Last week, I turned on my PC, installed a Windows update, and rebooted to find Microsoft Edge automatically open with the Chrome tabs I was working on before the update. I don’t use Microsoft Edge regularly, and I have Google Chrome set as my default browser. Bleary-eyed at 9AM, it took me a moment to realize that Microsoft Edge had simply taken over where I’d left off in Chrome. I couldn’t believe my eyes.
That’s horrible. Also normal.
And sad because none of those two things should even exist, much less dominate the market.
That last statement is exactly why I blame its users. They are complicit in this market abuse.
LOL This is what happens when you run closed source garbage. Nothing is in your control.
I’m not a programmer. Open source garbage isn’t in my control either.
I’m slowly just migrating away from windows as much as I can because Microsoft is being so pushy with this nonsense. Like, they keep trying to get me to log in to a Microsoft account that doesn’t exist, they keep changing settings and asking for more permissions, they keep reinstalling stuff I’ve ripped out purposefully, and from the way they’re talking it seems like it’s just going to get worse. Stuff like putting cloud run python functions in to Excel just sounds like they’re testing tech to push more and more functions off the device and in to their centralized processing centers.
I’d consider apple but I don’t have “spend 3x as much money on the same hardware” money TBH, and really I don’t have any guarantees they won’t do the same thing Microsoft is doing.
I’ve got an older laptop that I’m slowly rebuilding my work flow in mint Linux and once I’ve got that working I’ll set it up on my main computer and be done with windows for the foreseeable future.
If you’re looking for respect as a customer, there are better reasons to avoid Apple than “spend 3x as much money on the same hardware”. They might be better on privacy and user experience fronts. But they are extremely abusive on “squeeze the consumer”, " squeeze the developer" and “give no crap about environment” fronts. While the world’s richest company demanding 30% cut of developers’ revenue citing operations cost is greed on a supreme scale, the worst is how they package their products - unserviceable, irreparable, no spare parts available, spare parts not swappable, vendor locked-in and needing extremely costly accessories. They justify all of this in the name of privacy and miniaturization - which is technically an utter hogwash. And then there is the army of annoying Apple fanbois who go around repeating these lies.
they keep reinstalling stuff I’ve ripped out purposefully
You’ll find every OS does that, it’s called “installing dependencies”. Even on Gentoo, there is only so far that you can go removing stuff before it turns out they either get reinstalled anyway, or everything comes tumbling down.
putting cloud run python functions in to Excel
People seem to like their cloud run functions in Google Sheets, Jupyter books, Mathematica notebooks, and similar. Can’t blame MS for trying to catch up.
Edge, unlike Internet Explorer, is not a system level dependency. There is a separately installed web view than handles that now, likely due to EU consumer protections.
Edge is a dependency of the “Internet Explorer compatibility” system feature which comes enabled by default, while the Webview feature comes disabled by default.
Sneaky? Yeah… but it’s a dependency 🤷
It kind of still is because of Webview2. Games such as Forza Motorsport (not that you’d want to play that crap) depend on it for Xbox login purposes even if you bought the game on Steam. The game depends on the system Edge libraries and doesn’t ship its own.
Python2 might be required by something. Is Edge required? And Xbox? A folder for 3D models even if I never did 3D stuff and most likely never will on that PC? If yes, why? I can’t think of anything I or lots of other people need that wouldn’t work without these and lots of other things
Edge is, somewhat ironically, required by the “Internet Explorer compatibility” feature. Xbox and the 3D folder, get installed as part of a “user experience” pack. Not sure if Edge also gets pulled as a requirement to populate the “default app” fields. Interestingly, if you never open the Xbox app, it will never fully install, even if the package gets updated.
Why do I need IE compatibility? I use Firefox. Why is the XBox app in the start menu? This is a work PC. The 3D folder (and Videos, Music, etc) just takes space in the File Explorer. I’d be fine if it created it when I save a file there, but until then I don’t want to see it
ye but at least on linux the dependencies arent bundled with useless applications that u dont want, and u can mostly trust em cuz open source X3
If no one is actually auditing that code, or somehow confirming that the binaries shipped by your package manager match what the code compiles to, then you’re still playing a trust game.
Trusting in open source software devs rather than a capitalist corporation definitely makes sense, but it isn’t some panacea for “safe, nonspying software”.
Also, dependencies on linux absolutely include programs I don’t want. They just tend to be less obtrusive terminal programs and libraries rather than full blown UI based shit. Less visible, but far easier to sneak under the radar.
somehow confirming that the binaries shipped by your package manager match what the code compiles to
Indeed, that’s why: https://reproducible-builds.org/
Right now, Debian seems to be leading with over 95% of packages being reproducible.
is why the mostly trust :3 as always run code at ur own risk
and the utility programs thatr part of thhe dependencies r often there so its easier for devs to use depenancies, so they do sorta gotta be there !
That’s why I use Gentoo. I don’t read the code, even just Firefox is absolutely bonkers, but being able to flag out parts of code just feels nice. I know it’s not absolute, but -telemetry gives me a nice warm feeling inside.
If you intentionally load edge there’s a prompt you can say no to that asks if you want it to continue to try to pull information from other browsers.
IDK if that will prevent this, but it’s better than nothing.
IMO, this is underhanded at best. It’s as if some middle manager was tasked with getting more people using edge and they thought to themselves that most of their oblivious parents/grand parents/brothers/sisters/cousins/friends/whatever don’t really notice what browser they’re using (and frequently they don’t care), so let’s just move them over to edge as seamlessly as possible and they just keep using it because they’re too oblivious to even notice it’s not chrome.
