this post was submitted on 25 Oct 2023
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[–] [email protected] 355 points 1 year ago (24 children)

Just use Firefox. Skip all this bullshit.

[–] [email protected] 195 points 1 year ago (18 children)

I use Firefox because I want you use a web browser whose main focus is browsing the web.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago (4 children)

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

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[–] [email protected] 152 points 1 year ago (8 children)

Friendly reminder that winget comes preinstalled on Windows 11 now.
winget install Mozilla.Firefox
You can install Firefox without even opening Edge!

[–] [email protected] 44 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 131 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 children)

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? You're never going to pay any money for it, this screams "give us your data, we want to sell it".

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[–] [email protected] 123 points 1 year ago (10 children)

Why downloading chrome when you are using edge? Download Firefox.

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[–] [email protected] 82 points 1 year ago (6 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 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.

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[–] [email protected] 65 points 1 year ago (26 children)

switching to Linux + Firefox was the best thing ive ever did

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[–] [email protected] 58 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Not seeing the option "Because fuck Microsoft"

In all seriousness tho, I use Firefox because it's not reskinned Chrome.

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[–] [email protected] 53 points 1 year ago (2 children)

"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.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 year ago (3 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 44 points 1 year ago (4 children)

remind me again how this isn't anticompetitive?

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago

This. Regulators are a joke

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[–] [email protected] 41 points 1 year ago

"Didn't you lose a lawsuit over this in the 90s?"

[–] [email protected] 39 points 1 year ago

Why are you downloading chrome? You are supposed to download Firefox.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 1 year ago (2 children)

They are BASICALLY the same, only difference is whom they send your data to.

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[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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...

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Windows is just one big advertisement jfc and M$FT the audacity to charge $200 for it?! 🏴‍☠️

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 year ago (4 children)

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 -e

Or you can ever do slightly prevent the backslide in marketshare for Firefox.

winget install --id=Mozilla.Firefox -e

Just run powershell or windows terminal and use those commands and you can leave edge where it belongs.

More info here. https://winstall.app/apps/Mozilla.Firefox https://phoenixnap.com/kb/install-winget

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 year ago

Install. Linux.

Switch to Linux, runaway from the windows shit and depravity.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

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 immediately blocked bing.com on my network. Never looked back.

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 year ago (6 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 year ago (13 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

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 have this.

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago (8 children)

Microsoft: Possibly the biggest motivator in people switching to Linux or MacOS.

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago (2 children)

both of them are fighting over the exclusive rights to your browsing data and ad-impressions.

They can both suck an egg.

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago (4 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago (8 children)

I recommend Ungoogled Chromium if you have to pick a Chromium derivative. It's a solid browser with the spyware removed, rather than taped over and exchanged with Microsoft's own.

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago (9 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago

So download firefox! Anyway, edge is a reskinned chrome, like nearly all chrome based browsers...

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (1 children)

winget install -i Mozilla.Firefox -e

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