So Microsoft is one of the most valuable companies in the entire world. They have a stranglehold on corporate America, power a huge the cloud infrastructure, hold one of the largest sources of telemetry/user data, and are the defacto standard of PC environments worldwide.
Why in the fuck do they need to pivot to ads? I’m genuinely curious. Even if they lost 50% of their entire business they would still be one of the most profitable companies in the world.
Because when you have shareholders, there’s no such thing as “we’re profitable enough”. Shareholders always demand more. Ads means more profit, at least in the short term. Next quarter profits are all that matter to public companies.
It’s obscene, but it’s the way it is.
I coincidentally installed Linux Mint today and I’m not going back.
Although not the same, this has been going on for about two years now. Jensen Harris, a former MS engineer, criticized the ads as well as the design of the new Start Menu, over here: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1564399431545667585.html
Weren’t they doing this as far back as windows 8?
If they could inject the ad’s into your veins, they would.
Exactly why the Brazilian and German governments are switching to linux machines
Which distro are the Germans switching to?
Can’t find out the flavor on any websites. It might be a custom one and I imagine sharing the info would be more of a security risk.
It won’t be a security risk once it’s in use, IT across Germany will know within days of deployment. It will almost definitely be a modified version of some probably well known Linux.
No sense in giving an adversary info on the distro before it’s fully implemented though I imagine. (I would consider that a head-start even if they heavily modify a popular distro)
Giving the See👁️Aye advanced notice wouldn’t be smart, no matter how they wanted to play it.
It won’t be a security risk once it’s in use
I agree
I don’t think it really matters whether a potential adversary has a ‘head start’ all that much, security through obscurity doesn’t work super well when it’s going to be deployed to thousands of easily accessible devices anyway. It’d only just be a defense in depth, but even then meh. But it’s neither here nor there, they’ll do it whatever way they feel is best.
Basically all of social engineering is to get exactly what you’re talking about, a “head start”
Go to their LinkedIn: does the head engineer have MySQL version X on his skills, resume, job description, etc? Maybe somebody even endorsed them for it? “Wow they are THE best database administrator”
Now you know who you need to hack for their database access AND what zero days to research.
ANY info will be an attack vector
Social engineering is to gain access circumventing downcode, not really “get a head start”…
Most attacks are entirely social engineering. You’re not breaking into secure databases by pulling ridiculous zero day backdoors when it’s much easier to convince an intern to download a file or give you access directly. These super involved attacks are state actors, and no amount of trying to hide what Linux version is being modified will do anything for you there.
State actors of course also use social engineering
Ultimately the point is hacking really doesn’t involve the kind of subterfuge you’re describing here in a way where " what Linux is it " matters at all. I mean, windows is used for secure systems across the world, it’s hardly secretive.
I keep seeing headlines like this all the time. I’m over here like “This has already been a thing for years”. Whenever I’d setup a win10 pc for someone, I’d have to clean the ads out of the start menu as part of the setup. So I ask again, how is this any different from the bullshit we’re already dealing with?
HOW MANY TIMES DO WE HAVE TO TEACH YOU THIS LESSON OLD MAN
Every time.
Because this old man hasn’t learnt the lesson…
We love a good call to arms, what more can be said
I know linux is likely the better option here, but for me I have two words…
Winaero Tweaker
It’s like they want to go out of business
The second Win 10 stops receiving security updates, it’s Linux for me.
I remember people saying the same thing with Windows 7
I switched from Win7 to Linux, but you are right, few stuck to their guns on that threat. My only Windows machine now is a work laptop that I have to use for some tasks. Admittedly, even Win 10 is looking good now compared to Win11. MS is doing a bang up job as being consumer antagonists.
I considered it before I switched from 7 to 10, but since 10 still makes it possible to create an offline account and disable most of the spyware and other bloat, I opted to stay with Windows for another generation of OS. 11 is different though, it’s several steps too far into proprietary hell.
Microsoft: how can we get even more money while enraging everyone?
This is pretty much how you destroy a good product. Hello Linux!
Cool
I’m learning more and more about Linux while using Linux Mint
It’s pretty cool NGL
asdfasfasf
The wierd part is, if i think about my star menu usage in win10, there hardly is one. The important programs are on the task bar. The Startmenu isn’t as much needed as used to be. Still sucks though.
If you have to stay on windows check out: https://github.com/Open-Shell/Open-Shell-Menu
I have been using it on my work laptop over a year. Nice piece of software 👍️
This looks like it is solving a different problem but also useful. If you are saying it is better to disable everything and keep the original start bar. I prefer disabling everything and keeping a consistent start bar style from yesteryear. Either way thanks for the link. I’ll added it to my tool list!
