Windows adverts are thin end of the wedge
Doug Entwistle makes a convincing argument for adverts on computers and the internet (Star Letter, Issue 646), but he overlooks the ‘thin end of the wedge’ principle, which is that one small change if not opposed can lead to greater changes later on.
For example, those ‘offers’ from Microsoft in the Start menu sound innocuous enough, and closing them with a click is easy. The annoyance lasts a few seconds only. But once they’ve been tested, why would Microsoft stop placing them? It can hardly cost Microsoft any money to put them there, so any orders they get from the ad count as pure profit.
At this point, the wedge remains thin. But it’ll start to get thicker once people get used to the ads, encouraging Microsoft to go further and sell the space to other companies. At first this might be a ‘suggested’ offer from Amazon or Norton. The grumbles on Twitter will continue, but enough people will click the links to spur Microsoft to thicken the
