Microsoft wants Edge to automatically open by default every time you turn on your Windows 11 PC
When will they ever learn?
https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft/windows-11/microsoft-wants-edge-to-automatically-open-by-default-every-time-you-turn-on-your-windows-11-pcOpen linkView original on piefed.ca956
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If you want to open Edge without actually wanting to open it, just accidentally click on one of the advertisements in the main menu or any info area widget. Those ignore the default browser and always open Edge.
My new work computer on both teams and outlook just open edge with any links too ignoring my default browser preference. My last one obeyed like a good computer.
There’s an edge redirector app you can get which redieects edge:// links to your default browser
You can change this in settings.
There are links that use a specific "edge" link type that you can't assign to other browsers without admin access. So if it's a work computer you're kinda boned
You can definitely change Teams to use the default browser and not edge without admin access.
I’m pretty sure you can do the same with Outlook. Other links such as the start search menu sure you can’t change them.
Okay, my biggest issue right with that has nothing to do with Edge.
Microslop promising to improve windows 11 and give users agency back.
5 minutes later...
Have sex with me now?
( ) Yes
( ) Remind me in 3 days
The OS should get out of my way as much as possible.
Just like government. This capitalist, privacy nightmare timeline sucks.
I wonder what the solution to a capitalist privacy nightmare is.... /s
Shareholder value!
Guns
I was gonna say government (legislation with teeth), but yeah sorta
I prefer Firefox, so I was using that as default browser. Windows asked me every fucking time I started my laptop if I wanted to use edge as default. Sometimes it just went ahead and made the change anyway. Windows was consuming loads of my download data, fuck knows what for. Then the copilot stuff. Finally installed mint and feel like I got my laptop back.
Background updates of all the minor services running. I only had 360kbit/s for a while two years ago and windows could take a few hours until it was finished. You usually don't notice it but I literally couldn't use the internet until windows decided it was done.
they still sell dsl that slow here.. and of course the telephone company charges those people even more than they do in town for 20-60mbit dsl or 100-1000mbit fiber.
When using Sunshine/Moonlight to stream games to our Apple TV, you can guarantee that if it begins to stutter it's because Windows is downloading something in the background.
Welcome to the Linux family. 🤌🫂
Thanks, feels good 👍
Once I went Linux I loved computing again. I was getting angry at my PC every time I used it before due to backward ass idiot microslop decisions.
Was there no registry key that you could modify to stop that behaviour?
I've been down that road.
That's the first step
And repeat all this horseshit for 50 other things that should be a simple toggle or that way by default.
My only regret is waiting so long to switch to linux. It's like leaving an abusive spouse for that sweet young thing you'd been crushing on.
lol thanks OK. Appreciate the "we are here" touch, I get it now ...
Yeah mean, yeah, probably. But I felt like they'd find a way round it in a month or so, or find something new to aggravate me with. It was getting like whack a mole.
There always is
Mint is great! I use Debian personally, but I really like Linux Mint and Cinnamon desktop. I think it's a great fit for a lot of people who just want normal computer experience. Also there's a misconception that Linux Mint is only for beginners, and while a lot of people migrate to some other distro eventually, staying with Mint is fine even if you want to learn Linux more deeply at some point.
From this Safely Endangered Comic
why stop at edge, open every single program at start up and also fill the screen with pop up ads while you are at it
Like this!
Idiocracy movie was so correct about our future...
Even the president in that movie is gun crazy, and its literally Trump and his advisors.
Nah man. The president in Idiocracy listened to smart people about how to help his citizens. He cared about them and their ability go to the thunder dome for entertainment.
Thats actually true. There wasnt any military industrial complex with billions to earn from his decisions. In a way, that movie is sticking to the public school version of what our leaders are.
Back in maybe 2012-ish my friend built a new pc with some excessive amount of ram for the time. He had a small enough amount of stuff installed on it that he was able to just load the entire fs into ram, and just load anything off of it effectively instantly.
