I do not feel that Windows and Android are the same in that regard, to be honest, because Windows is a practical monopoly — I am laughing now with all the “this will be the year of Linux” articles me and many of my colleagues were publishing over the years, hoping that there will be a true alternative to Windows just around the corner. That didn’t happen. 95% of PCs sold come with Windows pre-installed and if you want the PC you just built to do all the things it can do with the least amount of hustle, then Windows it is again.

That stands true for at least 9 out of 10 people out there. Yes, Linux has gotten much easier to install and more versatile, there’s clear progress in system drivers etc. but it’s still mostly for people who know what they are doing. So Windows is a practical monopoly — and that’s why Microsoft feels safe and assured to use it as an advertisement platform.

We cannot easily escape ads nowadays, that’s true. But see, at least when ads are shoved down our throats, like e.g. in websites, we usually get something in return (free content in that case). When Windows throws ads at us, we have already paid for this product. One way or the other. So Microsoft is in no way entitled to do this. They just do it because they can.

I am an Apple user myself and I assure you that if Apple ever tried to pull off anything like this with ads for its own products in e.g. iOS or iPadOS or macOS or tvOS, me and many other people I know would be up in arms because we have also already paid for the company’s operating systems. That cost is included in the very expensive devices we buy from Apple. We get *nothing* for free, my friend. It’s all been taken into account and it’s conveniently presented to us as a “no cost” service while, in truth, from the manufacturer’s perspective, the cost of OS development is included in the devices’ cost.

I’d bet that Apple is extremely easily covering the “cost” of developing yearly OS updates for its devices by keeping people in its ecosystem and selling them subscriptions and content. Rest assured, if this approach was not to Apple’s benefit, we would be obliged to pay for OS upgrades every year!