6 ms·

You'll also be dealing with constant prompts and alerts from Microsoft to try Bing and redeem Bing Rewards and install smartphone apps to integrate with your Mi

by hbn 5y ago

You'll also be dealing with constant prompts and alerts from Microsoft to try Bing and redeem Bing Rewards and install smartphone apps to integrate with your Microsoft account, and them adding more spammy news articles and ads in the new tab page and Googling how to disable them, etc. It's gotten so bad the past few months that after a year of using Edge, it finally pushed me back to Chrome as of yesterday

plushpuffin 5y ago
You're not kidding, I just opened Edge to see if I would notice any prompts, and it immediately threw up a popup in the middle of my screen asking to set it as the default browser and change my search to Bing (with "yes" selected by default, obviously). I use it rarely but I know that I've told it no before. It looks like it's configured to ask periodically.
- croutonwagon 5y ago
  It could be on launch if not run in x time as well... I used chredge for work only and occaisonal validation on personal side. And if i dont launch edge for a while ill see the prompts, but if i use it daily...i dont.
- hbn 5y ago
  The other thing that cemented my decision to switch from Edge was when I went to set my default browser from the Windows settings, and upon selecting Chrome it gave me some pathetic, last-ditch prompt that said something like (extreme paraphrasing, but it was the idea): "Are you sure? Edge is much better now!" If I was having second thoughts before, I'm definitely not now.
  - jsrcout 5y ago
    I hate software that begs.
- phendrenad2 5y ago
  Don't all browsers do this? Even Firefox asks to be your default browser when you first open it... and then every time there's an update it conveniently "forgets" this preference so you get asked again.
- naikrovek 5y ago
  Chrome does the EXACT SAME THING, periodically, just like Edge, and no one gives Google any crap for it. no one gives Google any grief for the things they're doing. they're just as bad, if not worse, than MS was in the 1990s, when MS was at their absolute worst. it's amazing how blind people are.
  - kymaz 5y ago
    I think the catch is that if you installed chrome and use it, you won't see those prompts, and if Microsoft changed teh default away from chrome against your wishes, you probably do want to be notified of the change. I can opt out of googles nags by just not installing chrome, I can't say the same for edge on windows.
    - derekjdanserl 5y ago
      I expect the prompt is there to neg more than nag. I presume the only people who click “no” on the “Are you sure?” prompt are unsure as a result of the prompt itself. In other words, the role of the prompt is to make them second guess themselves and feel inferior to the OS. “I better just not mess with it, I guess.”
  - carnmordearg 5y ago
    I dunno, I see plenty of anti-google sentiment around (e.g., arstechnica, every government around the world, just about). I think the dirty tricks campaign perpetrated by MS against open source and linux was worse (from my point of view, anyway) than anything google has done. Their recent 'we love open source and linux' rings pretty hollow, judging by what their actual contributions have been. As a marketing campaign, it's a stroke of genius.
dmw_ng 5y ago
I use Edge on Linux to run Teams 5-7 days per week, and use it for anything that won't render in Firefox. Have never experienced this.
GhettoComputers 5y ago
https://github.com/Eloston/ungoogled-chromium https://github.com/Eloston/ungoogled-chromium interested? https://spyware.neocities.org/articles/index.html https://spyware.neocities.org/articles/index.html
- marcodiego 5y ago
  I use Eloston's ungoogled-chromium installed from flatpak from time to time. Mostly for google while I navigate the internet with FF. Don't know safe/clean it really is, but for now seems to be working as intended.
  - jmnicolas 5y ago
    The problem with the Flatpak version is it's almost impossible to install the plugin ublock origin.
    - oktoberpaard 5y ago
      Ungoogled Chromium comes without web store support. Once you’ve installed this plugin you can install other plugins like you’re used to: https://github.com/NeverDecaf/chromium-web-store https://github.com/NeverDecaf/chromium-web-store.
      - jmnicolas 5y ago
        Thanks but are there any drawbacks privacy wise?
gigglesupstairs 5y ago
Why not Vivaldi?
- GhettoComputers 5y ago
  Its not much different, closed source, has its own VPN, but I never saw a reason to choose it unless you want to use a public VPN (I don't want to).
  - luke2m 5y ago
    Opera is the on with the VPN. Vivaldi handles groups and vertical tabs well, and isn’t constantly pushing Microsoft products.
  - int_19h 5y ago
    Vivaldi is much more flexible with its UI customization options. It even has something like tree-style tab: https://help.vivaldi.com/desktop/tabs/window-panel/ https://help.vivaldi.com/desktop/tabs/window-panel/
supernovae 5y ago
to be fair, Google chrome does this too if you visit anything non google... i wish none of the browsers did this...
phendrenad2 5y ago
You'll also have to deal with every Google-branded site screaming at you for daring to use something other than Chrome.
nimbius 5y ago
Microsoft has a rich historic tradition of releasing seemingly well designed, well received tools and applications that are immediately clubbed to death by poor planning, toxic marketing, vague patch and maintenance priorities, and in many cases a near schizophrenic pursuit of niche or unrelated market dominance. one wonders, for example, what Zune could have become had Microsoft just used that juggernaut dominance to focus on the customer and experience instead of drifting down a rabbit hole of byzantine industry pre-crime enforcement.
- naikrovek 5y ago
  You didn't own a Zune. They were FANTASTIC. They did focus on customer experience and usability... they were amazing. I could put MP3s on there just as easily as I could an iPod, if not more easily. The whole meaningless, punchline-less joke "Microsoft sux lol" thing that's been happening since the Triassic period is what did the Zune in; bystanders took the almost toothless anti-ms culture shared among nerd communities as if it were something that had an appropriate amount of merit. it had merit, yes, but not anywhere nearly as much as you would think if you listened to Linux nerds talk to each other for more than a few minutes.
  - headsoup 5y ago
    It sure was, I have the ZuneHD still, it's still a beautiful device with an intuitive UI and nice clean software. Pity MS never figured out how to compete in marketing against existing sentiment and Apple (with their horribly clunky UI/Hardware and software of the iPod (which I had to support at work too)). It's a pity my Zune is almost a brick now, there's nothing wrong with it (my daughter listens to music and plays games on it now). If I could put an open source OS on it I'd still be using it (so long as I can sync it with Linux too..)
  - spinningslate 5y ago
    > The whole meaningless, punchline-less joke "Microsoft sux lol" thing You can't mention that without context. Why did Microsoft have a bad rap? Because they'd done bad/ill-considered things and it came back to bite them. The browser wars, Balmer's "linux is cancer" rhetoric [0], trying to create a "Microsoft internet" instead of the Internet, "Embrace, Extend, Extinguish" [1] more generally. To name but a few. The Zune might well have been a good device (don't know), but the "Microsoft sux lol" (as you put it) of the time wasn't meaningless. It was entirely of Microsoft's own doing. [0] https://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/06/02/ballmer_linux_is_a_cancer/ https://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/06/02/ballmer_linux_is_a_... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend,_and_extinguish https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend,_and_extinguis...
BiteCode_dev 5y ago
On the other hand, Chrome doesn't ask, it just does it. Logged in youtube ? You probably meant to sign in the browser too, sync all your life with google, and link your android phone. There, fixed it for you.