I honestly might switch to Linux. I know people say that a lot, but gaming has been the only thing keeping me on Windows.
But I've also come to realize I just don't have that much free time to game any more. Most of my computer use is putting YouTube on in the background or web browsing. I still occasionally game, but Linux support keeps improving and even if I only pick Linux supported games... I still won't have enough time to play them all.
Gaming works great on Linux now and often better. The only scenarios I can think of where things are majorly behind are competitive games with anti cheat that doesn't work on Linux and anything requiring peripherals with custom software, for example SIM racing. This means that the vast majority of games work great!
Sim racing works great for me. Anything from Moza, Logitech, and even my PXN wheel "just worked" out of the box on cachyOS. Bazzite is now getting wheel support. I did have to add USB descriptors for udev rules on my simmsonn pedals, and also learn to always disable steam input and use glorious eggroll proton. JacKeTus did a fantastic job with the ffb driver and I see him on matrix ALL THE TIME helping newbies and getting stuff working.
I game often, and 100% on Linux. Unless you're doing competitive multiplayer games with kernel level anti-cheat (read: rootkit malware), games run perfectly fine.
Good news!
Apparently DeNovo’s been hacked!
P.S. I’m shit at games… so I don’t know if this actually really matters 😝
The Denuvo workaround only runs on Windows and creates the mother of all security holes.
Yeah… I finished up the Tom’s article. Nope, I lied… I just gave up on reading it 😌
It just seems like something that could be encapsulated, no? I guess since they call it a hypervisor bypass it sits below the virtualization layer… which is essentially Greek to me. About 1 million years ago, I tried to get solid Works to run in a Windows VM on Lennox and it wouldn’t work. Best I could tell they were using device names that the virtual machine substituted for real hardware… I tried to recompile it and change the names, but I gave up because I didn’t care that much. Since I was using Solidworks pretty much all the time a dedicated machine wasn’t a big deal… as hard as most gamers game, that seems like the route I would go if it were me.
A deadhead gaming box more-or-less isolated… obviously it’s not exactly gaming on Linux, but if you’re playing a game on a windows computer from your Linux desktop… I’d argue that it’s the next best thing.
There are two exceptions to this still, STALKER Gamma doesn't work on Linux still and SKSEx64 doesn't work either. Also modding Baldurs gate 3 through Nexus is fucky.
I switched to Linux a year or two ago. Pretty much every game I've played has worked fine. (Elden ring, guild wars 2, nioh2, pillars of eternity...)
Even non-steam stuff was basically click and go with Heroic launcher
Flash a distro onto a usb and boot from that to test drive it and ensure your hardware is compatible - zero risk.
I'll be that guy, use bazzite. Unless your doing advanced shit or VR it's basically everything you need in a simple package. Shit I didn't even have to install drivers for my... well everything.
Only annoying thing I'm finding is my Firefox audio goes wonky sometimes while using the built in audio booster (FF extensions that boost audio were even worse) but rebooting Firefox fixes it.
As long as you don't jump on AAA title games on launch day, you'll be fine gaming on Linux.
That, or if you are a fortnite, LoL addict... Those don't work for reasons totally up to the devs.
I recommend installing Ventoy on a USB stick, then putting some ISOs on there of various distros to try. Like CachyOS, Bazzite, or perhaps Kubuntu.
You can boot into them straight from the Ventoy USB stick without having to format the USB between new tests.
And if you end up liking one over the others you can install straight from the stick.
You can do it, I believe in you random internet stranger!
Come on in, the water is great!
You can test most Linux distros using a “live” image on a thumb drive. If you put Ventoy on a drive, you can try as many ISOs as you can fit on the drive.
Bazzite or Fedora are both really good places to start.
FYI, Bazzite may have issues with Ventoy. It is recommended to use the Fedora Media Writer. I learned this a couple months ago.
I've been gaming on Linux for over ten years now: It has gotten to the point where the only major hurdle is kernel-level anti-cheat. Which does work in Linux, but the developer has to enable it to work in Linux, and most don't. This is only a factor in competitive multiplayer games. I'm not into those so basically I haven't noticed, I want to run a game, it runs.
