- Mozilla has issued a warning about Microsoft’s design practices, claiming that the company uses harmful design tactics to influence users to switch to its Edge browser.
- The report highlights how Microsoft interrupts the installation process of Google Chrome on Windows devices, promoting the security and privacy benefits of Edge.
- Mozilla calls for regulatory action to restore browser choice and competition across major platforms.
Archive link: https://archive.ph/koBY6
Chrome
Windows
Well there’s your problem!
I remember, something like 8 years ago, if you searched “chrome” on internet explorer, before showing you a proper link, they would show a patrocined link from microsoft that would install a “browser configuration protector” that would prevent you from changing any configuration, including of course the default browser.
I think this will ultimately backfire on them I gave the bing app a chance on my phone and I got so tired of the try edge interruptions I unninstalled everything Microsoft.
The search was actually decent but the constant nagging was very annoying.
Use ecosia. It’s the same search engine except it respects your privacy and plants trees with you as revenue.
I didn’t think anyone on this platform would be dumb enough to use Google Chrome anyways.
Can the EU just Thanos snap Microsoft out of existence with a quadrillion euro fine?
That would be a sure fire way to get Microsoft to pull completely out of Europe leaving thousands of companies without support and a heafty unpaid fine setting on the table.
It would actually be beneficial for Microsoft to abandon the server farms and offices leaving workers with an email stating the situation and their new job status.
How could they pull out of Europe if they straight up didn’t exist? I’m suggesting the European Union should fine them enough to go bankrupt.
They wouldn’t pay the fine that would bankrupt them they’d just cut there losses and abandon anything that was seised. They’re an American company and the Asian market is what there after nowadays anyway.
If you could cut a dead limb off to save the body, wouldn’t you? At the end of the day it depends on how the US and Europe handles civil cases across borders and Microsoft has a lot of ties with the US government.
Just a shame the US government’s been completely captured. It’s all rot from the top down.
It’s not all bad just the federal for the most part. We’re working on that but are politicians are as old as the hills. I believe they spend more time listening to corporate lobby pitches than reading the damn news but that’s our problem to deal with.
Most of the biggest tech giants have picked up jobs from homeland or the NSA at one point in time or another, Microsoft is just the most prevalent along with Facebook (meta).
I’m stuck with one of the most fucked state governments, too. Actually, it’s so bad I’ve been aiming to leave for a while, and I’ll likely be gone within the next six weeks ish.
Well I wish you luck. Moving is no fun IMO
I would love the mayhem that would ensue from Microsoft leaving Europe completely. Dumb fuckers in all those incompetent IT departments that have wasted countless hours of mine because they don’t understand jack shit of what they’re doing would be having strokes, and us geeks would be having a field day keeping essential stuff alive, like medical technology and power plants.
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You think they make no profits in Europe? Why would they be here if they didn’t?
I think it’s fair to assume their profits are less than 1 quadrillion euros
Heh, didn’t take that number literally I guess
You think Microsoft has no assets in Europe? Asset seizure is a sure fire way to get paid when companies refuse to cooperate.
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Oh no, it’s the consequences of my actions by putting all my eggs in one basket and giving a corporation incredible leverage.
Maybe they should derisk their infrastructure then…
google as well, while we’re at it.
I updated my proton app recently and as I was updating it Microsoft edge updater tried installing updates as well for some reason.
I don’t even have edge installed. I simply blocked it from having net access but still, they can go take a flying fuck at a rolling donut if they think I’m putting that on my system.
they can go take a flying fuck at a rolling donut if they think I’m putting that on my system.
The only way to be serious about that is to not use Windows.
I’d like to flip to Linux, but I have an older nvidia card that doesn’t play well with it, so until I upgrade some hardware win 10 will have to do. At least I’m firewalled so I can block their shit when it tries shenanigans like that.
How old are we talking? Most distros have legacy driver packages that go back a fair bit.
One time I uninstalled Edge and Cortana from Win10. Some time later Windows Updates started to fail and would rollback. This continued for 6 months and by that time I stopped giving a shit since Win10 is malware anyway.
Another few months went by and I was bored enough to follow the usually useless links to MS knowledge base articles that are given after a failed update.
