Friendly reminder that winget comes preinstalled on Windows 11 now.
winget install Mozilla.Firefox
You can install Firefox without even opening Edge!
Microsoft now pops up a poll asking why you'd want to use another browser when you download Chrome
Submitted 1 year ago by dantheclamman@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world
https://www.theverge.com/23930960/microsoft-edge-google-chrome-poll-why-try-another-browser
Comments
Towelieyee@lemm.ee 1 year ago
MonkderZweite@feddit.ch 1 year ago
520@kbin.social 1 year ago
Not exactly "stole"; the author was fine about the code being used in this way. What they were upset about is the lack of attribution and communication.
xx3rawr@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
On Windows 10 too. I always just download from the websitw or store but it’s pretty fun to update my apps over CLI for some reason
WereCat@lemmy.world 1 year ago
winget install Vivaldi
sir_reginald@lemmy.world 1 year ago
great solution. instead of Chrome and MS-Chrome, you install V-Chrome. Such a big difference! It really is a completely new theme for Chrome, isn’t it? Oh and they have a built-in adblocker which is far less capable than uBlock Origin but it is built-in! isn’t that great?
Acters@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Which is something you will need to do to not accept their privacy invasive terms and conditions that you have to accept before using the bloated data harvesting browser.
un_owen@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Dude, nothing is more suspicious than when a developer of a supposedly free app nags you to use their app. Why do they even want you to use Edge so badly? Your never going to pay any money for it, this screams “give us your data, we want to sell it”.
nucleative@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I know, I was thinking that about Lemmy too. An issue or not we don’t yet know!
justJanne@startrek.website 1 year ago
The neat part about the fediverse is that no matter how badly behaved a dev may be, there’ll be enough people to fix their behaviour and work around it. Look at mastodon, gorgon made a few questionable choices but glitch and all the other forks work around it and enough community servers exist that you could block mastodon.social and never miss a thing.
Just like with Lemmy there’s already kbin and countless other alternatives that all integrate with each other and enough community servers.
But with browsers that’s stopped being a thing a long time ago as the modern web is far too complex for small groups of indie devs to make their own browsers.
XeroxCool@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I can’t instantly jump to nefarious purposes. I mean I’m sure there’s nefarious purposes baked into it, but it’s reasonable that a marketing group knows the common reasons people leave their product. I’m guessing these listed options will actually trigger a popup/page that explains how to correct these exact things, like a FAQ. I’m not trying to be apologetic for MS, it’s just that the choice between edge and chrome is how you balance your data… Emissions? Both suck for that reason
un_owen@lemmy.world 1 year ago
It might be reasonable, but the question still stands: why does Microsoft put so much effort into trying to convince people to use Edge? The purpose of Edge is to have a preinstalled browser so that you can start working right away and don’t need to rely on 3rd party software to do basic tasks. Great, I get that. Every OS has their own preinstalled browser. But what I don’t get is, why do they actively try to stop you from using a different browser? Why do they put in so much effort to stop you from installing Chrome? Why do they not put in the same effort when you try to install Notepad++ or Paint.Net? What’s so special about a browser, compared to other standard software? I can think of anti-consumer reasons, like harvesting and selling your data. And yes, Chrome isn’t any better in that regard, but at least you make the choice yourself.
PotjiePig@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I don’t use Edge BECAUSE they keep begging and throwing ads at me for it. It’s off putting, desperate and exactly what I don’t want.
I don’t use it because the Edge splash screen is chokka ads and news stories I don’t want.
I don’t use Edge because I find Bing annoying, and prefer duck duck go and google in that order, and I’m sick of constantly being nagged to use shit I don’t want.
Microsoft get it in your head, you are an operating system. Your job is to Operate MY system. Do that well. And by all means build more software, make it optional and installable by choice. If it’s good and works for me and not for you I will use it.
I don’t use Chrome either. It no longer works for me. It now works for Google first.
Ive recently downgraded Firefox from browser number 1 to number 2. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s not the best.
Currently I’m enjoying Opera because it feels fresh and zippy and works for me , but I’m not loyal. Edge if you do good, maybe I will use you too. But stop your pathetic shit.
mellejwz@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I used Edge since the beginning, until they decided to fill it with bloat. It’s getting worse than Chrome. Now I’m using Firefox that is still a browser instead of an application trying to replace all applications.
