That's exactly how it is.
Pretty certain that this Dilbert strip was based on Microsoft too, Dogbert's "Battlin' Business Units" management philosophy:
Some divisions change faster than others. And some old reputations are very hard to shake. But Microsoft isn't the company it used to be. There are other companies filling that role now. Example: Even though all you ever hear about is "Windows is spying on me!" I can name three big tech companies that probably know more about you than Microsoft does.
The 90's are over.
While this may change at any operating system update (It did for Win7 in a supposedly "security" update), my Mac seems to want to talk to Apple only to get AppStore updates, whereas Windows machines in my office want to talk to a lot of servers at Microsoft, and do so with hard coded IPs, and weird process names. Can you point to an Apple equivalent of this list? https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/04/micro...
My browser has a strict policy that tells Google, Facebook and Amazon exactly what I allow it to; that sometimes causes things to malfunction, and I can live with that. Can you tell me how to do that with Win10?
Oh, and, no, Fedora, Arch and even with Ubuntu's worst blunder in this respect, do not spy on me even 1:10000 as Microsoft does.
Yes. I have much more control* over what google and facebook can spy on. MS as the platform owner has the ability to spy on everything.
*Except for on android, fuck google now in particular.
I won't comment on Android. I already got ripped to shreds above by trying to bring up the point that mobile is completely locked into two major players that act exactly like Windows 10.
But damn, if I'm going to pay for my OS I want ZERO data collection and the option to never use stuff like Cortana (opt-in). And if that's too much to ask, why don't they release a more expensive Windows 10 Tinfoil Edition? You would still have to trust MS but at least you would have the legal right to dispute it (if they decide to do something shady).
I'm using Android and I have the same concerns about it. I gave my Lumia away because it doesn't have the apps that I need and, again, I had the same concerns. My time is limited so I have to pick my battles. Mobile is a lost cause.
So I decide to give feedback about one of the two desktop OSs that I use (Windows and Linux). I don't give a shit if Apple/Google is going to make you insert a coin every hour to use the OS, I would still complain to MS if they decided to do the same.
I don't even know exactly what's your point. Feel free to ask if I write Microsoft with a $.
My point, exactly, is that Microsoft is just another tech company these days. They're not the Evil Empire. At best, they are one of Many Evil Fiefdoms.
I understand that people are up in arms about data collection. And I understand that Microsoft tends to bungle any kind of public messaging about data collection. I'm just pointing out that every mobile OS, at least, collects tons of data.
And do you write Microsoft with a $? :)
> I understand that people are up in arms about data collection. And I understand that Microsoft tends to bungle any kind of public messaging about data collection. I'm just pointing out that every mobile OS, at least, collects tons of data.
Why do you keep talking about mobile when the subject of this thread and my original comment is about Windows Desktop OS? Should we talk about IoT too?
> My point, exactly, is that Microsoft is just another tech company these days. They're not the Evil Empire. At best, they are one of Many Evil Fiefdoms.
You're triggered because I mentioned the word "trust"? When data leaves your computer, it's all about trust. I don't trust anyone so I don't want my personal data leaking in the first place. Most of the time ("like in mobile") there's no viable, realistic, practical alternative.
If the money I paid for my Windows license is not enough they need to rethink their pricing. That's all I'm asking. Allow me to pay for my privacy. I would quietly leave your ecosystem if I could but congratulations, you have me locked in because of my job and certain network effects.
I'll happily concede this thread and apologize for having brought it up. I really wasn't trying to start a fight. I was trying to give what I thought was an analogous example.
But, it wasn't anywhere close to enough of an importance for Microsoft to abandon their data collection system just to go "all the way" with the whole open source thing. It seems like their privacy model is more important to them than whatever an open source model could bring them.
I tried Ubuntu on Windows 10, and found it too wonky. I switched over to running Xubuntu in VirtualBox!
It feels like there's different groups inside MS that are working from fundamentally incompatible premises
It's always been like this.
When friends want to use my desktop I change my DE to XFCE for a sec. I also still use the XFCE login screen (because it's easy to install, it works and you get per-user DE defaults).
I totally agree that it's massively inappropriate, but I do think that most people are imagining third-party advertising which is not what's happening - a lot of people might not consider the current situation to be an "ad" necessarily since it is pushing a subscription for OneDrive, a Microsoft product that you already have installed. It's more of an in-app purchase kind of offer.
In an operating system I paid $100 for. Unacceptable.
So who cares..
There is still one absolutely heinous crime though - your system comes preinstalled with Minecraft and Candy Crush (and a couple other bullshit softares), and if you uninstall them, Windows 10 will automatically reinstall them. You have to do esoteric shit in the registry editor to disable this. It infuriates me.
That was fixed in Creators Update: it now remembers uninstalled default applications.
MS definitely didn't make it easy to get it to stop harassing you.
On the one hand, they really seem earnest about wanting to make Windows 10 appealing to people like me who fled Windows for Unix-alike systems long ago. And steps like this show that they're not just addressing that at a shallow level, but are willing to dig deep to make it happen, which is sincerely encouraging.
But then on the other hand, they insist on loading Windows 10 up with privacy invasions you can't disable and ads in deeply inappropriate places like Windows Explorer, which is just a huge buzz-kill for the exact type of person who the other stuff is so clearly meant to appeal to. Which gives the whole effort a real Keystone Kops aspect.
It feels like there's different groups inside MS that are working from fundamentally incompatible premises, and Nadella either isn't willing or isn't able to wrangle them into all pulling in the same direction. I guess it's an improvement over the Microsoft of old to see the company's basic orientation go from "competent evil" to "incompetent good," but when you consider how few good things there are in the universe it's always sad to see a potential new one kneecapping itself.