Your scenario sounds like mine. Don't game much anymore and definitely don't play triple A crap that requires kernel.level anti cheat. Been on bazzite for about 6 mos and everything has been great. So much better than Windows.
I don't consider myself to be an advanced PC user, but even I was able to get Arch Linux to run with some googling and tinkering as my first dive into Linux. I really think you should make the switch if you don't have any work restrictions. I dualboot still, just in case, but I can't remember the last time I needed to use Windows.
Like you and the others say, if you have limited time gaming or don't play AAA on launch day, that's just one more reason not to use Windows! Good luck!
Doesn't "consider [themselves] to be an advanced PC user..."
Picks Arch as their first Linux distro.
Found Linus Sebastian.
I only did it to try to impress people online lol.
Everything is like a Hodge Podge of fixes just to make it work, so if anyone asks me about the inner workings of everything, I wouldn't be able to answer like 75% of it. I'm still learning.
Nah, he would have removed his DE.
Lol that loser can't even install popos right
Zorin OS is a good one if you want a nice UI transition from Windows or Mac.
I just gonna go live in the woods and take up bird watching or something.
Pop_OS has been a piece of cake to use. Switched last year, never looking back.
I've seen this episode before....something something IE something something Netscape
in 98 they were taken to court because at one point you couldn't even uninstall IE from your PC since, if I remember correctly, It was so tied into the file explorer it would break your system. they also made it difficult to download alternatives like Netscape.
I remember my Dad had a thing for "eMachines" PCs because A. they were cheap and B. most of the time they came preinstalled with Netscape as opposed to IE and he liked Netscape a lot better. Problem with this though is I liked to play X-Wing vs Tie Fighter and Jedi Knight online and the easiest way to do so was via Microsofts Internet Gaming Zone which ONLY worked on IE. and downloading/installing IE in the late 90s on a dial up connection took forever. and THEN once you did install it good luck uninstalling it.
Firefox was born fron Netscape.
Remembered using it in college and it was good. Mostly now use Firefox.
Ironically edge is installed on our Arch box as the Boss needs it for work.
I use https://www.waterfox.com/ instead. It's Firefox with privacy.
A wise (but evil) business decision to try again today.
Bahahaha I grew up with an emachine once we upgraded from our 386, then 486…
The emachine was the worst computer I’ve ever had. I preferred our Compaq Portable. I didn’t know it at the time but emachines were just Gateway’s bottom-tier garbputers. Trying to play anything on it was a nightmare. Even MIDI files sounded like shit compared to my friend’s 1GHz HP. The Rage II integrated graphics played Diablo II at 10FPS.
Horrible nightmare machine full of poop and sadness.
I wish they kept it. I’d love to have it on display at my house now.
yeah they were horrible, could barely run anything. I always remember the sticker on the front of it "you'll never have to upgrade again!"
My dad would get deals on them because he would pay for like a years worth of internet service up front so we'd either get the emachines pc for dirt cheap or practically free. so depending on the deal that was being run we'd end up switching ISPs like every year. MSN, AOL, Prodigy, etc.
i've still got an 'emachines' here. granted, nothing inside is original anymore, except the optical with the curved silver bezel. has an am3 board in it now (originally a barton core on nvidia chipset). i keep it around because it has ide ports.. and yes, i do use those. had to dig it out twice in the last month.
Oh, so they're on board with convincing people to move to Linux. Good job!
sudo apt install edge-browserMake yourself at home!
I'm already at $HOME
Why are you at my home???
my $HOME is not your $HOME
Don't worry, they're at /$USER/$HOME
/{username}//home/{username}What is this path supposed to be?
/home/$(whoami)-- Frost
Please use
$HOMEinstead of this. There are configurations that do not rely on the usual/home/$USERformat. The root user is a good example, having their$HOMEset to/root.Well... I've just checked out, and aside from unofficial Edge flatpak, there are official Debian/Ubuntu and Fedora repositories, I just don't understand why would anyone want to integrate spyware web browser into their system.
