If you don't use Bing with Edge, Microsoft will tell you your computer needs repairing.
If you don't use Bing with Edge, Microsoft will tell you your computer needs repairing.
They are not wrong.
To mend your machine:
- Ditch Windows
- Install Plasma
- Your computer is ready.
451
Comments84
@[email protected]
I remember decades ago when a US court convicted Microsoft to seperate their browser from windows. The court wrote the verdict that Microsoft ilegally tried to prevent competion . Since Microsoft lost it shouldn't be difficult to file the next suit .
@[email protected]
@enigma @[email protected] @[email protected]
During the Clinton era Microsoft was a hair's breadth away from being broken apart for all its anti-competitive monopolistic shenanigans -- including the browser war thing that you mention.
But then Bush Junior got into power (I resist using the words "was elected") and he swept all that away.
@enigma @[email protected] @[email protected]
As I recall:
Microsoft Windows used to have good online help, circa 1991-1994 (Windows 3.1).
It was based on the Rich Text Format (RTF).
Then Microsoft added a web browser, and called it Internet Explorer.
Internet Explorer really wasn't very good for exploring the internet, apparently because its development had been rushed and it didn't display some things like other browsers would.
Then Microsoft argued in court that its web browser was an integral part of Windows, which Windows could not work without.
Then the judge removed the web browser from his own Windows-based computer and experienced no problems.
Then Microsoft changed its online help to HTML and made us use its web browser to access it.
@[email protected]
Apple had to learn the hard way: Under the DMA (thanks @EUCommission !) they were forced to give users a choice regarding the default search engine and browser on their systems.
What are we going to do about Microsoft misleading users?
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_24_1689
Is the browser selection on Windows no longer required in EU?
It is still required, as Google had to do the same with Android, offering multiple search engines and presenting them to the user (at least that happened to me with my phone), but after doing it in Windows 8.1, Microsoft probably thought that it was enough compliance to keep "those nagging EU politicians" away.
I just found out that the agreement between Microsoft and the EU commission was only valid between 2009 and 2014. So MS is no longer obliged to make the change of the default browser easy.
What a shame, as now it would be more needed than ever :c
But thank you for correcting me.
@knolord @Successful_Try543
>"(at least that happened to me with my phone)"
i think this is direct misinformation. what is my experience of androids, google search is forced on start screen. some cases user could disable the search bar.
@zetabeta @knolord @Successful_Try543 That happened on my phone too.
If a device has no OS updates support, p.e. a Samaung Galaxy S (the first of its name ;), or a Windows XP computer, it will never ask you to choose your preferred web browser or search engine.
I hope you appreciate this piece of information.
@[email protected] @[email protected] Well, I ditched Windows many, many, many years ago, but Plasma still doesn't make any sense to me, so I use XFCE. But thank you for Plasma!
Alright but what does that have to do with an image of the reddit servers?
I assume because they run on windows.
I run all our stuff on Windows ME!
@[email protected] @[email protected] I've been using Plasma 6 as my daily driver for three weeks now, and it's really good! I'm grateful for all the time that developers, testers, and doc writers have spent on this project. I decided to ditch Windows after getting yet another nudge to "please create a microsoft account".
This is actually pretty frustrating
I don't even use Edge and I'm upset
Yeah it's a shitty thing for them to do
Dark pattern and antitrust legislation doesn't mean anything if it's not enforced.
What is wrong with all those kde links in the comments? Are y'all bots?! Hella annoying.
They probably either use a different client, or a different federated service, that lets them mark multiple participants in each post of the thread.
I think they may be using mastodon and that's how you post in a lemmy community via mastodon, using the @ tags.
Federation is taking some getting used to I guess.
Mastodon users need to mention the user and the community name in order to make or reply to Lemmy comments.
@Opisek @kde That's actually funny you should mention that, I didn't even realise I was replying to Lemmy users sometimes until today. That's the beauty of the Fediverse. I have never even touched Lemmy but I can totally reply to you guys via Mastodon. Or hell, even via Pixelfed.
You know you don't have to click the links right?
