Microsoft is testing Game Pass ads on the Settings homepage - gHacks Tech News
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Microsoft launched a new build to the Windows 11 Insider Dev channel on Friday and with it comes a Game Pass ad in Settings.

Microsoft’s announcement: “We are introducing a new Game Pass recommendation card on the Settings homepage. The Game Pass recommendation card on Settings Homepage will be shown to you if you actively play games on your PC. As a reminder – the Settings homepage will be shown only on the Home and Pro editions of Windows 11 and if you’re signed into Windows with your Microsoft account.”

  • *dust.sys@lemmy.worldEnglish
    48·
    2 months ago

    What kind of therapy do I go to if I’m in an abusive relationship with my Operating System?

  • kescusay@lemmy.worldEnglish
    25·
    2 months ago

    Ethically, if not legally, this is terrible, as are all other steps Microsoft has taken to force ads onto your computer.

    Seriously, think about it. You own the hardware, right? And the OS is present to run the hardware, right? To do that, it needs to be able to perform various tasks without your specific approval, and that’s fine, but using your bandwidth to download advertisements in the background, then using your computing cycles to force them in front of your eyes regardless of what you’re using the computer for, is awfully questionable. I would go so far as to say it’s a form of theft.

    And no, ads on websites aren’t comparable. You, the user, are actively opting to view a web page that carries ads. You are choosing to grant them access to your eyeballs and the resources used by your browser. But nobody is actively seeking to view ads through their operating systems, and they don’t get anything in return (such as the content you went to that website for).

      • lemmy_user_838586@lemmy.mlEnglish
        1·
        2 months ago

        This is what finally got me to switch to Linux years ago. Back when Virtual machines were relatively new I was messing around with them and hated having to scrounge for windows licenses to use in the VM’s. (Back then you had to enter the CD Key to begin installing the OS, they didn’t have trial periods, or ‘activate later’ options) started using Linux in VM’s to try it out, and boom 15 years later, I’m never going back.

  • qwertyqwertyqwerty@lemmy.oneEnglish
    131·
    2 months ago

    I’m still on Win10, but the second I see yet another ad on my pro license, I’m wiping the drive. As long as I have some kind of choice, I will not run hostile operating systems on my own hardware.

      • kennebel@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        2 months ago

        Over the last few months I’ve tried half a dozen Linux distros. PopOS has been the best so far for me. Plays the games, didn’t have to force the audio to work, and regular apps open way faster than even other Linux options, it is astonishing. I have used Linux on servers for ~30 years, and this is the first time I’ve been really comfortable on the desktop side.

        • Zron@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          2 months ago

          No, despite easy anticheat having Linux support, epic flat out refuses to enable support for Linux.

          It’s stupid and actively hostile to the Linux community

  • tubbadu@lemmy.kde.socialEnglish
    12·
    2 months ago

    Look at the corner between the four “paragraphs”… WHY? Please Microsoft align them properly

  • miridius@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    2 months ago

    For a community that loves Linux so much, Lemmy seems really obsessed with everything Microsoft does

    • Etterra@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      2 months ago

      Honestly if there was a Linux anything that I could just buy and install as easily as Windows, I’d totally be up for it because well I’m not completely tech illiterate, most of my computer knowledge comes from the '90s and early '00s when I was young. All I ever see about it online though is a bunch of conflicting tech speak that I just do not understand.

      • miridius@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        2 months ago

        Tbh you can actually quite easily buy a computer with Linux pre installed (ironically they cost more than the ones that come with windows though). I wouldn’t recommend it though, regardless of tech literacy. The problem is that Linux is like 70% easy and great, 20% frustratingly glitchy and unfinished, and 10% getting stuck on completely impossible problems that you will lose weeks of your life to before eventually concluding that no solution actually exists. Nothing ever quite just works, there’s always some caveat or minor issue and you end up chasing rabbit holes instead of actually using your computer to do what you wanted to do