7 ms·

It’s hard to believe that the loss of goodwill is worth whatever revenue Microsoft’s gaining from this, so I have to assume this is them dipping their toe into

It’s hard to believe that the loss of goodwill is worth whatever revenue Microsoft’s gaining from this, so I have to assume this is them dipping their toe into a strategy that attempts to make them more relevant to users. Maybe a reaction to the Windows app store’s lack of success? Thoughts?

jbigelow76 9y ago
I think it shows how little value Windows is to Microsoft anymore. Office 365 and Azure are where the money is at for the company now. I use Win 10 Enterprise at work so I don't have to worry about any of the Candy Crush or FB malware trash on my PC but no way would I buy a consumer Windows based laptop anymore.
- tjalfi 9y ago
  I use Windows 10 Enterprise at work and our image team had to specifically remove Candy Crush. It’s actually more annoying than that, the semiannual OS updates cause Candy Crush to be reinstalled.
  - paulryanrogers 9y ago
    This is very unprofessional. Sadly iOS suffers a similar fate with Bluetooth.
    - IshKebab 9y ago
      It, reinstalls Bluetooth?
    - urda 9y ago
      > Sadly iOS suffers a similar fate with Bluetooth. What are you talking about?
      - paulryanrogers 9y ago
        Updates re-enable Bluetooth regardless of the user's preference [0]. (Or did until newer versions, I haven't updated one in a while.) [0] http://finance.yahoo.com/news/this-is-why-apple-enables-bluetooth-every-time-you-80079149965.html http://finance.yahoo.com/news/this-is-why-apple-enables-blue...
        urda 9y ago
        Enabling a a core wireless radio feature != installing unwanted software.
        paulryanrogers 9y ago
        True, but I'd classify both as overriding explicit user preferences.
  - dboreham 9y ago
    Now if they installed Minecraft that might be ok ;)
m_fayer 9y ago
Using their products, you can so easily taste how Microsoft is trying to become an "ecosystem", a "lifestyle brand", a "platform", and so on, and to use their OS as the relentless foot in the door for getting there. To me it's another nail in the coffin of general purpose computing. We've accepted that mobile devices/OSs are not for general purpose computing and expect that they come with a "lifestyle" to hawk, now one of the major general-computing OSs is heading in the same direction.
- jbigelow76 9y ago
  Using their products, you can so easily taste how Microsoft is trying to become an "ecosystem", a "lifestyle brand", a "platform", and so on, and to use their OS as the relentless foot in the door for getting there. I think the irony of that statement is from Windows 3.1 and on Windows (25-ish years) was already THE defacto PC platform. I was a pretty big MS fanboy for a long time (and make my living with .NET and their developer tools). But MS's quixotic fetishization of their app store to me looks like dousing the legacy (no pun intended) of their platform with gasoline and lighting it on fire. Edit: format tweak
  - m_fayer 9y ago
    They don't want to be just a PC platform anymore. They're looking at Apple's high-end lifestyle brand and trying to get in on some of that. I wish they'd be happy with the organic brand they're building around XBox and Minecraft and all that, but kids and education just don't have the same money or cachet as the upper middle class and up consumer. And I'm no fanboy but boy am I a fan of .NET. So far it seems like that part of MS is well defended from this grossness, I only hope that holds up. Excuse the rant.
    - gcb0 9y ago
      they are going all wrong at that. people dont buy apple because of the walled garden or spyware or iphoto bugs that expose your pictures. they buy apple despite all that. if microsoft can produce better and more innovative hardware, which they already did with the surface line, they could have kept windows xp model of online isolation and not only got the people that want the flashy hardware but also the people that want to actively avoid the online tie-in. instead they are doing the worst they could. you cant even use oneNote with your surface pen, I kid you not, without login in to a live.com account! and minesweeper is a 100mb app that you have to download from the store, and it have in-app purchases.
pjc50 9y ago
Well, they see Apple and Google and Valve getting a 30% cut of everything sold through their platforms, so that's clearly where they want to go. Their first attempt - GFWL - was sufficiently horrible that everyone is wary of them doing it for games.
gambiting 9y ago
I'd say Windows is like 4th or 5th on their list of priorities right now. It's all about Azure, nothing else matters.
- mywittyname 9y ago
  Which is ironic because doing literally nothing to Windows besides security updates would be better than the "improvements" they've been making.
ma2rten 9y ago
I agree. I don't think it's evident that this is a bad user experience. They identified that many people would appreciate having Facebook notifications on their desktop, so they preinstalled the app and sent a notification to make people aware of it.

