I use MacOS, iOS, Linux and Windows, and only one of the above has never shown me ads. At one point MacOS and iOS were on the list, but now like Microsoft they push their own services (apple news, appletv, icloud, etc) and also like Microsoft, inject low quality ads into their app store search results. Apple still seems a bit better vs MS on how in your face they are, but I would not be shocked to see Candy Crush(TM) pinned to my home screen one day.
Back when I still believed (because we were told) Windows 10 was the last version of Windows, even though I hated it, I thought ads and sponsored store apps were how they were going to monetize long term. At least it kinda made sense, as distasteful as it was. Now a new version of Windows (lol) and they're still doing it.
Well Windows 10 was the last version of Windows for me anyway. I had forgotten how much fun desktop Linux can be!
I use MacOS, iOS, Linux and Windows, and only one of the above has never shown me ads.
The only one of those which has never shown me ads is iOS, because I've never interacted with it. With GNU/Linux unfortunately there was that one time when Ubuntu showed Amazon ads in the Unity Lens. There was a bit of backlash and they fixed it forthwith, but it did impart me with a certain amount of cynicism.
Wow, article mentions ads in WordPad. Time to bring back Clippy! "It looks like you're writing a cover letter, click here to create a LinkedIn profile using data from your Microsoft account! (You know, the one that is mandatory to log into Windows 11!) LinkedIn improves job search success by 67%!"