The next step will be for Windows to tell you that you are broken if you chose another browser.
@[email protected] @[email protected]
I love KDE so much. If I didn't rely on certain creative software for work, I'd ditch macOS in an instant.
And I think that's one of the reasons people just aren't able to switch over from Windows.
But hey, every other computer in the house that isn't a Mac runs Fedora KDE. 😃
I feel the same about KDE and Windows. I only keep Windows for some music production stuff and legacy .NET application maintenance. The rest of the time I avoid it and use Linux and KDE, a far more pleasant experience.
@[email protected] on my latest laptop I didn't even activate Windows. I just plugged in a USB stick with a KDE distro.
Who needs Windows?
@[email protected]
If you aren't using Bing on Edge, then I'm sorry to say you are streets behind my friend.
Coined and minted!
Damn, if anyone ever uses Edge, this might be an issue.
Gotta love it when edge users try to tell me "It's not that bad" and "It's based on chrome now".
Those aren't exactly selling points....
I got rid of Edge entirely on my Windows machine. I wonder how Microsoft will act now.
I guess I should just become an immigrant since the land of Windows has been turning me down for quite a bit of time.
@[email protected] @[email protected] to this day, tom still spells peripherals without an h🥴
@[email protected] @[email protected] I'd like to use Plasma, but the last time I tried it, it didn't run very well on my PC.
Compared to Windows? Because then it's probably not plasma but the underlying distribution.
@qaz @shanesemler I can vouch this. The way Garuda used Plasma for a while lagged the heck out of my desktop. They switched it up a few versions ago and runs like butter now.
@analog @qaz This was not even a year ago. I'll stick with XFCE for now.
@qaz No. I use XFCE. I tried Plasma not even a year ago. Moving windows around made the low frame rate obvious.
You also could try Linux Mint cinnamon
The picture looks like two mildly offended Decepticons
@[email protected] @[email protected] Do not fear the learning curve, for it is shallower now than a year ago.
So, criminal fraud.
Fedora Kinoite, get a Breeze of the future!
Jokes on them, I'm not using bing in the first place
@[email protected] @[email protected] based
Never did i think id see KDE Propaganda
@[email protected] @[email protected]
3. Install msedge for linux and open Bing
Using Edge on Linux is like cooking up a banger vegan meal and then drenching it in bacon grease.
@rtxn
Instalung Edge on Linux had a few uses. Almost none, but a few.
@mittorn
@minecraftchest1 @rtxn i just using it to test web apps sometimes, not as usual browser
@mittorn
You just listed half the reasons I could think for installing it on linux.
@rtxn
@rtxn but it's better than using Chrome anyway
It doesn't say anything about repairing, this is such a low class clickbait.
All it says is that the default settings are changed, and they recommend resetting to their service. Because of course a company is going to recommend their own services. Would be a bad company if they didn't.
This is the actual picture they used in the article:
If you look at the screenshot, you can see this is the "Repair tips" tab/button. I don't know what it looks like, but it does say something about repairing.
It is literally under the "Repair tips" tab.
Useful red circle
They should add a red badge with ( 1 )
I can see windows internet related services being tested with edge.
A repair tip
A tip for if things went wrong, like if some virus installed a weird browser and set it default, and you want a quick fix.
It isn't saying that if you installed any other browser the system is broken and it should be repaired to Edge. That is just ridiculous and why I call this clickbait.
It is aimed at people who don't even know what a default browser is. You know, the average user.
Hey come on. You sound far too reasonable.
Don't you know this is the KDE community where we
discuss topics about KDEhate on Windows.You are working with hypotheticals. We cannot judge what the reasoning is. We can only judge what it is. It may have been done with good intentions as you say. Given MS's track record, highly unlikely, but either way the fact is MS is telling its Windows users that anything that is not Edge and Bing is damaged or malicious. That is anticompetitive bullshit (intentional or not) and FUD.
@[email protected] @[email protected]
I use DDG on Edge, and haven't seen this.
I've got Mint on an old laptop. It seemed to require the least amount of fuckery to get working. No idea what Plasma is.
I just want an OS and browser, not a project.