jbigelow76 9y ago

I think it shows how little value Windows is to Microsoft anymore. Office 365 and Azure are where the money is at for the company now. I use Win 10 Enterprise at work so I don't have to worry about any of the Candy Crush or FB malware trash on my PC but no way would I buy a consumer Windows based laptop anymore.

tjalfi 9y ago
I use Windows 10 Enterprise at work and our image team had to specifically remove Candy Crush. It’s actually more annoying than that, the semiannual OS updates cause Candy Crush to be reinstalled.
- paulryanrogers 9y ago
  This is very unprofessional. Sadly iOS suffers a similar fate with Bluetooth.
  - IshKebab 9y ago
    It, reinstalls Bluetooth?
  - urda 9y ago
    > Sadly iOS suffers a similar fate with Bluetooth. What are you talking about?
    - paulryanrogers 9y ago
      Updates re-enable Bluetooth regardless of the user's preference [0]. (Or did until newer versions, I haven't updated one in a while.) [0] http://finance.yahoo.com/news/this-is-why-apple-enables-bluetooth-every-time-you-80079149965.html http://finance.yahoo.com/news/this-is-why-apple-enables-blue...
      - urda 9y ago
        Enabling a a core wireless radio feature != installing unwanted software.
        paulryanrogers 9y ago
        True, but I'd classify both as overriding explicit user preferences.
- dboreham 9y ago
  Now if they installed Minecraft that might be ok ;)

m_fayer 9y ago

Using their products, you can so easily taste how Microsoft is trying to become an "ecosystem", a "lifestyle brand", a "platform", and so on, and to use their OS as the relentless foot in the door for getting there. To me it's another nail in the coffin of general purpose computing. We've accepted that mobile devices/OSs are not for general purpose computing and expect that they come with a "lifestyle" to hawk, now one of the major general-computing OSs is heading in the same direction.

jbigelow76 9y ago
Using their products, you can so easily taste how Microsoft is trying to become an "ecosystem", a "lifestyle brand", a "platform", and so on, and to use their OS as the relentless foot in the door for getting there. I think the irony of that statement is from Windows 3.1 and on Windows (25-ish years) was already THE defacto PC platform. I was a pretty big MS fanboy for a long time (and make my living with .NET and their developer tools). But MS's quixotic fetishization of their app store to me looks like dousing the legacy (no pun intended) of their platform with gasoline and lighting it on fire. Edit: format tweak
- m_fayer 9y ago
  They don't want to be just a PC platform anymore. They're looking at Apple's high-end lifestyle brand and trying to get in on some of that. I wish they'd be happy with the organic brand they're building around XBox and Minecraft and all that, but kids and education just don't have the same money or cachet as the upper middle class and up consumer. And I'm no fanboy but boy am I a fan of .NET. So far it seems like that part of MS is well defended from this grossness, I only hope that holds up. Excuse the rant.
  - gcb0 9y ago
    they are going all wrong at that. people dont buy apple because of the walled garden or spyware or iphoto bugs that expose your pictures. they buy apple despite all that. if microsoft can produce better and more innovative hardware, which they already did with the surface line, they could have kept windows xp model of online isolation and not only got the people that want the flashy hardware but also the people that want to actively avoid the online tie-in. instead they are doing the worst they could. you cant even use oneNote with your surface pen, I kid you not, without login in to a live.com account! and minesweeper is a 100mb app that you have to download from the store, and it have in-app purchases.

pjc50 9y ago

Well, they see Apple and Google and Valve getting a 30% cut of everything sold through their platforms, so that's clearly where they want to go. Their first attempt - GFWL - was sufficiently horrible that everyone is wary of them doing it for games.

gambiting 9y ago

I'd say Windows is like 4th or 5th on their list of priorities right now. It's all about Azure, nothing else matters.

mywittyname 9y ago
Which is ironic because doing literally nothing to Windows besides security updates would be better than the "improvements" they've been making.

ma2rten 9y ago

I agree. I don't think it's evident that this is a bad user experience. They identified that many people would appreciate having Facebook notifications on their desktop, so they preinstalled the app and sent a notification to make people aware of it.