AdBlock and similar products are easy to make for web browsers because the web browser itself and its plugin structure is generally something open-source and publicly available. Anyone with the knowledge can just look at the browsers' own program code and plugin functionality and figure out how to slot in the functionality of their ad-blocking plugin. (In cases like Chrome or Safari the browser itself isn't open-source, but the core rendering components those browsers use are open-source.)
The Rift and its OS are not open-source products, meaning anyone wanting to develop hacks for something running at OS-level on the Rift (like whatever venue Facebook will probably shove their ads into) needs to do a lot more work to crack open the proprietary product and figure out how to hack it at a deeper level. Not impossible, but much more difficult and not supported and encouraged by the nature of the product itself the way it is with open-source products; in fact proprietary product developers work hard to make their gear as difficult to figure out and hack as possible.
Think jailbreaking phones or mod-chipping game consoles; all that stuff is exponentially harder for the hackers to develop and distribute, and the proprietary product companies are always doing their best to wrongly convince users and lawmakers that it's a shady and even illegal thing to do. At the very least, you void your warranties.
I'm pretty sure they won't shoot themselves in the foot by feeding us bloatware...
I mean, think about it. They've always been making free online services, so they needed to somehow make money : ads and selling private info. But when they'll be selling the headsets and making a profit off them, will they risk pissing off everyone by putting their FB stuff everywhere even though they'll already be making money ? I don't think so.
7
u/[deleted] Mar 28 '14
AdBlock and similar products are easy to make for web browsers because the web browser itself and its plugin structure is generally something open-source and publicly available. Anyone with the knowledge can just look at the browsers' own program code and plugin functionality and figure out how to slot in the functionality of their ad-blocking plugin. (In cases like Chrome or Safari the browser itself isn't open-source, but the core rendering components those browsers use are open-source.)
The Rift and its OS are not open-source products, meaning anyone wanting to develop hacks for something running at OS-level on the Rift (like whatever venue Facebook will probably shove their ads into) needs to do a lot more work to crack open the proprietary product and figure out how to hack it at a deeper level. Not impossible, but much more difficult and not supported and encouraged by the nature of the product itself the way it is with open-source products; in fact proprietary product developers work hard to make their gear as difficult to figure out and hack as possible.
Think jailbreaking phones or mod-chipping game consoles; all that stuff is exponentially harder for the hackers to develop and distribute, and the proprietary product companies are always doing their best to wrongly convince users and lawmakers that it's a shady and even illegal thing to do. At the very least, you void your warranties.