You literally typed this in a KDE community, how do you fail to know what Plasma is?
Browsing All does that.
@PureTryOut
It showed up on my feed. I see similar advice posts regularly "Just ditch windows and..."
Aside from my work tools not working on Linux natively, there are usually a few other steps involved in making the transition. Most people don't want to fuck around with that sort of thing.
I played around with Ubuntu back in the early 00s, before reverting back to Windows.
I looked into what was the easiest current distro to install in order to revive an old laptop. The consensus seemed to be Mint. It works fine and the old hardware was all recognized and so on. I'm still primarily a Windows user, even with all the the BS that goes along with it.
Using Linux is hardly a project anymore, unless you want it to be one. Plasma is just an interface, you can get many distros with it if you want including Fedora, Debian, OpenSUSE, Kubuntu, Arch, and so on.
@areyouevenreal
You have to realize just how alien that sounds to anyone unfamiliar with the Linux ecosystem.
I was vaguely familiar with different distros, and how it's basically the Lego of operating systems, from tinkering around with it twenty years ago.
It was funny asking for recommendations and getting everything from Mint to Arch.
For someone else who had absolutely no idea, and who'd only ever used Windows, it would absolutely be a project.
You can pretty much just install Mint or Pop OS and go. There are a lot of options (I would argue too many) but you can ignore most of them as a beginning user. No one should recommend arch to a beginner and anyone who does should be shot.
Also are you on a mastodon instance or something?
Fuck Plasma!
Message courtesy of the XFCE gang
Backed by the GNOME possee
@[email protected] @[email protected] Guess what, Firefox does the same thing (a refresh will reset your privacy settings and your default browser, all of which affect Mozilla’s revenue streams) but they’re a tad sneakier/cleverer(?) about it.
(Firefox is not private by default so getting you to reset your settings is how they try to influence you to return to their preferred configuration.)
#firefox #mozilla #deceptiveDesign
@Aaron @[email protected] @[email protected] Yes, to non-private defaults. Let’s put it this way: if Firefox’s defaults respected your privacy, Mozilla would go bankrupt tomorrow.
@aral @[email protected] @[email protected]
Here, you dropped this...
Because, guess what? Plasma does not force you to use Firefox either.
@Bro666 @[email protected] @[email protected] Which would make perfect sense if I had said “Plasma forces you to use Firefox.” Would you like any other straw men to rile against?
@aral @[email protected] @[email protected] I wouldn't call that one deceptive design tbh, it says what it is doing on the box, resetting the browser to its default state. That includes search engines and privacy settings. Resetting settings to defaults is a completely normal feature that many apps have, and can be useful for fixing issues.
@dajix @[email protected] @[email protected] It’s deceptive. They know exactly what they’re doing. That’s why they also ask if you haven’t used your browser for a while.
@aral @[email protected] @[email protected] I still dont consider this deceptive design. A prompt to reset is perfectly normal in programming, and it would be weird if they did not reset privacy settings with that. Resetting settings is resetting ALL settings. In fact, since resetting is often used for fixing issues you are having in your browser, resetting security settings is a good thing, since some of them can break sites.
Shh! You're messing up their bizarre soapbox interjection! They want everyone to switch back to chrome because they'd rather Google have access to your data instead
Ehh, time to play a bit of a devil's advocate.
"Bing with Edge",
Do you know what else works like that? Pop-up tech support scams. The target doesn't have to do anything, but it's become a thriving business in many poor regions (Kolkata, India is notorious) and a problem for moderately tech-illiterate users.
I would even say that this anti-feature promotes bad personal security practices because the user may be more inclined to believe "your computer needs repair" pop-ups if the first one they encounter comes from a legitimate, trusted party.
Yes, it's not a great security practice, and it probably should work more like "we've noticed you have randomly changed your search engine from google/ddg/bing/whatever to this 'random search engine no-one heard about'' instead of blindly reverting to edge and bing.
It seems to be a tool for tech illiterates. A power user will know how to avoid malware, and remove it if they catch it.
They should do a much better job than that, but helping people that don't know what they're doing is not itself a bad thing.