In my previous entry, I ranted a bit about Windows 8. Since then, I’ve been using a Surface Pro, obtained the weekend they came out. Combined with my Nokia 920 phone, I’ve been rocking Windows 8 in some flavor for seven or eight months.
I generally, as noted previously, really enjoy the experience.
Ignoring the sparse app ecosystem, I adore my 920 and the consistency of Windows Phone 8. It’s lacking in some important ways, like VPN support and a sane notification system, but a lot of that is slated to get fixed in the next rev.
I’m also a heavy Xbox 360 user. The implementation of tiles on the recent builds is an atrocity but the game library is sizable and the controls are excellent. And let’s face it; when done right, the kinect voice commands are spiffy.
But there’s a problem which I can sum up in one word: Ads.
I fucking hate ads. I don’t watch TV channels with ads. I’d rather spend the extra money to buy the ad-free versions from Amazon. I pay for Spotify, Pandora, and di.fm to get rid of ads.
When I pay for something, particularly something physical, I expect it to come ad-free. The Surface Pro runs $1k-ish. The new Xbox will run over $600. This is not some heavily discounted product line.
Yet, I’m seeing articles like these:
- Bing-powered Windows 8.1 heralds a better, smarter Microsoft
- Microsoft To Add Bing Ads To Windows 8.1 Search
- Microsoft: Xbox One advertising will integrate with Kinect
So the plan is for me to spend a significant amount of money to get a device that is still swarming with ads? For already expensive devices like my existing Surface Pro to become filled with ads that I can’t turn off? For the Xbox, which I already pay a monthly fee to fully use, to mostly be an ad generation device?
This leaves me in a quandry. I’ve built a significant and shiny work environment out of the Surface. It’s quite literally the center of my digital universe.
Most of my personal stuff could be moved back to Linux without a big fuss. My development work is already based on a VPS, for personal stuff, and a standalone Linux box, for day-job stuff, all tied together by OpenVPN.
My work environment, however, can’t be moved to Linux. Office isn’t a big problem thanks to their web apps but our conferencing software and other infrastructure bits are Windows-only. They also don’t run well under virtualization.
So I can’t just dump Ubuntu on the Surface and move on with life. Dual-booting is an option. I’ve been pondering a usb flash drive based solution where the whole Linux setup would live on a bootable stick, leaving the Windows partitions alone.
Being on vacation this week, I picked up a Samsung Chromebook and have built it into a network-required dumb terminal. This will be the subject of another post but I’ve got it configured to be on my personal vpn and derive most of its services from there. I’m thinking maybe of moving to a 2 machine system where the Surface is work and Windows-only grit-my-teeth-at-all-the-ads stuff while the Chromebook is everything else.
So, I don’t know. I really like my Windows 8 centric environment but I just can’t tolerate constant ads. I suppose whatever I figure out will show up in future posts.
Also, do I bail out on the Xbox and plan to be PS4-only?