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plushpuffinon Microsoft uses malware tactics to foist Windows 10 on more PCs

It isn't the same popup, because Microsoft has continually changed it over the past year. They have done everything they can to ignore and circumvent user preferences during this whole process.

It started with OK and cancel, then changed to Upgrade Now and Upgrade Later, with the close button being the only way to decline. Now it is being pushed as an automatic upgrade with a deliberately small and unobtrusive cancel link instead of a prominent button. Also, if you are away from your PC, it will happen automatically.

Look at their own UI guidelines: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dn7...

Dialog boxes always have a Close button.

Don't disable the Close button. Having a Close button helps users stay in control by allowing them to close windows they don't want.

The Close button on the title bar should have the same effect as the Cancel or Close button within the dialog box. Never give it the same effect as OK.

Also, read this: http://blog.ultimateoutsider.com/2015/11/the-gwx-control-pan...

It does seem that, on more than a few occasions, Microsoft has gone out of its way to bypass workarounds people have found that disable the GWX app, from resetting registry settings to re-releasing KBs that were explicitly declined and hidden by users.

plushpuffinon Microsoft uses malware tactics to foist Windows 10 on more PCs

From the linked article:

If you're determined to avoid Windows 10 you've simply closed that pop-up by clicking the little X in the top right corner, by now it's probably second nature. This week Microsoft took advantage of this by changing the pop-up so that clicking the X to close it implies your consent to upgrade, tricking even more people into installing Windows 10 against their wishes.

plushpuffinon Microsoft uses malware tactics to foist Windows 10 on more PCs

To further your Chrome analogy, this particular browser update breaks some peoples' favorite sites, rearranges the UI they've grown comfortable with (but inconsistently), displays ads next to the navigation bar, includes a built-in unique advertising id, pushes sponsored extensions on users, deliberately makes it as hard as possible to change the default search engine (and periodically reverts to the default anyway), and is the last update they can choose to decline, after which all future updates will be forced on them, closing all tabs and restarting the browser whenever it feels like it.

Oh, and also, their choice to decline this particular update is being actively subverted using dark patterns to try to trick them into upgrading.

plushpuffinon Microsoft uses malware tactics to foist Windows 10 on more PCs

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3095675

This notification means your Windows 10 upgrade will occur at the time indicated, unless you select either Upgrade now or “Click here to change upgrade schedule or cancel scheduled upgrade”. If you click on OK or on the red “X”, you’re all set for the upgrade and there is nothing further to do.

plushpuffinon Robocalls have triumphed over the Do Not Call list

I tried Truecaller. I'm not sure if it automatically updated itself occasionally, but I found myself having to manually click the button to download the new list of blocked numbers.

I got tired of that and replaced it with Mr. Number, which seems to keep itself updated and allows me to ratchet up the blocking all the way to "everyone not on my contact list." That's not ideal, because I might miss calls from my credit card company, bank, etc, but the 2-3 scam calls I was getting every day were driving me crazy.

plushpuffinon AdBlock Plus teams up with Flattr to help readers pay publishers

Isn't there a network effect at play, though? People who can't read your article because of ad blocker blockers won't share it on social media. Sites that turn away some visitors will probably notice a dip in traffic greater than the number of ad-blocking users who were denied access.

This is the same reason Microsoft has historically been pretty lax about going after home users who pirate Windows; those users make Windows a more attractive market for software publishers, which in turn draws more users.

plushpuffinon After fifteen years of downtime, the MetaFilter gopher server is back

I'm not entirely sure what is going on with reader view on Firefox mobile, but sometimes it doesn't show the icon in the URL bar. However, if you open the hamburger menu and add the page to your reading list (the "book+" icon), then switch to the reading list and open the page from there, you can sometimes get reader view when it's not otherwise available.