Ads in the OS? That isn’t Microsoft’s idea, or even Apple’s (they have places they do it too). No, that was popularized by the mobile OS made by an ad company, Android.

Weirdly that I don't get any ads in Android.... My phone was made by the same ad company.

No? Try installing 1 app without seeing ads for 10 other useless apps.

Seeing ads/recommendations in app store is miles better than finding out your fresh Windows comes with Candy Crush Saga preinstalled.

As a recovering Candy Crush addict, that's the last thing I need.

Haven't installed an app in ages, but seeing an ad in a store isn't as bad as seeing an ad in my app launcher. And yes, windows puts ads in the start menu.

The store is part of the OS… if you say "no ads" and just exclude ads… that's kinda on you.

I mean yes, technically, but really no that's clearly not what was being objected to. Finding adds in arbitrary interfaces seems dystopian to me. Whereas having a discreet "suggested" or "promoted" tab or bracket for software in the app store - the place I go to get software - doesn't bother me. There are certainly ways they could screw it up but they don't seem to have done so yet.

Also as it happens I don't even see those because I exclusively use FDroid at this point. So ironically I see no ads when using a device designed and sold by an advertising company and haven't for years.

I install apps all the time without seeing an ad, because 90% of the apps I use are installed from F-Droid.

The apps I install from F-Droid often help me block ads in my browser, so I see very few ads as I use my phone day to day.

Meanwhile, my understanding is that Apple's App Store has ads in it, but that's the only app store allowed. So it seems like maybe iOS is the one that "has ads in the operating system".

fdroid is not part of android.

Right. But the query was whether I can install an app on Android without seeing ads. I can.

> Try installing 1 app without seeing ads for 10 other useless apps.

Not at all. The claim was that there are no ads on android.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44869520

Yeah, I'm not responding to that. I'm responding to your much weaker follow-up that I already quoted.

So you're replying ignoring context? Ok but discussions become kinda meaningless in this way.

Look, there are lots of us using Android and not seeing any ads. So we want to speak up when folks blab on about ads on Android. In reality, iOS and Windows and Android all have ads in their marketplace.

So if you want to have a substantive discussion, it should be centered around the places in the OS where ads are present, whether competing products have ads in similar locations in their OS, and whether those ads can be avoided, both on Android and on other platforms.

My contention is that Android ads are overblown, and generally Android has ads in all the same ways iOS does, and not any more than that. There are of customized versions of Android that add various anti-features, but that's not what I'm focusing on here: I'm focusing on a user's ability to avoid advertising.

But I'm arguing in good faith, and putting in effort to focus on the substantive user experience. I get the feeling you're in this to win some semantic battle with low-effort replies, so I'm going to disengage.

> Haven't installed an app in ages

I haven't used a phone in 10 years and surprisingly I haven't seen any ads on phones for years!

I was an insider user of Windows for close to a decade... the first time I saw an ad in the start menu search results, that's when I changed my default drive to Linux and have not looked back. I booted to windows on that system twice since (firmware updater). I don't have a Windows drive on my current desktop at all, and my personal laptop is a Macbook. My work laptop is Windows though, the down side is the environment is so locked down, I can't even run WSL or Docker.

Samsung installs a bunch of 3rd-party game apps with every system update. At least they tell you they did and offer to tell you which apps they added.

Samsung doesn't build the OS, but they control it on your device.

On old devices samsung just adds an overlay with ads. I've had to factory reset and keep them not updated.

Is it a regional thing? I've never seen that happen.

Ubuntu had ads in the terminal in 2022: https://linuxiac.com/ubuntu-once-again-angered-users-by-plac...

Unless you're going to call letting users know they have access to onedrive for free an "ad", Microsoft didn't do anything until Windows 11 in 2024.

https://www.pcmag.com/news/microsoft-pushes-start-menu-ads-t...

Windows 10 is still too fresh in people's mind to gaslight people into thinking there were no ads in it.

2012: https://web.archive.org/web/20121004004109/http://community....

2015: https://web.archive.org/web/20151015182852/http://betanews.c...

2015: https://www.pcgamer.com/windows-10-solitaire-requires-a-subs...

2016: https://www.howtogeek.com/243263/how-to-disable-ads-on-your-...

2016: https://web.archive.org/web/20160602204008/http://iskandar.m...

2017: https://web.archive.org/web/20250721092516/https://www.theve...

2018: https://www.thurrott.com/windows/windows-10/192251/microsoft...

2020: https://winaero.com/wordpad-is-gettings-ads-in-windows-10/

Ubuntu was basically promoting a free benefit to home users. This doesn't seem unreasonable.