *IS* better, because at least you're choosing to go to one of their sites and they pester you to use chrome, Windows is pestering you when you use chrome to go to google. If Mircrosoft wants to pester you when you visit Bing, fine, but that's not what they're doing.
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Actually Google *IS* better, because at least you're choosing to go to one of their sites and they pester you to use chrome
The only reason this isn't an issue on ChromeOS is because Edge doesn't run on it.
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"The thing is Google is no better"
I wish more people saw this like this. Many will defend the behavior when it's a service they use and or like, while bashing the competitor.
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Google isn't the operating system....huge difference
Re:Been happening for weeks now (Score:5, Informative)
I see no difference. Both are using their products to advertise their own stuff, and both are not necessary for survival.
The "it's not as bad because it's not an OS" is one of the poorest excuses I have encountered for anything.
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Especially since Google have an OS, and that OS is tied into its services, and if you manage to run those services on an alternate browser you would get an advertisement. Essentially this would be no different.
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You don't HAVE to use Google....
AN Operating system is needed. ANd if you want to play games or run major business software, that means Windows
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Yeah, seeing Google ads requires you to explicitly visit their web site each time. Windows 10 is perpetually spying and popping ads at any time. I'm not sure how anyone can't see the difference unless they have a vested interest in Microsoft or something.
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And using your computer requires you to turn it on first, just like turning on the browser, still no difference. They are both still doing ads in their own stuff, and it is avoidable. Whether you choose to do that is on you.
Spying? Wasn't that the mantra almost 2 years ago? I guess you have some logs or some other information that the rest of the world hasn't found or seen yet?
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And using your computer requires you to turn it on first, just like turning on the browser, still no difference. They are both still doing ads in their own stuff, and it is avoidable. Whether you choose to do that is on you.
The act of turning on my own computer is not explicit consent to show me ads and spy on me. When I visit someone else's web site, that is an entirely different matter and the amount of data that they can actually collect from me is very limited.
Spying? Wasn't that the mantra almost 2 years ago? I guess you have some logs or some other information that the rest of the world hasn't found or seen yet?
The burden of proof isn't on me or any other user, it's on Microsoft.
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In science the burden of proof is on the one who posits a belief. Microsoft has come right out and said that their spyware is fully encrypted and contains no user identifying information. Where is their proof of this?
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You know, I do get pestered with Google ads all the time in my new Android phone. Really creepy stuff like "Hey, we saw you visited this store, answer our questions..."
Can't say I ever saw those types of things on my MS phone that I used for years.
So, yeah, they all are using their bully pulpits to try to get us to do stuff.
Re:Been happening for weeks now (Score:4, Interesting)
I can give Google a pass because Android is open source and there are true alternatives. My phone runs Bliss ROM and has no ads or Google apps.
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Yeah I give Microsoft a pass because my computer can run hack together all sorts of software and settings to make it bearable. That's what you were saying right?
Because comparing an after market ROM to Android is like comparing Apples to Androids, unless that is you're breaking the terms of use of the Play Store and relying on people hacking together APKs to get your phone to act like a real Android phone.
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I have no idea what it is that you are trying to say, but it sounds like a load of bad excuses.
My phone runs an Android variant that, by choice, contains no Google apps or ads or spyware. It can do anything that any other Android phone can do. What more do I need?
If Windows 10 were open source, I would give Microsoft a pass too. It, however, is not open source and therefore it is a completely different matter.
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I have no idea what it is that you are trying to say, but it sounds like a load of bad excuses.
What I'm trying to say is that there is zero legally compliant ways that you have an Android phone with an after market ROM that in any way behaves like other Android phones. Unless you have none of the Google apps including the play store, and as such are also missing core components of the modern OS like the ability to have an up to date version of WebView.
Google doesn't get an open source because of people's inability to actually release an Android phone that acts like every other Android phone without a
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There is nothing illegal about using a custom ROM. Nor is there a problem choosing whether to install GApps or not. Personally, I don't use them and I haven't needed them.
I have no idea where you got the idea that it's somehow illegal.
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No, they're just 90% of everything else most people do.
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True enough. I am not going to lie, I am pretty complacent and somewhat lazy. I suppose I am an average American.
That said, my livelihood is basically based around MS products so there's that.
Scareware (Score:1)
It also pops up an ad saying Edge is safer than Chrome.
Narcissistic corporate outlook (Score:1)
Another tone deaf offering from Microsoft.
This is great, we are great! Think how much this will improve our bottom line! The people will want to hear about this right away, there is nothing obtrusive about forcing popup ads.