After another week of trying everything I came across or could think of, I downloaded the install for Edge and reinstalled. Ran the Windows Update again and the god damned thing was successful. Apparently it contained an Edge-specific update but didn’t check if it was installed or not and fail gracefully if it was the latter.
Yeah MS has never done anything like that before…
Looks at MS Word in early nineties…
Look at what they did with Internet Explorer. Same shit.
The clickbait in this article is so bad, I thought it was a security vulnerability or something, but it’s just something else related to Mozilla again.
I’m still genuinely curious if Mozilla is going to actually accept a renewal for the search deal with Google, or if they’re actually going to start practicing with a praise and try implementing that search engine selection screen.
practicing with a praise
Not sure what you mean but maybe you were going for “practicing what they preach”?
or if they’re actually going to start practicing with a praise and try implementing that search engine selection screen.
You already can change the default search engine?
You can, but that’s not the point. The idea is to ask users to choose upon opening the app for the first time. It’s an already common statistic that most people never actually change any settings beyond basic personalization. It’s part of why Google spends so much money on setting Google Search as the default engine.
Again, install Linux already and be done with this shit.
Linux users are what everyone says vegans are.
But they speak from a high a position of superiority and rightness.
I’d rather be vegan than a Windows user.
When Linux gets around to supporting all the games I like I will
It will never support 100% of games. Mainly due to extremly agresive anti cheats that are the same as root kits.
Alright, continue to suffer on Windows. Or fix it yourself
Is this how you advocate for Linux?
I don’t want entitled people who want everything done for them for free and expect it to compete with an evil company that steals from their pockets without their knowing. If you don’t want to join unless I pave the way just the way you like, you better get your gloves on and help a hand. Linux doesn’t ‘need’ to win nor does it to include everyone. If people want to learn, get started or need help, I’ll help them in a heartbeat. If someone expects, well demands, I do their work for them, they can get fucked with an anchor.
Edit:
Currently I have helped about 25 people to get from Windows to a few different distro’s, helped them set up and aided them when they needed me. I give advice on different Discord servers, used to do it on Reddit but Reddit went to shit, and now try to do so here.
But I cannot aid someone, who asks me to do their work for them.
Quoting the conversation you replied to:
Again, install Linux already and be done with this shit.
When Linux gets around to supporting all the games I like I will
Yes, the wording of “when Linux gets around to supporting” was bad and can be interpreted as “Linux needs to do the work”. We who are familiar with Linux know that game support depends on the game’s developer, not on any certain OS or plarform. You need to keep in mind that not everyone is as proficient with operating systems as we are, and thus not everybody might be aware who is at fault for lack of support.
You belittled the person in your comment, first assuming that they “suffer” on Windows, and then telling them to fix it themselves. You can’t have meant that genuinely; after recognizing that they misunderstood the support situation, it should have been obvious to you that they’re not capable of fixing the support themselves. So it must have been a snarky remark of yours and little more.
Instead of being this condescending, your comment should have been educational, explaining whose fault the lack of support actually is. Not even necessarily for the person you replied to, but for the sake of everyone else who finds this thread at a later point in time.
Even if you don’t need Linux to win, I ask you that you consider how your comments reflect on the Linux community at large. What will people think when they see how you reply to people voicing their concerns?
Would you be happy being part of a community that although representing a genuine effort towards freedom from big tech, is perceived as elitist and insular by outsiders? I use Linux too, and I wouldn’t be.
You make a valid point, I shall address my comments made. My assumptions made are a bit crass and short-sighted.
Why bother trying to convince people like you who only complain about Windows, but are way too lazy to do anything about? It’s just a waste of my time. I’d much rather gloat about how I don’t have to deal with crap like this. Don’t come on here and expect sympathy for something that is entirely within your power to change.
I’d much rather gloat about how I don’t have to deal with crap like this.
Alright, go ahead and do that. Surely that’ll help the mainstream perception of Linux and its community.
You mean, when your games get around to supporting Linux, right? File the required issues with those manufacturers.
No, I don’t want too.
That’s always so easy to say, isn’t it?
Far easier to do too. I did one of each last month and there’s no question that the Windows setup experience is terrible in comparison.
The software and hardware I’m using won’t work on Linux.
Same here, to a certain extent.
I was referring only to Linux’s lack of bullshittery in comparison to Windows, nothing else.