Some men just want to see the world burn. 🔥
I have an idea. Linux should start automatically everytime you boot you PC.
IDK that seems pretty invasive
Perhaps just GRUB and waiting for my input one extra time to confirm I actually want to use my PC at that time
I just have one kernel and one Distro with secure boot. So I directly use UEFI.
"Funny" news that bring me back to the last time I decided to switch to Linux.
I updated windows 10 and when my PC booted I got a full screen to setup edge. I wasn't able to find any way to quit the screen. So I completed the set up and went to install Linux.
It's crazy how they believe they own the PC of their customers... I mean, it's in the name... Personal...
My Computer --> Computer --> This PC
Microsoft does not consider this your PC anymore.
when i first switched to linux, i kinda took a little bounce. had some little annoyances in nobara and went back to win10. but when i saw my school logo in the start menu and it said somewhere that my school is the administrator on that pc, i went right back. that was creepy af, all i had done was sign in on ms office.
That's not Microsoft, that's just how managed computers work lol. Which means you likely stole it or bought it stolen.
stole it? i bought every piece of it new a long time ago and assembled it myself, and i had a legitimate win8 licence that i upgraded to 10, for which i downloaded the installer directly from microsoft
Why would my browser Downloader need to start again after I download other browsers?
Even non-techies know how and want to install a different browser, how many decades more will they try this pressure fueling of their shitty browser?
In fear of playing devils advocate a little bit:
Edge is not a shitty browser. Ad-infested, controlling, overwhelming, disrespectful, annoying yes. But not shitty.
It’s chromium-based so it’s quite fast and secure (unlike Internet Explorer that everyone loved back in the day) and it integrates well with the overall OS.
I wouldn’t use Edge, but it’s a decent default if you’re okay accepting Windows antics or too young to remember for how long Microsoft has been desperately trying to play catch up and failing.
It’s an opinion, don’t kill me. 😶🌫️
Edit: unrelated to the topic, but I’d like to thank everyone for not downvoting me for wrong think like what would happen on that other platform. Why is this community so nice? 😭
I'd argue that those behaviours are what make the browser shitty.
That’s also a fair point, in hindsight. I associate shitty to being insecure, slow, and borderline unusable. I have a middle of the road view on the privacy aspect because Chrome exists, it doesn’t care about your privacy but I think you’ll be hard pressed to call it shitty.
That said, I wouldn’t hold my breath and I wouldn’t be surprised if in a few months time Chrome comes with Gemini integrated by default. All your private data, straight to Google’s servers.
You're very a tolerant person. I wish i could be that tolerant, but I don't think I can and I guess I do pay the price quite often..
Edge quickly became my main browser. Its Tab Groups are borderline genius.
Firefox has tab groups, tab notes, tab categories, vertical tabs
Only thing is missing integration with teams and outlook.
It's a shame Firefox's tab groups are quite bad at what their supposed to do and their colour schemes are quite obnoxious.
I haven't used edge. Could you tell me what I'm missing out on?
I don't use edge either. I'm comparing it to chrome.
On Firefox, for some reason, the tab and tab text colours are as if you had high contrast theme on. They are horrible to look at.
There are also a bunch of small, but over all annoying, QoL features missing. For example when you have a tab open from a tab group and you click the tab group to minimise it, it doesn't minimise the tab you have selected.
Just small things like that. It just feels unfinished.
I do like vertical tabs too.. But Firefox has a plugin for that so I've been using Firefox the last year or so and rarely have an issue.
Firefox has vertical tabs natively now, actually.
Oh nice, I guess I didn't notice. I'll check that out, it may have switched automatically with an update.
Yeah it was relatively recently that they added them. I wanna say within the last 6 months, but I could be wrong. There's also tab grouping, now, I think.
Until they started to generate slopilot labels for them. Because nothing is safe from the slop.