Need more info - (Score:5, Funny)
Is this a one time thing, once a day, week, month? Does it show up on enterprise installs?
It shouldn't be appearing AT ALL - but if it's a one time thing to show a new "feature" (cough, spit) I can begrudgingly acknowledge it.
But this proves to me that the entire point of Windows 10 was not to ease computer usage or make it easier for me to get my work done or do more work but to turn all windows machines into store fronts for Microsoft.
"Hi I'm clippy - I see you're trying to write a Word Doc and haven't typed for a few minutes - Would you like to buy a Red Bull - it gives you wings? YES, RIGHT NOW | SPECIFY DELIVERY TIME | CHOOSE A DIFFERENT DRINK"
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Is this a one time thing, once a day, week, month? Does it show up on enterprise installs?
It shouldn't be appearing AT ALL - but if it's a one time thing to show a new "feature" (cough, spit) I can begrudgingly acknowledge it.
Just no. A thousand times, no. Even a "one time thing" is a NO, because there are an unlimited number of "one time deals" that can be shown. If you're okay with a one time deal, are you okay with a brand new "One Time Thing" every 10 seconds? If not, you're just setting the goal posts to an acceptable level of crap, that your PAID FOR operating system is throwing in your face, while you are working/playing/browsing the web. Any level that is accepted will be pushed past, to an unacceptable level.
Zero
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One more demonstration that I appear to have done the right thing by installing 7 on my shiny new HP laptop four months ago.
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"Hi I'm Cortana - I see you're trying to write a Word Doc and haven't typed for a few minutes - Would you like to buy a Red Bull - it gives you wings? YES, RIGHT NOW | SPECIFY DELIVERY TIME | CHOOSE A DIFFERENT DRINK"
FTFY. Cortana is the new Bob.
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"But this proves to me that the entire point of Windows 10 was not to ease computer usage or make it easier for me to get my work done or do more work but to turn all windows machines into store fronts for Microsoft."
It took THIS LONG for you to figure that out?
The rest of us recognized it before M$ even released it....
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Just as the PS3 was a Sony retail store in your living room.
It's the new model - we just have to decide if whether or not it's worth having this crap in our lives. Personally, I pushed broadcast and cable TV out of my life because of the advertising content, half the computers in my house already run Linux, if the ads from Microsoft continue to get injected into our lives, their entire ecosystem can go the way of our cable box.
More proof that win 10 is malware (Score:5, Insightful)
One of the most annoying forms of PC based malware has long been adware. It is now new to have adware being bundled with applications, only to be found and removed by the better antivirus products. Now that MS bundles adware in Win 10, those poor fools with win 10 are stuck with this malware. On the positive side, it does make it insanely easy to show people just how bad and creepy Win 10 is and show that MS cannot be trusted.
Re:More proof that win 10 is malware (Score:5, Interesting)
Microsoft seems to arrogantly double down on everything people hate in Windows 10. Even if it was a great OS with awesome features and stellar usability (that's "if") I wouldn't want to use it at this point.
Sorry, but I prefer to, you know, own my own computer.
To be fair, though, smartphones and tablets are probably as bad or worse. Can we trust Android? iOS? Tell another joke.
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I understand the point of Android and Win10 but I'd prefer to pay some money and they being a regular, old-style OS, where the owner is king. You know, like Linux, Windows 7 and every "classic" OS. Hey, MS all I want from you is an OS.
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T'would be an excellent time for a new "I'm a Mac" ad.
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Spybot Anti-beacon. Tools to knock off a bunch of this crap are available as well.
Unfortunately "wasting everyone's time" isn't currently illegal in the same way that "ransoming your own data" is, so adware is and will remain perfectly legal for the foreseeable future, no matter how annoying it is.
There is rules against spam though, suggesting that if the advertisers take it too far we may eventually see some legal restrictions.. I just don't see it happening any time soon.
A pop-up ad for pop-up ads? (Score:2)
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Yo dawg, I... ah, screw it.
Fuck you Purple Gorilla (Score:2)
Comment removed (Score:3)
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Win 10 IS malware and adware, all bundled together
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Win 10 IS
That's a whole nother conspiracy theory.
Windows 10 (Score:2)
But it's "free" (except when it's not) (Score:4, Insightful)
For quite awhile, a lot of people seemed to have the "whatever, deal with it, that's the cost of a 'free' OS upgrade"
Except it was not a free upgrade for many people. More of a "I turned my computer on one day and WTF is this sh** where did my normal windows go and how do I get it back!"