NumbersCanBeFun@kbin.social 1 year ago
That's a tall order. They don't even operate systems well. Do yourself a favor, get Linux Mint and thank me later. You can always run windows in a VM or off a USB if you really need to run specific software in Windows. If you're up for a challenge you can make your own little "Wine" bottles and get the programs to run without launching windows. I do this for a few programs.
PotjiePig@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Late reply, sorry just going though my messages here. But I get all the Linux love, however I assume you’re a developer or a writer. Linux is incredibly niche and basically a non option for a vast load of industries.
Im a professional video editor and animator. Adobe is my bread and butter. I can’t use another option realistically either as it mostly doesn’t exist or I have to send out my projects to other creators and need to be able to talk to other PCs.
Linux doesn’t support Adobe, it doesn’t support about 80% of my other creative softwares, it won’t play nice. Windows, for my use case runs like a dream.
Until Linux gets broader adoption of actual pro level applications for the film industry (and many others), it will always be a niche OS for coders and web devs sadly. I’d sooner roll back to windows XP than use Linux.
Adanisi@lemmy.zip 1 year ago
This is basically all proprietary software 🙃.
It serves the company first and foremost. The user’s needs are an afterthought.
gnuplusmatt@startrek.website 1 year ago
Microsoft is a cloud provider these days, Windows doesn’t make enough money, that’s why they are desperate to monetise already paying customers.
Azure/entra or whatever the fuck they call it this week is where the real money comes from
kill_dash_nine@lemm.ee 1 year ago
I share the same sentiment. The push of having Bing crap all over the place with the inability to make the browser more vanilla is just a turn off for me. As a former and technically current Chrome user, I have found the overall user interface to be pleasant and easy to use. At work, Chrome is the preferred browser so I continue to use it there but for personal use, I moved to Firefox. It’s definitely taken an adjustment to get used to a few small differences but I haven’t hit anything that breaks my experience to need to go back to Chrome yet after a few months on Firefox. The ability to customize Firefox to the level of detail that’s possible is pretty impressive. While I don’t go crazy with customizations because I feel it potentially adds to future tech debt I don’t want to deal with as things change in Firefox, I like having the option.
UnculturedSwine@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Not seeing the option “Because fuck Microsoft”
In all seriousness tho, I use Firefox because it’s not reskinned Chrome.
olafurp@lemmy.world 1 year ago
“I prefer giving my data to Google”
eskimofry@lemmy.world 1 year ago
“Firefox”
Lith@lemmy.sdf.org 1 year ago
That would be the Cancel button, because anything else would be giving Microsoft free data.
ultratiem@lemmy.ca 1 year ago
“My reason is not listed”
dontcarebear@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Obligatory Linux statement - so glad I dumped that hot garbage called Microsoft years ago.
fosforus@sopuli.xyz 1 year ago
Also Macs don’t do this shit.
Treczoks@lemm.ee 1 year ago
“Microsoft Edge runs on the same technology as Chrome, with the added trust of Microsoft”
Wow. If there ever was a reason to run, this is it.
ahornsirup@sopuli.xyz 1 year ago
To Firefox, sure. But if you’re on Windows and your preferred alternative is Chrome you really might as well stay with Edge and benefit from the integration into Microsoft’s ecosystem. Either way your data is being harvested.
MeanEYE@lemmy.world 1 year ago
That’s what MS would love to be the reason. Integration with the ecosystem. I still remember the nightmare IE6 was.
captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
Adding a negative number is the same as subtracting a positive number.
I learned that in school.
aeternum@kbin.social 1 year ago
remind me again how this isn't anticompetitive?
hummingbird@lemmy.world 1 year ago
This. Regulators are a joke
teamonkey@lemm.ee 1 year ago
Edge can’t be anticompetitive if no one is using it
shrugal@lemm.ee 1 year ago
Imo asking why you leave is fine, many programs and extensions do it. The problem is that you never chose Edge but still have to use it to download another browser!
aeternum@kbin.social 1 year ago
remember in the 90s or 00s when Microsoft had that antitrust case, and when you loaded up IE, it asked you what browser you wanted? We need that again, along with the antitrust case.
0xb@lemmy.world 1 year ago
The tragedy of edge is that it is technically a fantastic browser for windows but made by Microsoft.
Just thinking about the engineers that built such great memory management and security features that no other browser has just to have the marketing guy come in and say ‘yeah put these three layers of bloat on top oh and don’t forget to add the new backdoor we need…’ only to see that all their work is basically a tech meme…
I guess they must get home and cry while hugging their stock options and 300k/y contract the poor guys…
ultratiem@lemmy.ca 1 year ago
The first sentence is the most fantastical example of circular reasoning I’ve ever seen!
