Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/09/13/insider-build-of-windows-10-bl.html
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If you go to Google in Edge it urges you to install a “fast, secure browser with updates built in”. As if every other browser is slow, insecure and doesn’t get updates. It doesn’t make what Microsoft does less annoying. But let’s not pretend like they’re the only ones doing it.
And no, people don’t always want to install a second browser. They might have clicked a link on Google’s homepage thinking their browser is insecure.
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They really are the fucking mole people.
I’ll say this for Apple: they’re self-aware enough to know that Safari sucks arse just as badly as Edge does and don’t push it aggressively like Microsoft does.
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Why do they even care? Seriously. Both of their browsers are awful. Even after all this time- Edge still hasn’t caught up with Chrome or Firefox. They need to just give it up! If they want to keep fighting Google on all-fronts, they should donate all the money they are paying to develop Edge to the Mozilla Foundation, and bundle Firefox with Windows 10.
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At work i use 3 browsers (seriously). Chrome, Firefox and IE. Mainly because some work applications/sites are more stable in IE… though i hate it. I use Firefox specifically for my own personal browsing at work, and Chrome is backup for when something breaks in IE.
At home i just use Firefox.
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The problem is that Microsoft was dragged through the courts because they were using their OS monopoly to push their browser in the 90’s and early 2000’s.
I don’t think they forgot that, since as recent as 6 years back, projects I was doing with them related to IE it was a topic of discussion. “We can’t do X because that might in some way put us as risk for anti-trust litigation” (NDA has expired, so I can say this) It was really innocuous stuff too, stuff I can promise just about nobody here would be bothered by.
So I really wonder what the deal is with this. As its an insider preview, they can reasonably claim that they’re not leveraging the OS to push other services, but they can test out whether or not the courts are going to make rumblings about antitrust?
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The environment had changed a bit, considering that they don’t have nowhere near a browser monopoly, and Google, perceived as a de-facto web search and browser monopoly is leveraging theirs. Why is Google allowed to push Chrome and Microsoft is prevented from pushing Edge, the argument could well be.
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If Edge is actually faster and safer, it’s because it does less and doesn’t have the same set of extensions that Chrome and Firefox have.
If this warning scares a less technical user to stay with Edge, then maybe that’s for their own good
You don’t test with Edge at all? I think IE is essentially in maintenance mode at this point and Microsoft is pushing everybody to use Edge.
Last time I checked, Internet Explorer was still intertwined with the OS even with Edge installed.
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“Microsoft is pushing” =/= “good idea”
I have never used Edge at all. Is it useful? My company finally divorced IE and now forces me to use Chrome, and I use Firefox for playtime.
I’ve noticed Opera boasts a built-in VPN, I wonder if that’s a good idea?
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If only there was an OS that was free and open and let you do what you want. That would be great.
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I believe the OS had done some major update to IE a few months ago but it never installed Edge. My work computer is still running Win 7 but from what i understand there’s a high likelihood everyone is going to switch over to Win 10 soon-ish (people who are getting new computers already have Win 10, and Edge by default).
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If it could consistently run new AAA games that would be even better. :-/
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Windows 7 still has a year and a half of free updates. After that, Microsoft will supply updates, but they are expensive.
Opera’s VPN is really just a proxy. Only browser traffic is going through it whereas a VPN routes all internet traffic. IMHO, the big thing that Opera VPN won’t catch are DNS queries.
I think Opera is shutting down their VPN service, so I don’t think I would bother with it now.
I don’t use Edge because there are too many extensions that I rely on. My argument was basically the lack of extensibility may make Edge a safer choice for people that click OK on every dialog that pops up (ie, my parents).
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Everybody who sees user tracking as important plays this game, and that’s definitely true for Goog/Chrome. Here’s my beef about what the Goog does which the consent decree on MSFT would prevent them from doing: On my Android device, I run the gmail app. Someone sends me a link, and I click on it. The web page opens within the gmail app (I presume). By default. I would expect it to launch my browser app (Firefox, btw) and have it open there.
So now what I do is do a long press on the link in the gmail app, and I get a context dialog that has, as an option, Open in Browser. Then it opens in the FF app. AFAIK, there is no setting for this. Just checked, there is a setting for this. Good. But when you click the link, it doesn’t automatically take you to the browser, it tells you that a new tab was opened in FF. Good behavior, but not the best.
Turns out that you can get rid of IE (not Edge, of course) in the Programs and Features part of the Control panel. I personally use Pale Moon which I switched to when Firefox was getting weird (it’s getting better tho).
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Chrome is not literally embedded into Windows. Edge is.
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