by hbn 5y ago

plushpuffin 5y ago

You're not kidding, I just opened Edge to see if I would notice any prompts, and it immediately threw up a popup in the middle of my screen asking to set it as the default browser and change my search to Bing (with "yes" selected by default, obviously). I use it rarely but I know that I've told it no before. It looks like it's configured to ask periodically.

croutonwagon 5y ago
It could be on launch if not run in x time as well... I used chredge for work only and occaisonal validation on personal side. And if i dont launch edge for a while ill see the prompts, but if i use it daily...i dont.
hbn 5y ago
The other thing that cemented my decision to switch from Edge was when I went to set my default browser from the Windows settings, and upon selecting Chrome it gave me some pathetic, last-ditch prompt that said something like (extreme paraphrasing, but it was the idea): "Are you sure? Edge is much better now!" If I was having second thoughts before, I'm definitely not now.
- jsrcout 5y ago
  I hate software that begs.
phendrenad2 5y ago
Don't all browsers do this? Even Firefox asks to be your default browser when you first open it... and then every time there's an update it conveniently "forgets" this preference so you get asked again.
naikrovek 5y ago
Chrome does the EXACT SAME THING, periodically, just like Edge, and no one gives Google any crap for it. no one gives Google any grief for the things they're doing. they're just as bad, if not worse, than MS was in the 1990s, when MS was at their absolute worst. it's amazing how blind people are.
- kymaz 5y ago
  I think the catch is that if you installed chrome and use it, you won't see those prompts, and if Microsoft changed teh default away from chrome against your wishes, you probably do want to be notified of the change. I can opt out of googles nags by just not installing chrome, I can't say the same for edge on windows.
  - derekjdanserl 5y ago
    I expect the prompt is there to neg more than nag. I presume the only people who click “no” on the “Are you sure?” prompt are unsure as a result of the prompt itself. In other words, the role of the prompt is to make them second guess themselves and feel inferior to the OS. “I better just not mess with it, I guess.”
- carnmordearg 5y ago
  I dunno, I see plenty of anti-google sentiment around (e.g., arstechnica, every government around the world, just about). I think the dirty tricks campaign perpetrated by MS against open source and linux was worse (from my point of view, anyway) than anything google has done. Their recent 'we love open source and linux' rings pretty hollow, judging by what their actual contributions have been. As a marketing campaign, it's a stroke of genius.

dmw_ng 5y ago

I use Edge on Linux to run Teams 5-7 days per week, and use it for anything that won't render in Firefox. Have never experienced this.

