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  • 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!

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[-] AlmightySnoo@lemmy.world 166 points 9 months ago

Microsoft really wants someone to remind it of these days:

[-] BlemboTheThird@lemmy.ca 27 points 9 months ago

I like that part of firefox's summary was that it's free. Uh, yeah, they all are. Thanks Mozilla!

[-] Aopen@discuss.tchncs.de 50 points 9 months ago

Well, its not proprietary

[-] stealth_cookies@lemmy.ca 22 points 9 months ago

Opera originally wasn't free.

Also, while it is chromium based, Vivaldi is excellent and is essentially a bunch of old Opera team members.

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[-] GigglyBobble@kbin.social 13 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I don't remember that. Where is it from?

Microsoft never liked competing browsers (not even in the pre-IE6 era when all they had was crap), so it's hard to believe it came from them.

[-] where_am_i@sh.itjust.works 67 points 9 months ago

EU fined the sh1t out of them, and somebody in the regulatory body at the time realized that was not enough. So they were ordered to present the user with a choice of a browser during the OS install.

What I really want to know is why and how it went away.

[-] sugartits@lemmy.world 46 points 9 months ago

sh1t

You can say "shit" here, nobody is going to be a cunt about it.

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[-] Patch@feddit.uk 18 points 9 months ago

What I really want to know is why and how it went away.

The move was in place because of the fear that IE was becoming a monopoly. Now Edge is very very far from the most popular browser, and Google Chrome is looking like the overwhelmingly dominant player, there's no reason to make MS prompt people to download rival products anymore.

[-] neclimdul@lemmy.world 9 points 9 months ago

INAL but my understanding was a lot of the fines and penalties hung on IE being part of the OS. I think it was the update functionality but don't quote me.

So with some legal technicalities, later versions of windows made it "not" part of the OS just a bundled application. A legal distinction without meaning but it meant they didn't need to do these things anymore.

[-] flambonkscious@sh.itjust.works 6 points 9 months ago

The great joke is they are making the same mistakes again with edge, unfortunately the American justice system is a shambles these days so it's probably down to the EU to take the moral high ground.

Microsoft appear to be exposed to monopolistic penalties in several markets currently: browsers, AI / search, teams and office come to mind (although competitors are lacking, here)

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[-] Rentlar@lemmy.ca 112 points 9 months ago
[-] Geo_bot@lemmy.dbzer0.com 67 points 9 months ago

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

[-] soulfirethewolf 47 points 9 months ago

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.

[-] Alcatorda@lemmy.world 40 points 9 months ago

practicing with a praise

Not sure what you mean but maybe you were going for "practicing what they preach"?

[-] DarkThoughts@fedia.io 15 points 9 months ago

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?

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[-] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 45 points 9 months ago

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

[-] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 10 points 9 months ago

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.

[-] Kushia@lemmy.ml 41 points 9 months ago

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.

[-] Inky@lemmy.ca 6 points 9 months ago

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

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[-] Piwix@lemm.ee 33 points 9 months ago

Legit malware shown in this article. Imagine an operating system/browser injecting what are essentially ads into your webpage. Whether or not chrome or edge are any good these are scummy tactics by microsoft

[-] Crashumbc@lemmy.world 31 points 9 months ago

Yeah MS has never done anything like that before...

Looks at MS Word in early nineties...

[-] MashedTech@lemmy.world 18 points 9 months ago

Look at what they did with Internet Explorer. Same shit.

[-] SatouKazuma@lemmy.world 28 points 9 months ago

Can the EU just Thanos snap Microsoft out of existence with a quadrillion euro fine?

[-] nexussapphire@lemm.ee 8 points 9 months ago

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.

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[-] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 24 points 9 months ago

Again, install Linux already and be done with this shit.

[-] HKayn@dormi.zone 8 points 9 months ago

That's always so easy to say, isn't it?

[-] Pyroglyph@lemmy.world 9 points 9 months ago

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.

[-] Poem_for_your_sprog@lemmy.world 8 points 9 months ago

The software and hardware I'm using won't work on Linux.

[-] XenoDial@lemmy.world 7 points 9 months ago

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.

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[-] DemBoSain@midwest.social 13 points 9 months ago

What is this clickbait bullshit? Here I was expecting more arguments I could use to move people away from Chrome, but the warning is just typical Microsoft trying to promote their own garbage browser.

[-] DingoBilly@lemmy.world 10 points 9 months ago

This is a super clickbait title.

Yes, what Microsoft does is pretty shitty but the article sounds like there's some massive zero day hack or something to watch out for when it's just standard business practice.

[-] AnActOfCreation@programming.dev 7 points 9 months ago

Agreed. I would've changed it except I had in the back of my mind that the post title needed to match the article title, but now I don't see that in the rules. Oh well. But yeah the article is not really about Chrome at all.

[-] grue@lemmy.world 10 points 9 months ago

You know what else is different about Lemmy? Post titles are editable!

[-] Teknikal@lemm.ee 9 points 9 months ago

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.

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[-] Rocketpoweredgorilla@lemmy.ca 8 points 9 months ago

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.

[-] 800XL@lemmy.world 5 points 9 months ago

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.

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[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 7 points 9 months ago

Sorry, team nobody on this one. You both suck and need to stop what you're doing.

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[-] finthechat@kbin.social 6 points 9 months ago

Microsoft ~~Edge~~ Death Grip

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this post was submitted on 05 Feb 2024
569 points (92.3% liked)

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