After injecting pop-up ads for Bing into Windows, Microsoft now bends to Europe on links Microsoft has released a Windows 11 preview build that will open links generated by Windows system components in the user's default browser – but only for those in the European Union and a few other countries. "In the European Economic Area (EEA), Windows system components use the default browser to open links," the IT giant …
I think "utterly idiotic" would be more fitting. Not only are they seriously annoying users which will prompt a counter and possibly even extra regulation, they're also making people search for alternatives.
If I were Apple, I'd market MacOS as "without ads - because there are plenty already", and ditto for Linux.
And, let's not forget, this is another backdoor into the OS that only Microsoft marketing still proclaims as "safe" - those who have been on the receiving end of ransomware know otherwise (although, of course, it's always the user's fault).
I would money on it that EdgeDeflector will soon suffer the same fate as the tools that disable Microsoft telemetry (even you switch them off they apparently still leak): Microsoft's Defender-that-isn't will list it as malware and boot it off the system.
IMHO that alone is an argument against relying on Microsoft Defender, it's a bit like Musk's approach to "free" speech (i.e. only anything he likes).
We've basically moved from software you have to trust to run your business with malware attacking it to now Microsoft even taking over the attacking role.
For a while, I thought that Windows 11 wasn't so bad, but Microsoft keeps taking actions that demonstrate that they really are back to their 1990s form, ruthlessly trying to exploit their operating system monopoly to force users onto Microsoft tools. Also, Windows 11 is glitchy in ways that 10 simply was not, probably as a direct result of trying to coerce users into The Microsoft Way. Perhaps this finally is The Year of the Linux Desktop!
Spare a thought for me. The company is a Windows shop. Yeah, we do have a bunch of Linux servers (Deadhat... oh, and SuSE, the admining of which I hate with a vengance, it sucks, a lot - but that's the Debian admin speaking). I daily set my standard broser to something sensible (firefox is available and even preinstalled) - but have to use Edge for the stoooopid sharepoint ($deity, I hate sharepoint, we don't even have all of the nice integrations installed / activated). Of course, Edge sets itself as the standard browser, because f'ing Microsoft of course knows better. (this is on Win 10 - let's see if Win 11 happens, with all of the telemetry it is currently unlikely).
Great, now I not only need a coffee, but also something to put into it, no, not milk, rather soemthing grain-based, fermented and distilled... I think I'll write some snarky emails first, the recipients do deserve it.
We (well a majority of people who voted in the referendum, probably not a majority of readers here) voted that we don't want the EU "meddling" in our ability to receive the latest innovations from the government's friends at MS. The UK Digital Markets and Competition Bill does not afford the same protections as the EU DMA, its more concerned with making the UK "competitive" by allowing large corporations/tory donors to do what they want.
Bollocks.
Face it, Borkzilla : you're not the #1 choice. Oh sure, you have desktop monopoly, one that you ruthlessly enforced when other choices were starting to emerge, but you simply will not be #1 where it counts now or tomorrow, the Internet.
The default browser is the user's choice, whether you like it or not. And if anyone needed proof you do not cater to those using your products, forcing Edge means task switching, because users are in their default browser and you are throwing up Edge.
That does not help to stay in focus. Words against acts, once again, and your acts betray you. Not to mention that this forcing Edge anyway you can is very much like the whiny ex that can't stop phoning you. Pathetic.
In any case, I note with interest all those Edge Deflector tools. I will be exploring their utility on my work laptop. Thanks for that tip !
"That does not help to stay in focus. Words against acts, once again, and your acts betray you. Not to mention that this forcing Edge anyway you can is very much like the whiny ex that can't stop phoning you. Pathetic."
"Focus" is the new marketing buzzword. I remember when I was forced to switch to Outlook for work, a year or so ago. After a month or so I realised I was missing a lot of email because MS Outlook defaults to something it calls "Focused Inbox", which meant it was only showing me some emails in the inbox, not all of them. Typical of MS. I never have found out how it "decides" what I need to be "focussed" on and what I am supposed to either ignore or go hunting for, disrupting my "focus" on what my job actually entails. Luckily, at least for now, we can still switch off the "focussed inbox" and make it behave in a rational way.
>> "Focus" is the new marketing buzzword.
Not quite, "Focus" is another word for "being productive", used by Microsoft to make it less obvious that MS365 also generates productivity reports of employees using the software so employers can monitor what employees are doing.
The other "focus" stuff in MS365 is just window dressing to create the (false) impression that it's supposed to help the user.
Windows became malware shortly after Worries for Workgroups. It's just getting a bit more blatant about it.
As I said before, I see a lot of effort by Microsoft trying to prove it has users locked in so tightly that they can basically be subjected to any abuse they can come up with. I just wonder why - is someone trying to offload shares?
Trouble is, it seems the EU need to upgrade the regulator and an appoint a permanent Microsoft regulator with the power to take swift action. Perhaps then we might get a more stable and useable desktop - like we had for many years with XP-SP2/SP3 and Office 2003 (*).
(*) Not saying these were secure or functionally perfect, just that they were stable for more years than MS has achieved subsequently. Plus it didn’t have all the irritating “news feeds”, pop-ups etc. which seem to be part of the modern UI/UX.
I switched from Win7 to Linux about 5 or 6 years ago. Nothing to do with then unheard-of Edge or other such Windows shenanigans. Yes, it was a very bumpy ride for the first months because I knew Windows quite well (we bought the first Windows SDK when it was still in beta ~1985 IIRC) and knew very little about Linux.
And to think they do this specifically for (parts of) Europe and just ignore the rest of the world. Amazing.
I am so glad I left that Himalaya of crap behind.
Edge was around five or six years ago - it first appears with the initial release of W10, using MS's own rendering engine, and nobody used it. After flogging that dead horse for a few years, MS jumped on the Chromium bandwagon and Edgeium appeared, and has been aggressively pushed ever since!
Corporate software seems to me to be just one great advertising vehicle. Microsoft, Apple, Google to name just three. I've been on Linux for years now, using FOSS, Firefox or preferably Brave. Reading these articles about the shennigans of Windows/Edge just makes me shake my head. I'm thankful I dumped their shit long ago.
So, yes, Microsoft are big, and they still have 69% of the desktop OS market share, but does calling them a monopoly any more work?
They're not a monopoly in the consumer OS space. They're not a monopoly in the web browser space. Nor the server space.
If someone were to try and claim they abuse a monopoly position, I suspect they'd have a lot more wiggle room these days.
But yes, this obsession with upsell/marketing in their OS is just going to annoy people.
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