To be fair, they’re right, but also that thought process is so morally bankrupt that it should be criminal. IMO, that a lot like replacing someone’s Toyota Corolla with a similarly designed Ford with the same engine under the hood, overnight, and hoping they just keep using it.
I don’t want to bash Ford here or anything, but they have very different ideas than Toyota on how to accomplish common tasks. They’re “the same” but very very not the same.
A better automotive comparison that I’m aware of would be the Mazda 626 and the Ford probe. They used the same engine but were very different cars to use. They performed the same basic function, but it was a very different experience.
I had a 626 ES V6 back in the day. If I woke up one day to find that someone had swapped it for a similarly spec’d probe, I would be livid. I don’t hate Ford, or the probe specifically, but I drive the 626. I know that car. I want to keep using that car. I don’t care that the probe is “basically the same”. Fuck off and give me back my 626.
I sadly spun a bearing on that 626 and when I heard the knock from the engine I knew it was time. I still miss that car.
This behaviour is why I roll my eyes when the edge fanbois are all like “iTs AlL cHrOmE aNyWaY”.
Fuck any company that uses their power to try trick people into using their software, yes including google.
“iTs AlL cHrOmE aNyWaY”
This is why I use Firefox.
Firefox still needs to be compatible with the “living standard” as implemented in Chromium, it’s how the modern web works 🤷
What do you mean by ‘living standard’ ?
Google’s monopolistic and often asinine implementation of web standards that haven’t been fully set in stone by the proper internet oversight groups yet, I’d guess?
It means a standard that changes in a bottom-up way, usually defined by a reference implementation… instead of by organizing worldwide trips to have meetings, workgroups, and committees, who define whatever they pull out of thin air, then expect developers to implement by pointing to a multi-thousand page PDF that nobody knows if it’s possible to implement, much less in an efficient way.
It’s crazy to me that Microsoft isn’t getting any legal pressure for doing this
Wait, Edge fanbois are real??
That’s better than me. I ran a security script that i… laugh and roll my eyes at myself about in a bad way, like i deserved what i got. I didn’t read the script…
So i restarted the system. Since i used an online Microsoft account to create the local user, and i didn’t read the script, the only account, and admin at that, was disabled. I couldn’t sign in AT ALL. Lol
I formatted the whole system and installed Fedora Plasma. I’m a Fedora fan. It’s what we use in a corporate environment (rhel) and it’s what i learned on.
TL;DR: Windows sucks. Linux is great and ProtonDB for those games you miss.
It’s so easy to switch to Edge, you don’t even have to try! Literally!
Microsoft Edge is actually good, so I sure hope the team building it isn’t about to resort to more tricks to get Chrome users to use it.
Given Microsoft’s track record…
To be fair, chromium aside, edge did start as a nice browser, but as with all MS products, they end up getting riddled with more and more bullshit over time.
Just use Firefox.
Still relevant after 17+ years:
Yeah and that didn’t take very long. I mean how long was it since they started pushing the “new” edge until the crapware started showing up? Only a year or 2 IIRC.
I mean normally the rule of enshittification is that you wait inserting all the crap after people have started adopting your product. They didn’t wait long enough. I always knew they would do it but at least I didn’t have to wait long to be proven right.
The only browser recommended by Microsoft.
Made by Microsoft
Partly made by microsoft :P They put all the coupon scam and buy now pay later scams in it.
Yeah, in true M$ fashion the hard part was done by other people.
No one who enjoys the Internet should be using Chrome for anything.
I use it for gmail and related google apps, nothing else.
Honestly works for me. Chrome for emails and stuff. No history, full privacy mode firefox for everything else. That includes youtube and links in emails.
Google thinks all I ever do is check my emails.
*chuckles in Google*
That’s insane.
That’s Chromium!
I honestly do suspect the fact that they’re both Chromium based is part of why this is possible.
deleted by creator
I can’t imagine it be too dificult to extract the open URLs, end chrome and launch Edge with the appropriate arguments.
But if it carried over cookies too, that’s when I would see the chromium common-ground help out.
Look at me! I am the browser now
Most people don’t see a difference between Edge and Chrome
Pretty crazy to think they got broken up in the late 90s/early 2000s for simply including IE in a fresh Windows install (im probably over simplifying but still). Yet these days they’re pulling this kind of shit
M$. M$ never changes.
You aren’t really over simplifying that much. IE was installed, but on first launch it loaded a website called BrowserChoice.eu where you could pick a different browser to install. It would change the default browser setting and remove IE shortcuts. The order of the browser’s was randomised similar to the way an election ballot usually is.
Microsoft set it up to comply with an EU decision in 2010, only on devices sold in the EU. However, it was only required until December 2014, so Microsoft quietly discontinued it in an update. The functionality was never included in Edge.
Edit: the 90s-00s anti-trust stuff with Microsoft and IE wasn’t just about IE being the default in Windows. It was also because they forced Apple to include it on Mac OS as the default, otherwise they’d stop developing Office for Mac. They also stipulated that Apple couldn’t develop their own competing browser and Safari wasn’t born until later.
Ironic that Apple went on to do the same thing with Safari, and more importantly the WebKit engine, on iOS. Plus now trying to force its competitors to either continue using Webkit, or maintain two seperate versions of their apps. One for within the EU and one for everywhere else
Two ways to avoid this problem: switch to linux, switch to firefox, preferably both
Unless you’re stuck in corporate hell where either one of these things isn’t possible.
yea
Firefox is your friend.
installed a Windows update, (…) and I have Google Chrome set as my default browser
It’s subtle but if you look closely and read between the lines you can see what the real issue is.
He doesn’t use Arch btw