Might be. I have a cleanup tool that disabled stuff like that OS wide. I kept the Edge shopping assistant, because it did find me a few sweet deals early on.
Vivaldi also has tab groups.
Firefox has tab groups too. I don't know if the implementation is any different since I've never used them in either browser.
Yeah, their quite bad tbh. And the colour options are horrendous.
I used it for a little bit years ago after it switched to a chromium engine. It was fine.
cant do that on a work computer, its either edge or chrome.
Between this and Lemmy, I'm ready for a switch to Linux now even though I don't know how it works.
You ask people online and get 78 different answers, then get caught up in decision paralysis and stick with windows.
I went down this rabbit hole recently: irked about a broken Windows update, I picked up on people's advice to try Ubuntu. To say I was disappointed doesn't really do it justice—I was mostly just surprised that it looked and behaved exactly like the Ubuntu I had used in college in 2006.
I'm really disheartened to say that after 20 years, it's still the same sluggish, dated, janky UI that I remembered from way back and honestly it just misses basic functionality. As a random example, there's no way to adequately control DPI settings for two monitors and messing around with screen resolution settings breaks the entire Gnome UI to the extent that you need to reboot. Some folks here on Lemmy were saying I should install KDE or something else, but I doubted it would be a miracle fix and didn't bother going that route.
I totally understand that it's built by volunteers and I think that's absolutely awesome! Personally, I just don't think it's for your average Joe.
Went with Kubuntu as I prefer KDE, and it's not been good on a multi monitor setup (at least with my hardware).
While I did make it further there than on some of the other distros I tried, it was still a no go.
Think I'm going to pave it and give OpenSuse another shot, just have to get some other bits sorted out.
Unfortunately, Canonical has kinda lost the plot lately - don't take that as "all there is" that Linux offers.
That being said, KDE is a world apart from Gnome for the features it offers, it's by fer my preferred DE, especially if you get a distro that offers plasma 6 and Wayland. I've been running Fedora with KDE for the last ~6 months and have been more than happy with the experience.
Seems I really struck a nerve. Again, it's not my intention to put linux in a bad light. I'm just sharing my not-so -great-experience that returned me to Windows.
FWIW, the broken update was fixed by reinstalling Windows, which was done by the time I finished cooking dinner with literally everything left in place. I don't really understand the hate on Windows.
Are you reading the hate on Windows?
Microsoft is a multi-billion dollar international mega-corp, and their software is meant for enterprise use as a tool to get a job done--a means to an end. All of its other uses are distantly secondary to that.
In that context, the tool becoming progressively less reliable, fast, and predictable makes it ever less fit for purpose. Sure, you used that time for something else productive, but when you need your computer for something important right now, it failing to work because its maker broke it when you weren't looking is a lot to take. Dollars and jobs can be lost because of Microsoft's cavalier attitude toward quality.
Contrast that with Linux, a free program made by volunteers in their spare time. Its own updates can cause problems like Windows, but they are ever less common, while the opposite is true for Windows. Furthermore, if I have important upcoming use for my PC, I can delay or ignore updates as long as I want, even forever. The owner gets to control the computer's use, because they're the owner, a fact Microsoft does not respect at all, and seems to be taking measures to change.
People do not like to be told what to do, nor when or how to do it. People that know how computers work and use them heavily understand how to maintain their computer, and those people are heavily represented here. They are getting their skilled PC management replaced by forced, shoddy, automation of that task and it causes them unnecessary problems, often at inopportune times.
That's why Windows gets hate here--Microsoft keeps kicking them in the balls and they hate that.
I've read and understood those concerns, hence my comments pointing out the contrast in my experience. In my case, Ubuntu was unable to accomplish what I needed it for and I returned to using Windows. I know this is a controversial position, because nobody wants to be supportive of a for-profit corporation, including me.
However, I try to separate criticisms of the corporation from my day to day needs and I feel misled by the community to go down a route to try switching to something that, in my very sincere opinion, was objectively a bad choice. I understand that many may disagree with me, and perhaps my specific choices were not the right ones, but I'd have wanted to hear some discourse and balance in opinions before I had wasted my time.
