This article just seems like rage bait to me, tricking the anti-Microsoft crowd into giving Ars clicks.

So many things get killed before they're launched, and I'm so sure this would test absolutely abysmally if it were introduced into any paid for version of their OS, it's almost silly to think they'd just slip this into Windows 11 Home or whatever.

Maybe it's part of a potential new "free OS" offering, where you get Windows 11 for free, but with ads. I don't think that's terrible. I think it's at least seeing if it would work, writing up some code to get a feel for how it looks, both technically and from a marketing perspective.

Just seems like a great way to get a specific crowd riled up about something that will never see the light of day in any meaningful sense that would affect that crowd.