It's advertising. Smack bang in the middle of the OS you paid hundreds for.

Any advertising that's badmouthing another product is shady. I don't know what advertising you've been seeing that's so much worse.

‘Are you still drinking coffee brand A? Try coffee brand B!’ Seems almost comically benign, 50s-style advertising to my ears.

If Microsoft had run that ad in the usual places accessible to everyone that can afford it there would not be much outrage.

Imagine if the real estate company that built your house installed speakers that talk about how much better the furniture also made by that company is every time you installed IKEA furniture.

Doesn't still make it okay.

One of the many reasons why I hate Windows 10. Just get out of my way and let me use my computer how I want.

I'd put on my "smug Linux user" hat but to be honest my distro of choice (Ubuntu) has Amazon search integrated by default. The only saving grace is that it can be easily, completely, and permanently removed with just a couple of commands.

Seriously considering a Macbook for my next computer at this point.

That amazon integration is finally being removed!

https://fossbytes.com/ubuntu-20-04-lts-drops-amazon-web-app/

Why is Ubuntu your distro of choice then? No need to throw the baby out with the bathwater by buying into Apple's walled garden.

Because Ubuntu is still the closest you get to "it just works" for Linux Desktops. (Not claiming you actually get there, just close).

I think this is quite a misconception. I've used Ubuntu for years and it basically broke on me with every major version upgrade.

I have never ever hat a Fedora system bail out on me in that manner and I have multiple PCs. My Dad and my Grandma's friends also use Fedora and they have yet to manage to break it and they are allowed to install software.

Apple isn't without their own problems: https://imgur.com/a/PFRlJMB

Not as egregious as what MS is doing, but I set my default browser away from Safari on purpose, thanks.

I think every browser does this. Firefox asks the same thing.

On iOS, you may choose any browser you like... as long as it's Safari.

The only contention here is MS adding it to Start bar; not just when you're inside FF w/ a separate default. Leveraging the more power.

My "smug Linux user" hat made me install Arch Linux on my private desktop. Still using ubuntu on my laptop and windows (urgh) at work. But also strongly considering Macbook for my next laptop.

The amazon stuff was always easy to remove and didn't keep coming back. Also, nothing stops you from using a lighter-weight desktop, like lxde or i3wm, if that's your priority.

This comment seems to be the mail order equivalent of the "they can't legally make you stay after the bell rings in class" kid at school.

There are laws in the UK because of a historical scam, where a company mails you something you didn't order, then - perhaps months later - bills you for it at a ridiculous price.

You know, mail out $20 sets of headphones with no return address, then bill people $500 a few months later.

Yeah, it's the same reasoning for these laws here in the US.

It's mind boggling that they continue to make life so difficult for paying customers when it's possible to go to a site like Pirate Bay and get a bit-perfect rip in less than 15 minutes without Hollywood making a single penny.

Just let me buy DRM-free movies and download them to my NAS - and without all the tracking bullshit!

Is it though? I have never seen a bit perfect rip on tpb. I have paid for sketchy software to have access to blu-ray ripping software to get around this while trying to play with high bitrate material and understand a bit more about it. 25 GB is the smallest a blu ray gets, with most being 50 GB (and potentially up to 300 GB, though I have not seen this personally). UHD blu ray goes from 50 GB to 100 GB. No one is ripping these things, and certainly no one is seeding them, and most certainly no one is leeching them. Maybe on private trackers. I wouldn’t know.

>No one is ripping these things, and certainly no one is seeding them, and most certainly no one is leeching them.

I searched for 'remux' (which means original video+audio data, no quality loss) on the rarbg site mentioned in another reply to your comment. People are definitely ripping, seeding and downloading them.

I wouldn’t say no one is seeding/leeching those things. You can find plenty of remuxes on rarbg (a public tracker), and they’re well seeded a few days after release (after the initial influx of leechers are gone) up to a few months later (before people start deleting it from their machines).

There are plenty of sources that provide so-called remuxes of BR content, which usually are sufficiently high bitrate.

Which is fine and well. "Good enough" is a soft target and blu-ray transcodes are higher quality than every other option (except for the blu rays themselves). My point was that if you want the highest available quality, physical media is still the most available and convenient way to get it.

Torrenting is sadly impractical in some countries :/

Ubuntu takes all of about 10 minutes to install a full blown desktop and Just Works™ based on my recent experience. Not to take anything away from the amazing tweakability and customizability of Arch, but the target audience is completely different.

I use the anarchy distro to help me through the installation. It doesn't change the fact you need to understand the underlying installation process, but reduces the installation time to several minutes. There is also arco linux for a more user-friendly interface

The out of the box crowd can always use Manjaro.

I bought a DEC MicroVAX on ebay a few years ago and the seller lived in Swindon. I passed through the Magic Roundabout on the way there and the way back (during rush hour). Having never encountered anything like it before it was... Well, I'd love to tell you a horror story, but to be honest it was all very logical and flowed very well.

To be fair this exact behaviour has been happening since pretty much day 1, Google no longer being run by engineers is a very recent development.

The difference now is gate keeping. Prior behavior did leave one to make choices.

Google made their favored ones easy.

Now that fails to deliver expected results. Too many people not making the choices Google would have them make.

The Fastmail app is very good, for example.

Not just the constant notifications but it even shows messages on the lock screen!

Seems you have your answer right there. Time to get hacking!