Windows users really do all live in denial.
eek2121@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Why are you downloading chrome? You are supposed to download Firefox.
TvanBuuren@feddit.nl 1 year ago
They are BASICALLY the same, only difference is whom they send your data to.
Kethal@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I’m not trying to defend Google here, but I use Edge every day for work, and it’s definitely not as good as Chrome or Firefox. Both Chrome and Edge are based on Chromium, so core functionality is the same, but Edge has no shortage of crappy annoying changes that make it frustrating to use.
Acters@lemmy.world 1 year ago
preach brother, firefox always looking for ways to improve and offer you a chance to take control to do it your way.
foggy@lemmy.world 1 year ago
“Didn’t you lose a lawsuit over this in the 90s?”
phoenixz@lemmy.ca 1 year ago
Install. Linux.
Switch to Linux, runaway from the windows shit and depravity.
assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I’m actually alright with this, which seems to be an unpopular opinion. It seems totally sensible for them to ask why you don’t want to use Edge and would rather use Chrome.
If we want to prevent monopolies, we need healthy competition. If Microsoft improves Edge based on this user feedback to create an actually good product, then we all win. It means that if Firefox starts to pull the shit that Google is doing, we have a solid alternative.
Of course the manner in which Microsoft does this matters a lot, but the actual concept itself is a good one.
Acters@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I’m actually alright with this, which seems to be an unpopular opinion. It seems totally sensible for them to ask why you don’t want to use Edge and would rather use Chrome.
I wish for Microsoft to mind their business when I download another browser. A web developer or someone excersizing their freedom of choice should not need to deal with petty and sorry looking surveys.
On the other hand, it is fine to ask how the browser experience is like but not this.
If we want to prevent monopolies, we need healthy competition. If Microsoft improves Edge based on this user feedback to create an actually good product, then we all win. It means that if Firefox starts to pull the shit that Google is doing, we have a solid alternative.
Unfortunately, this privacy invasive feature goes against this concept because it already made the browser worse. Also, Edge is chromium based. Mozilla, Apple’s Safari, and Chromium are the only true browser choices. Edge may bring some UX features, but they are data harvesting focused and not the core browser mechanisms. Microsoft is taking the work Google, and the chromium community puts into the code base and then running their own data harvesting UX on top. It is not a “alternative” browser choice, ever.
With Microsoft’s track record, this survey is not to improve the browser but to harvest more data to pinpoint your identity and behavior to sell to advertisers and data analysts. So the “manner” Microsoft does this is more of a reason for not wanting to hate this.
assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Yeah that’s fair. If they just open a tab that says they’re sorry to see you go but would appreciate feedback, that’d be fine. Trying to block the download to say that, not cool at all
CylustheVirus@lemm.ee 1 year ago
I think it’s a conflict of interest to leverage their position as an OS provider to do this. If they want feedback they can pay a market research firm like a normal company. God knows they have the money.
ikidd@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Its the browser that pops it up. Go download Firefox on Chrome and the same thing happens.
jivemasta@reddthat.com 1 year ago
My problem with all of it is, they’ve built that shit into the browser. That means baked into the browser, it is watching what I’m doing and doing things on its own based on what I do.
It leaves the door open for them to bother me/phone home anytime I do something that isn’t in their interests. Are they going to add in similar things for me looking for windows, office, GitHub, or Xbox alternatives?
Zacryon@feddit.de 1 year ago
I feel like a lot of users won’t use edge because of spite. It’s intrusive and manipulative stuff like this which has angered a lot of people. Admittedly, this is one of the more harmless reactions.
Edge: "Nobody likes me. :( "
Microsoft: "Don’t worry. We will make them like you. >:] "
BURN@lemmy.world 1 year ago
It’s none of Microsoft’s business if I’m using their web browser or not. They shouldn’t be blocking my use of another product just because I don’t like theirs.
Tavarin@lemmy.ca 1 year ago
But they’re not, you can still download and use any browser you like.
InternetUser2012@midwest.social 1 year ago
If they’re that crazy over their browser, how much other shit are you sending them you don’t know about?
rodbiren@midwest.social 1 year ago
I prefer to leave edge never clicked by using winget. It comes default on Win 11 (Most likely new install, not an advertisement for that dumpster fire). For windows 10 you can use the Microsoft Store to install AppInstaller which will get you winget. Winget is a MS product.
