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Comment by vunderba | Hacker News Reader

> We care deeply about developers. We know we have work to do on the experience, both on the everyday usability, from inconsistent dialogs to power user experiences.

With respect, that's a load of horse crap. This is NOT why so many of your users are upset. They're angry because you've exhibited a long, deliberate pattern of historical abuse: upgrade-style dark patterns, invasive telemetry, advertisements built into Windows, and outright hostility toward users who want to own their OS rather than the other way around. God damn.

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Understood, we'll improve the wording when we nag you about buying OneDrive. /MS

Describing the situation this way is just part of the pattern.

You show them too much respect!

Exactly. I simply don't trust Microsoft enough anymore to choose them as my computers operating system provider. Windows just doesn't feel like something you should do private stuff with due to all that telemetry/data collecting.

If a company says the "care" about something in a public statement (or that something is 'important' or 'our top priority'), its because the opposite is true and the public is unhappy about it. But instead of changing, the easier thing to do is to pretend and gaslight.

Those are not real concerns. People upset about those are not upset for a logical reason, so you will never appease those user by updating the operating system.

People will complain about ads, but when you actually take a look what they are complaining about it is not actually an ad. People just hear a complaint and repeat it without any critical thought.

It's better to instead focus on actual tangible problems and pain points that developers and users are hitting.

> when you actually take a look what they are complaining about it is not actually an ad

https://www.windowslatest.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Sta...

Opera Browser [Promoted]

https://www.ghacks.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/file-explo...

Buy OneDrive for $6.99 a month

Do you think these aren't ads?

I would consider the first one to be an ad, but you could disable it and it seems to have only rolled out to a small number of users for a short period of time because it's hard to find many instances of this existing. It's certainlynot on my machone. Yet, you'll probably still see people complain about this. The windows team can't remove something they already have.

The second I would not consider an ad, but an upsell.

An upsell is a FUCKING AD and has no business existing, period.

Nothing should appear on a user's screen that doesn't add value for what the user is trying to get done. This is really, really simple. If you are Microsoft, and you are thinking about whether something should appear on the screen, you should be thinking "Does this advance the user's goals?". If you are instead thinking "Does this advance Microsoft's goals?", then you are doing it wrong.

The same applies to automagically configuring everything to use the cloud (good for Microsoft, usually bad for the user). And, as a special case of that, requiring the user to use a cloud-based account to log into their own local computer.

Cloud storage, and office suite software, does add value to what users are trying to get done with their computer.

The definition of ad you are using is not the common usage. For example if someone asked if ChatGPT had ads they would most likely say no, despite it upselling the subscription.

If they were in the OneDrive app in that screenshot, I’d agree with you. But they aren’t.

I doff my hat to you, good sir! Most excellent and subtle sarcasm, of a vintage not seen in these lands in many a long year! Bravo, sir, bravo!

The latest Windows has always been the worst for many. They tend to have nostalgic feelings to whatever Windows they used first.

I do share some of the complains but I feel like people get way too much upset about miniscule stuff.

I would rather have Microsoft fix the bugs and weird behavior of the Windows Explorer. I got used to it now after a year but would absolutely prefer a smooth experience for such a core feature.

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