[rekoil]

It's a very Apples to Oranges comparison to be honest. Settings is an app that you don't really need to open that much to begin with, and the "ads" they show are more like promotions that you can use only once on your account. It's a bait for sure, but it's at least a bit beneficial to users if they are ever interested in trying that service.

Explorer is something Windows users interact with constantly, putting ads right next to the actual content view is SO different to ads in settings, at least to me.

As others have mentioned this isn't the only ad Apple has tinkered with recently, I don't think they should be off the hook by any means, I just think Microsoft have been way more dubious recently.

[stjohnswarts]

Why can't the OS just be an OS though without ads anywhere? Clearly if you install firefox you want to use firefox, otherwise you'd switch back to safari.

[oneplane]

Because ads is the only way to make constant money from consumers if you don't sell hardware with the OS. That said, not all notifications are ads. Sometimes, a notification is just a well-intentioned notification that only a small portion of users take offence to. I bet that if they made a "Safari Rewards Points" program that would annoy the hell out of everyone.