I mainly like doing this because Edge does a bunch of setup when clicked for the first time. This avoids all that.
winget install --id=Google.Chrome -eOr you can ever do slightly prevent the backslide in marketshare for Firefox.
winget install --id=Mozilla.Firefox -eJust run powershell or windows terminal and use those commands and you can leave edge where it belongs.
More info here. winstall.app/apps/Mozilla.Firefox phoenixnap.com/kb/install-winget
nickknack@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Windows is just one big advertisement jfc and M$FT the audacity to charge $200 for it?! 🏴☠️
thisisawayoflife@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Started daily driving Linux on a laptop 20 years ago. Moved my desktop to it by 2007. I haven’t ran Windows at home except in a VM (5+years ago) since around 2009. I’m much happier with the quirks of Linux than I am using Microsoft products.
Bill@lemm.ee 1 year ago
I was playing Baldur’s Gate 3 shortly after release and got a popup from Bing over the game asking if I wanted to enable Bing in Chrome. I quit playing then and there and blocked DNS requests to bing.com on my network. Never looked back.
Dick_Justice@lemmy.world 1 year ago
You can’t blame them for wanting to know. It’s a major market, and they’re getting their asses kicked. If I had to pick one, I’d pick Edge over Chrome, so it’s actually an interesting question anyway.
Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca 1 year ago
Because Microsoft is so damn pushy. Literally anytime they ask my feedback is that they need to just fuck off from my PC and do the bare minimum that I require them to do. I don’t need all the bullshit they throw on there to try and get more and more of my data.
_haha_oh_wow_@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
Microsoft: Possibly the biggest motivator in people switching to Linux or MacOS.
madcaesar@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Microsoft, if they weren’t run by morons could capitalize HARD on Google’s fuckery.
Hey, we’ve got the chromium browser but we won’t be following suit with googles anti ad blocking bullshit!
This would convert a bunch of people, including me. And with me goes pretty much 30 people in my range (family / friends) since I setup their shit anyway.
But, no Microsoft is just licking Google’s asshole and applying lipstick on the chrome turd and wondering why no-one wants it.
disconnectikacio@lemmy.world 1 year ago
So download firefox! Anyway, edge is a reskinned chrome, like nearly all chrome based browsers…
Amends1782@lemmy.ca 1 year ago
If I can’t use FF or one of its derivatives I will literally use edge just in spite of chrome, and do everything possible to not use chrome
archomrade@midwest.social 1 year ago
both of them are fighting over the exclusive rights to your browsing data and ad-impressions.
They can both suck an egg.
Mio@feddit.nu 1 year ago
As someone once said to me. Microsoft is not something you like, but is something you have to withstand due to Enterprise use it so much, and have so many users.
But when it comes to the browser, then you have to follow the standard for HTML, and suddenly you can choose something else.
Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social 1 year ago
Do they really think it being a Microsoft product means people trust it more?
vinhill@feddit.de 1 year ago
winget install -i Mozilla.Firefox -elemme_at_it@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Do they do the same if you download Firefox? I remember using IE exclusively to download FF immediately after installing XP, Win 7, 10 or whatever it was.
Dekthro@lemm.ee 1 year ago
Just use Firefox. Skip all this bullshit.
spacecadet@lemm.ee 1 year ago
I use Firefox because I want you use a web browser whose main focus is browsing the web.
cley_faye@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Great, because it comes bundled with an extension to show you news article you may be interested in, occasional ads for their other paid services and will regularly nudge you into donating money so that it can be used for many purpose beside improving the browser.
tiita@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I came to say just this…
Why is the person downloading chrome in the first place. Firefox with ghostery and ublock origin is the way forward
eya@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 year ago
Ghostery is redundant with total cookie protection
JasSmith@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
Sadly Firefox on iPhone doesn’t translate. Synchronising bookmarks and history is too important to give up.
TheBat@lemmy.world 1 year ago
All browsers on iPhones are skins for Safari.
Blame Apple for that bullshit.
Steeve@lemmy.ca 1 year ago
I don’t own an iPhone, but this seems like a totally fair criticism and I don’t see any replies refuting it, so what’s with all the downvotes? I swear to god this place is ridiculous sometimes, these people won’t be happy until you jump through every hoop imaginable to use the Lemmy approved software. Only positive feedback allowed!
Damage@slrpnk.net 1 year ago
Firefox Sync doesn’t work on iPhone?
Kodemystic@lemmy.kodemystic.dev 1 year ago
Just use Linux and Firefox. Skip all this bullshit.