And that’s the part that everyone ignores. They’ll say open a VM or use wine or there’s an open source alternative. But if I’m going to run native Linux just to open a windows VM to run the primary software I use, what’s the point? I’m not bashing on either side. I use Windows when I need and, and go back to Linux when I’m finished, but that’s because that’s the solution that works for me.
File the required issues with those manufacturers then. Support for Linux is trivially easy to add compared to Microsoft: the kernel sources and stuff to create your modules are right there.
That works until they explicitly say they won’t support Linux, eg. Adobe, Bungie, GoXLR, etc
Plenty of companies know that it’s trivial to implement. They just simply do not care, nor will they ever care.
Linux community arrogance is to deny the device driver issues and think Apple is fine, when the reason Apple thrives is because they don’t have open hardware like Linux, BSD, Windows…
Hardware companies are rarely held account for their absent support of Linux - some campaigns have come and gone, but in the end Linux users tend to arrogantly say it’s trivial to switch and embrace dishonesty. I guess they figure Microsoft is dishonest, so they normalize it.
100% same
I was needing to boot back to windows multiple times per day to accomplish simple tasks, and that made Linux no longer worth the hassle.
So Microsoft just does the same shit they’ve done a hundred times before and have been penalized for a hundred times before.
Give them a few billion dollars fine.
Jail those managers that made this decision
THAT will make sure they will start behaving. If not, it’s all just “please don’t” and Microsoft being “suuuuurely we would never ever!”
Fuck Microsoft
have been penalized for a hundred times before
That’s where you’re wrong. The last time they shoveled their browser at us in clearly anti-competitive ways they were found guilty and then … nothing. Essential software or some such, and nothing.
So no, they haven’t been penalized; not on their Sherman offence, and here they go repeating it.
Hammer them.
Whenever I’m forced to use Edge for work it reminds me of old IE that your grandma installed the Ask toolbar in. Functions about the same too.
Is there any material difference between Edge and Chrome? I’m forced to use either of them for work and as far as I can tell they perform the same
With Edge, MS decided to re-implement some stuff through their own library. I don’t have an exhaustive list, but one particular thing is that for a while, SubtleCrypto (used for various operations within JavaScript) was present, but some mandatory algorithms were not available in Edge while they worked fine everywhere else (and maybe even in the non-chromium based Edge, which I don’t remember testing).
So, yes, there are differences beyond the integration of MS services. They are unlikely to matter to most people, but for dev it does reintroduce some weird quirks, as MS does.
Edge can do 4k netflix
I love how Mozilla is warning you that you’re gonna have trouble using Chrome? It’s Forbes so I’m not bothering clicking but I can only assume that Mozilla is also warning that you’re gonna have a bad time trying to use Firefox.
Microsoft really trying to get away with what it did in the browser wars again, but it’s probably gonna turn out on for them this time
Now sure how popular this is, but tbh,. Microsoft Edge is way better than Chrome. Yes I get it’s chromium underneath, and I also do agree. And no I don’t use Firefox, it doesn’t play well with our stack.
Use a better stack
I’m sure they’ll get right on convincing their comment too ditch a bunch of suggested they’re heavily invested again. Should be easy and not a career limiting move at all.
I have no idea what you mean by stack, but you definitely don’t deserve downvotes for this. You can use whatever you want.
It’s all good mate. I knew what I was getting myself into. Saying anything pro-Microsoft is a heresy here, and not bowing to Firefox is a penal offense!!
They are getting down voted because their choice of stack is being used as a means to absolve themselves of the responsibility of supporting the last available cross-platform alternative to anti-consumer, chromium based shit.
If they had just not mentioned it or said they just don’t like Firefox, there wouldn’t be down votes.
Anyone is free to use whatever they want, but the comment you’re responding to is just a shit take.
My last job used a stack that was unfriendly to firebox, but I still used Firefox as my main development browser so I could catch issues and work toward better interoperability.
Firefox beats almost everything else at the moment. Edge managed to make itself worse than chrome. I don’t need a browser that detects a credit card form and injects a predatory lending scheme to take advantage of me, no thanks. Not even Google has steeped that low yet.
Wait, what’s this about lending??
The software tries to woo users into buy now pay later. The boring dystopia.
Doesn’t matter, this is about the popup.
Microsoft:
