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Avid Windows user here (yes, I know, and you know where the downvote button is: better: just email your YC contacts to ban me once and for all...), and I yet ha

Avid Windows user here (yes, I know, and you know where the downvote button is: better: just email your YC contacts to ban me once and for all...), and I yet have to see a single truly noticeable ad across any of my Windows installs. 'Promoted' start menu apps on a fresh install: sure. That's like Amazon Search on Ubuntu. Promotional text on the lock screen? Sure, once in a while. But it takes a LOT of effort to actually click on that. Desperate 'make this browser your default' prompts from Edge? Sure, every now and then, but since Firefox and Chrome do it as well, that's pretty much a muscle memory 'No' from me. Now, on my fully paid-for iPhone 13, I got an urgent notification from the Apple Store today. It made my phone buzz and my screen light up, while I was otherwise productively engaged. Apparently, there is a sale on. Apparently, I can't turn these notifications off. So, me, a lifelong Windows user, got distracted today by an ad. From Apple. Make of that what you will...

Macha 4y ago
Amazon search on Ubuntu was widely criticised also and has since been removed. Between that and Snaps, Ubuntu has lost the position as "recommended Linux distro for newbies" to the likes of PopOS and Manjaro, so it arguably wasn't consequence free either. Chrome and Firefox don't get the same ability to make sales pitches if you search for Edge, choose to download Edge, try to install Edge, or update your OS. Can't speak for the Apple store ad, I haven't seen it but I like in a market which is often thankfully overlooked by invasive marketing pushes like this, and I'm not even sure if what used to be the one Apple store in the country is still open.
- MostlyInnocent 4y ago
  > Chrome and Firefox don't get the same ability to make sales pitches if you search for Edge This is just plain false. If I open Edge and search Google for just about anything, there will be a prominent ad prompting me to switch to Chrome. Every. Time. I'm not sure where Firefox puts the focus for their ads (MDN? Fortunately, I don't need to visit that often or ever), but...
rewgs 4y ago
> Now, on my fully paid-for iPhone 13, I got an urgent notification from the Apple Store today. It made my phone buzz and my screen light up, while I was otherwise productively engaged. Apparently, there is a sale on. Apparently, I can't turn these notifications off. An app with the word "store" in its name giving you a notification for a sale is hardly the same as ads embedded in your Start menu or lock screen.
- MostlyInnocent 4y ago
  There was a notification on my lock screen. It buzzed my phone. It lit up my phone's screen. That's not intrusive, i.e. worse than some additional text on an UI surface that I already interact with?
  - rewgs 4y ago
    It's not intrusive because, contrary to what you think, you can very easily disable notifications for that app, just as you disable notifications for any other app in iOS. I have, and therefore I didn't get this notification that you mentioned, but if I open the app I can see a banner at the top of the app for the sale. Therefore I can assume that turning off the notification is indeed possible. And, I mean, it's an Apple Store app. The app is optional, you can uninstall it if you want; if you have it on your phone, it's not ridiculous to think that you'd want to be alerted to a sale. Ditto for Amazon, or Best Buy, or any other "store" app. It's for shopping, that is the soul purpose of the app. I'd even go so far as to argue that a shopping app giving you notifications for a sale is a good thing (because, if I presumably chose to install that app for the purpose of shopping there, why wouldn't I want to be aware of the fact that the products I presumably want to buy are cheaper?). IMO these aren't even really "ads," they're just notifications from an app doing exactly what it's designed to do. While ads can be delivered via a notification system, notifications and ads are not the same thing. However, multiple, persistent ads embedded into various places around the OS, with no clear way to remove them -- not to mention pre-installed third-party apps acting as their own advertisement (such as Candy Crush) -- are categorically different on a completely different level, but if you can't see that or don't care then more power to you I guess.
xboxnolifes 4y ago
> Promotional text on the lock screen? Sure, once in a while. But it takes a LOT of effort to actually click on that. Ads don't need to be clickable. Most ads aren't clickable.
MomoXenosaga 4y ago
How many people do you think are on HN who earn their paycheck because of advertising?

Macha 4y ago

Amazon search on Ubuntu was widely criticised also and has since been removed. Between that and Snaps, Ubuntu has lost the position as "recommended Linux distro for newbies" to the likes of PopOS and Manjaro, so it arguably wasn't consequence free either. Chrome and Firefox don't get the same ability to make sales pitches if you search for Edge, choose to download Edge, try to install Edge, or update your OS. Can't speak for the Apple store ad, I haven't seen it but I like in a market which is often thankfully overlooked by invasive marketing pushes like this, and I'm not even sure if what used to be the one Apple store in the country is still open.

MostlyInnocent 4y ago
> Chrome and Firefox don't get the same ability to make sales pitches if you search for Edge This is just plain false. If I open Edge and search Google for just about anything, there will be a prominent ad prompting me to switch to Chrome. Every. Time. I'm not sure where Firefox puts the focus for their ads (MDN? Fortunately, I don't need to visit that often or ever), but...

rewgs 4y ago

> Now, on my fully paid-for iPhone 13, I got an urgent notification from the Apple Store today. It made my phone buzz and my screen light up, while I was otherwise productively engaged. Apparently, there is a sale on. Apparently, I can't turn these notifications off. An app with the word "store" in its name giving you a notification for a sale is hardly the same as ads embedded in your Start menu or lock screen.

MostlyInnocent 4y ago
There was a notification on my lock screen. It buzzed my phone. It lit up my phone's screen. That's not intrusive, i.e. worse than some additional text on an UI surface that I already interact with?
- rewgs 4y ago
  It's not intrusive because, contrary to what you think, you can very easily disable notifications for that app, just as you disable notifications for any other app in iOS. I have, and therefore I didn't get this notification that you mentioned, but if I open the app I can see a banner at the top of the app for the sale. Therefore I can assume that turning off the notification is indeed possible. And, I mean, it's an Apple Store app. The app is optional, you can uninstall it if you want; if you have it on your phone, it's not ridiculous to think that you'd want to be alerted to a sale. Ditto for Amazon, or Best Buy, or any other "store" app. It's for shopping, that is the soul purpose of the app. I'd even go so far as to argue that a shopping app giving you notifications for a sale is a good thing (because, if I presumably chose to install that app for the purpose of shopping there, why wouldn't I want to be aware of the fact that the products I presumably want to buy are cheaper?). IMO these aren't even really "ads," they're just notifications from an app doing exactly what it's designed to do. While ads can be delivered via a notification system, notifications and ads are not the same thing. However, multiple, persistent ads embedded into various places around the OS, with no clear way to remove them -- not to mention pre-installed third-party apps acting as their own advertisement (such as Candy Crush) -- are categorically different on a completely different level, but if you can't see that or don't care then more power to you I guess.

xboxnolifes 4y ago

> Promotional text on the lock screen? Sure, once in a while. But it takes a LOT of effort to actually click on that. Ads don't need to be clickable. Most ads aren't clickable.

MomoXenosaga 4y ago

How many people do you think are on HN who earn their paycheck because of advertising?