[i_have_an_idea]

It's pretty fair. You pay money - you get a product. In Windows, you pay money - you get ads and tracking.

edit:

To make it clear to people not reading the comment carefully, I'm not saying MacOS is "free". I'm merely saying that once you pay for the computer, the OS is included in the price.

And there is no additional monetization under the form of ads or tracking. Unlike in the Windows world, where you pay for the license, yet you are still being tracked and served ads.

[boomboomsubban]

I'm not defending Windows here, but you buy an Apple computer, you get the computer and their software. You can't get either independently without paying for the other, but neither could be considered "free."

[boomboomsubban]

>To make it clear to people not reading the comment carefully, I'm not saying MacOS is "free".

You are misinterpreting the parent's argument by saying "it's pretty fair" then, as they were saying it's unfair to call MacOS "free."

[i_have_an_idea]

No, it is fair competition because in both cases you paid money for the product, as I am clearly stating in the original comment.

In one case it just also happens to be impossible to avoid being further monetized via ads and tracking.

This, to me, is unacceptable for paid software, as essentially amounts to license fee + adware model.

[boomboomsubban]

>it is fair competition because in both cases you paid money for the product

The comment you replied to was a response to calling MacOS free, and was entirely about that topic. It's not a fair comparison to call MacOS free, that isn't justifying Microsoft's actions though.

[tester756]

> In Windows, you pay money - you get ads and tracking.

Where do I have to click to get those ads?

[Miraste]

Off the top of my head, Windows has advertised or directly installed Edge (are you suuuuure you don't want to default it?), OneDrive (in file explorer, no less), Office 365, Bing (in the system search bar), Xbox something or other, Candy Crush, Teams, Skype, and probably several others that I'm forgetting.

[tester756]

I ran script that uninstalls a lot of those stuff years ago

Probably it was this

https://gist.github.com/matthewjberger/2f4295887d6cb5738fa34...

[zabzonk]

Quite - I have been using Windows since Windows 2.0 and I have never seen an ad - perhaps I am doing something wrong?

[sodality2]

You have never had Candy Crush-esque apps installed automatically?

[zabzonk]

I really don't know everything that is installed on my computer - do you on yours? I can say I have never seen the thing.

And anyway, surely that is a game, not an ad?

[sodality2]

Which is paid to be preinstalled and put in your face every time you open the start menu.

I'd go as far to say it is adware.

[zabzonk]

Me: Opens Start Menu (which, frankly, I don't normally use) - doesn't see it.

[GordonS]

If, like me, you're using Enterprise edition, you'll never see any of these ads.

[bhandziuk]

They both charge for an OS. One has ads one doesn't. But one isn't "free".

[weird-eye-issue]

That's not what I was replying to at all. He said it was "free". That's a lot different from "you pay money".