GhettoComputers 5y ago

https://github.com/Eloston/ungoogled-chromium https://github.com/Eloston/ungoogled-chromium interested? https://spyware.neocities.org/articles/index.html https://spyware.neocities.org/articles/index.html

marcodiego 5y ago
I use Eloston's ungoogled-chromium installed from flatpak from time to time. Mostly for google while I navigate the internet with FF. Don't know safe/clean it really is, but for now seems to be working as intended.
- jmnicolas 5y ago
  The problem with the Flatpak version is it's almost impossible to install the plugin ublock origin.
  - oktoberpaard 5y ago
    Ungoogled Chromium comes without web store support. Once you’ve installed this plugin you can install other plugins like you’re used to: https://github.com/NeverDecaf/chromium-web-store https://github.com/NeverDecaf/chromium-web-store.
    - jmnicolas 5y ago
      Thanks but are there any drawbacks privacy wise?

gigglesupstairs 5y ago

Why not Vivaldi?

GhettoComputers 5y ago
Its not much different, closed source, has its own VPN, but I never saw a reason to choose it unless you want to use a public VPN (I don't want to).
- luke2m 5y ago
  Opera is the on with the VPN. Vivaldi handles groups and vertical tabs well, and isn’t constantly pushing Microsoft products.
- int_19h 5y ago
  Vivaldi is much more flexible with its UI customization options. It even has something like tree-style tab: https://help.vivaldi.com/desktop/tabs/window-panel/ https://help.vivaldi.com/desktop/tabs/window-panel/

supernovae 5y ago

to be fair, Google chrome does this too if you visit anything non google... i wish none of the browsers did this...

phendrenad2 5y ago

You'll also have to deal with every Google-branded site screaming at you for daring to use something other than Chrome.

nimbius 5y ago

Microsoft has a rich historic tradition of releasing seemingly well designed, well received tools and applications that are immediately clubbed to death by poor planning, toxic marketing, vague patch and maintenance priorities, and in many cases a near schizophrenic pursuit of niche or unrelated market dominance. one wonders, for example, what Zune could have become had Microsoft just used that juggernaut dominance to focus on the customer and experience instead of drifting down a rabbit hole of byzantine industry pre-crime enforcement.

naikrovek 5y ago
You didn't own a Zune. They were FANTASTIC. They did focus on customer experience and usability... they were amazing. I could put MP3s on there just as easily as I could an iPod, if not more easily. The whole meaningless, punchline-less joke "Microsoft sux lol" thing that's been happening since the Triassic period is what did the Zune in; bystanders took the almost toothless anti-ms culture shared among nerd communities as if it were something that had an appropriate amount of merit. it had merit, yes, but not anywhere nearly as much as you would think if you listened to Linux nerds talk to each other for more than a few minutes.
- headsoup 5y ago
  It sure was, I have the ZuneHD still, it's still a beautiful device with an intuitive UI and nice clean software. Pity MS never figured out how to compete in marketing against existing sentiment and Apple (with their horribly clunky UI/Hardware and software of the iPod (which I had to support at work too)). It's a pity my Zune is almost a brick now, there's nothing wrong with it (my daughter listens to music and plays games on it now). If I could put an open source OS on it I'd still be using it (so long as I can sync it with Linux too..)
- spinningslate 5y ago
  > The whole meaningless, punchline-less joke "Microsoft sux lol" thing You can't mention that without context. Why did Microsoft have a bad rap? Because they'd done bad/ill-considered things and it came back to bite them. The browser wars, Balmer's "linux is cancer" rhetoric [0], trying to create a "Microsoft internet" instead of the Internet, "Embrace, Extend, Extinguish" [1] more generally. To name but a few. The Zune might well have been a good device (don't know), but the "Microsoft sux lol" (as you put it) of the time wasn't meaningless. It was entirely of Microsoft's own doing. [0] https://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/06/02/ballmer_linux_is_a_cancer/ https://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/06/02/ballmer_linux_is_a_... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend,_and_extinguish https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend,_and_extinguis...

BiteCode_dev 5y ago

On the other hand, Chrome doesn't ask, it just does it. Logged in youtube ? You probably meant to sign in the browser too, sync all your life with google, and link your android phone. There, fixed it for you.