And of course, on new PC's it comes with the cost of the PC, and some people also bought codes to install Win10 on home-built machine (which now anyone has to do if they want windows - as they've shelved Win7/8 - and the 'free' upgrade period is over).
So yeah, people paying hundreds of bucks for software that rams ads down their throat, direct from the manufacturer.
I've never seen any of this (Score:2)
Most of these annoyances are tied to the stupid defaults of Windows 10. As someone who has run a stock standard Windows 10 Pro with "Occasionally show suggestions in start" unticked, and all switches turned off in the privacy settings I've yet to see a single example of any of the stuff constantly mentioned here on Slashdot.
Does this not affect the Pro versions, or is it dependent on these settings?
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Probably mostly dependent on settings, though its possible that Pro has some of the worst ones turned off.
I don't see any of this crap either but then I turn off everything I can find and I use Spybot Anti-beacon to turn off a bunch more stuff that's not as easy to find.
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Spybot Anti-beacon
Oh thanks for this. Will look into it.
Windows 10 which edition? (Score:2)
I don't really love Microsoft or Windows. Actually I am professionaly an Linux Support Specialist so mind you.
I use Windows 10 and all browsing I am doing on Windows is from Chrome. I have never seen any ad on my Windows 10 nor any nagging to use MS Edge. Maybe it is related to the fact that I am using Pro version of Windows? Or what? I read all that Windows 10 bashing and quite frankly I find it better than Windows 7...
A serious question from an outsider (Score:2)
1 Question.... (Score:2)
How do I block this? (Score:3)
I see a dire need for a subscription service that stays on top of blocking all the shit that MS seems to think that they can infest our computers with. I didn't buy my computer to be a MS advertizing machine. I bought it to work. I have cut all forms of media that I can that advertize at me out of my life. No radio, no TV, adblock, I even hate roadside signs.
I literally was thinking of moving to a city I recently visited because they banned all but the smallest of outdoor signs. Certainly nothing that was like the eyeball melting LED signs that are at every major intersection in any city where the government hates the people.
So I switched to MS for visual studio. But I am 100% leaving if I see more than one or two popups like this. Definitely a 3 strikes and windows is off my machine.
Re:How do I block this? (Score:5, Informative)
That is my only question. How do I block this? I see a dire need for a subscription service that stays on top of blocking all the shit that MS seems to think that they can infest our computers with.
Settings > System > Notifications and Actions > "Get tips, tricks and suggestions as you use Windows" to Off
You can send me $5/month to my Paypal account linked to my Slashdot Email if it makes the experience more fulfilling for you.
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You apparently bought the wrong product.
My ask here is that Google blocks this extension. (Score:2)
PSA? (Score:2)
PSA stands for "Prostate Specific Antigen", and elevated blood levels of it can indicate the presence of cancer. Coincidence? I think not!
Microsoft's Malware Operating System? (Score:2)
I'm trying really hard to understand the difference between Malware and Windows 10 and..... so far I... well honestly... have not the faintest idea.
1. Malware tricks people into installing it.
Check..
2. Once installed it spies on users
Check and Check...
3. Malware monetizes its victims with ads and shit
Check..
4. Malware bundles other malware to financially reward the original malware author. ... and Check..
What is the difference? I'm not trying to be a smart alec, or bash Microsoft. This is an honest to god
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What is the difference? I'm not trying to be a smart alec, or bash Microsoft. This is an honest to god serious question.
My take on it, Malware is used to gain a profit in some manner and unwise for it' to be noticed. Microsoft has no need to hide their activity, as if you complain your shown the tos they had agreed to
malware in unwelcome, Microsoft was invited to do what they want by agreeing to their Tosl)
Read the Tos see what it allows them, it's insane.
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That's a valid concern - I anticipate increasingly aggressive practices from them (and others). People were tricked into installing W10 via misleading dialog boxes - Microsoft are yet to apologise meaningfully for that, so why not use the same tactic on the opposition?
e.g. Edge popup - "Edge is SO much faster/more secure than Chrome. Proceed with deleting Chrome?" Options are 'Yes' or 'Later' (when you apply the MS Updates that you can't easily opt out of). Of course, the "no" option will be there in pale g
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Heh. They did that when Adobe recently pushed their Reader extension. I don't see why they wouldn't do the same for this one. Unless MS uses their control over OS internals to do an end-around on Chrome.
If they do that though, they're really asking for Google to retaliate in some manner (probably via litigation.) Its even somewhat open whether they'll try to litigate that anyway since MS is starting to tread pretty close to antitrust territory again if they're co-opting third party software to promote t