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Don’t Apple and Ubuntu also advertise products in their OS also?

by xnyan 1y ago

Wololooo 1y ago
I have yet to see a single ad on either the menus on Ubuntu or in OSX. Care to elaborate on what you mean by that?
- petepete 1y ago
  A few times over the years Ubuntu included Amazon ads in the OS. Each time, afaik, the community reacted angrily and it didn't last.
  - michaelmrose 1y ago
    Once ever. The default search returned results from Amazon and local files potentially leaking your search intended to find local files to Ubuntu who in turn claimed that it was ok because potentially intensely personal info that could be inferred from queries weren't personally attributable to you. This was obviously not ok and it never happened again this was if I recall correctly around 2012.
    - petepete 1y ago
      Ah thanks. I did a quick search before posting and this article was listed as from 2019, but that was when it was last updated - it did just happen once in 2012. https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2012/09/mark-shuttleworth-explains-ubuntus-new-amazon-adware-feature https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2012/09/mark-shuttleworth-explai...
  - duskwuff 1y ago
    There's also a couple places where Ubuntu advertises their commercial services in the OS, including in apt ("Get more security updates through Ubuntu Pro...") and in the default login message (promotions for Ubuntu Landscape, as well as various other products and services through motd-news).
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
pjerem 1y ago
Apple barely does it and only for their products. I agree with you that that’s already too much and too annoying but that’s an order of magnitude less than Microsoft who advertise their products pretty aggressively AND ALSO are advertising for whoever gave them money too. Ubuntu I didn’t use it for years, there are tons of other distributions that I prefer now but last time I checked, there was a removable default shortcut to amazon. That’s an awful symbol, if you ask me, to associate Ubuntu and its meaning to Amazon but it’s nothing when compared to Apple or Microsoft (dare I say Google) behaviors.
- royskee 1y ago
  Apple barely does it and only for their products. With the recent notable exception of the F1 movie advertisement that arrived as a notification from the Wallet app. https://daringfireball.net/2025/06/more_on_apples_trust-eroding_f1_the_movie_wallet_ad https://daringfireball.net/2025/06/more_on_apples_trust-erod... I disabled Wallet notifications immediately :-(
  - nrb 1y ago
    Obviously not defending it, but isn’t the F1 movie produced by Apple?
    - LoganDark 1y ago
      Yes. There's still an entire drama about how inappropriate it is for the Wallet app to advertise a movie.
  - kergonath 1y ago
    Yes. And the debacle was so loud because it does not happen generally (I’d have to go back to the U2 album thing to find something comparable). They nag too much about their services, though. I don’t fucking want Fitness whatever or News thing, I would like the OS to stop putting a red dot in my settings. But anyway that’s not as brain dead as what I’ve seen on Windows.
    - 1y ago
lrvick 1y ago
Unlike with Apple, you have virtually unlimited choices of Linux distributions that are ad-free.
fsflover 1y ago
> Don’t Apple and Ubuntu also advertise products in their OS also? I looks like Ubuntu was created just in order to be able to dismiss Linux as "also advertise products". It's just a single distribution out of a hundred, and far from the best, so it's completely wrong of course. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38300531 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38300531.

Don’t Apple and Ubuntu also advertise products in their OS also?

by xnyan 1y ago

Don’t Apple and Ubuntu also advertise products in their OS also?

Wololooo 1y ago

I have yet to see a single ad on either the menus on Ubuntu or in OSX. Care to elaborate on what you mean by that?

petepete 1y ago
A few times over the years Ubuntu included Amazon ads in the OS. Each time, afaik, the community reacted angrily and it didn't last.
- michaelmrose 1y ago
  Once ever. The default search returned results from Amazon and local files potentially leaking your search intended to find local files to Ubuntu who in turn claimed that it was ok because potentially intensely personal info that could be inferred from queries weren't personally attributable to you. This was obviously not ok and it never happened again this was if I recall correctly around 2012.
  - petepete 1y ago
    Ah thanks. I did a quick search before posting and this article was listed as from 2019, but that was when it was last updated - it did just happen once in 2012. https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2012/09/mark-shuttleworth-explains-ubuntus-new-amazon-adware-feature https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2012/09/mark-shuttleworth-explai...
- duskwuff 1y ago
  There's also a couple places where Ubuntu advertises their commercial services in the OS, including in apt ("Get more security updates through Ubuntu Pro...") and in the default login message (promotions for Ubuntu Landscape, as well as various other products and services through motd-news).
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]

pjerem 1y ago

Apple barely does it and only for their products. I agree with you that that’s already too much and too annoying but that’s an order of magnitude less than Microsoft who advertise their products pretty aggressively AND ALSO are advertising for whoever gave them money too. Ubuntu I didn’t use it for years, there are tons of other distributions that I prefer now but last time I checked, there was a removable default shortcut to amazon. That’s an awful symbol, if you ask me, to associate Ubuntu and its meaning to Amazon but it’s nothing when compared to Apple or Microsoft (dare I say Google) behaviors.

royskee 1y ago
Apple barely does it and only for their products. With the recent notable exception of the F1 movie advertisement that arrived as a notification from the Wallet app. https://daringfireball.net/2025/06/more_on_apples_trust-eroding_f1_the_movie_wallet_ad https://daringfireball.net/2025/06/more_on_apples_trust-erod... I disabled Wallet notifications immediately :-(
- nrb 1y ago
  Obviously not defending it, but isn’t the F1 movie produced by Apple?
  - LoganDark 1y ago
    Yes. There's still an entire drama about how inappropriate it is for the Wallet app to advertise a movie.
- kergonath 1y ago
  Yes. And the debacle was so loud because it does not happen generally (I’d have to go back to the U2 album thing to find something comparable). They nag too much about their services, though. I don’t fucking want Fitness whatever or News thing, I would like the OS to stop putting a red dot in my settings. But anyway that’s not as brain dead as what I’ve seen on Windows.
  - 1y ago

lrvick 1y ago

Unlike with Apple, you have virtually unlimited choices of Linux distributions that are ad-free.

fsflover 1y ago

> Don’t Apple and Ubuntu also advertise products in their OS also? I looks like Ubuntu was created just in order to be able to dismiss Linux as "also advertise products". It's just a single distribution out of a hundred, and far from the best, so it's completely wrong of course. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38300531 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38300531.