I honestly cannot relate to any of the points you've raised with Windows. Perhaps my experience here in Europe is somehow different? In any case, I hope somebody finds this comment to be more constructive input than an upteenth comment parroting that Windows is bad and everybody should just switch to Linux.
You're absolutely right about how the grievances against the company should be factored in. You've formulated it very well and I entirely agree with you.
To be clear, what puzzles me about this community is the fervor you mention about Linux. In my own experience, and while giving Ubuntu the benefit of the doubt out of frustration with Windows, I personally found it to be exceedingly disappointing. I don't think it's fair to say that I'm among the lucky ones to have few issues with Windows, because distilling my experience with Linux, I might draw sweeping generalizations about Linux as a whole.
While I, too, encourage everybody to try Linux, I would caution them to set their expectations accordingly. In my opinion and experience, Linux is tailored towards an audience of users with more time to troubleshoot problems and a willingness to accept a lower quality bar (for a lack of better words) in exchange for distancing themselves from the corporation behind it.
Don't worry, none of us did until we gave it a go
Do it! Just choose the most normie distro you can find (probably something like Mint or Ubuntu) and free yourself!
To give some balance from my experience, I don't recommend Ubuntu.
I'm not interested in getting into a distro war. I think we should encourage people to get into the ecosystem via whatever user-friendly means possible. Once they're in, then they'll be a lot more likely to try out another distro.
Honestly the popular linux distros are pretty polished / user friendly these days. You'll run into little issues, and you need to be at least a little bit curious / tech savvy to figure them out, but it's nothing a little googling can't solve typically.
I'm here for any questions you may have , just pm me! I enjoy helping and I can usually break things down into easy to understand bits.
Havent touched windows at all in a year except for work. And I did try Linux back in the early 00s but I wasnt ready then (wanted to game). Its come sooooo far.
Literally the only things I can't do: play pubg, and battlefield games. Both made by shit devs we should never support anyway. Oh, and use my Keith McMillan 12 step foot synth program on it. I have a spare junky win 10 laptop for that.
Has there been a fix for 240hz 32:9 monitors for their full refresh rate? That's what's stopping me.
I haven't heard of that issue but my guess is if you had it it was related to a specific distro or am, not the Linux kernel, but I might be wrong
It's fairly inherent to Linux from what I'm hearing and requires a lengthy reconfiguration of my monitors EDID. It'll allow you to run at 120hz in 1440p, or 240hz in 1080 resolution. Someone created a custom edid for a different model G9 but I'm not sure it works on a G93SD
Hi friend, it’s surprisingly easy to jump into. Zorin OS is a great place to start, or bazzite
Don’t be too worried about how it works, none of it is permanent, you can always reinstall windows if things go tits-up
At this day and age it works pretty much as you expect it to work. I'd recommend something like ubuntu (or kubuntu if you want it to look and feel more like windows). Something that is stable and not on the bleeding edge and mainstream so you can easily Google for help if you need it. Apart from that I think you can use a gui for pretty much anything you might need.
Little side note: the new long term support version of Ubuntu will be released this month. I'd wait for that so you have a pretty up to date version. If you need help or advice you can DM me if you like.
Thabk you, sir. I'll fiddle around as I ready myself. I probably need to research a bit more.
Maybe you could try the system in live mode to get a feel. You can simply make an install USB stick and boot from that and just select the live install. This will start the system directly form the USB stick without installing anything and then you can just play around with it and get a feel. Just be aware that all changes are temporary and are not saved to the stick. Most major distributions have such a functionality.
If you want something easy to install that has active updates I recommend Bazzite I've been using it for over 4 years now.
Just do it and ask questions later.
similar to mac and windows
Mint guy here, since 6 months ago, best choice I have done. If you make some research, in few time you realiese you do not need Microsoft to live in the majority of the cases.
Linux Mint is so awesome.
It's amazing the level of contempt for the average user most tech companies have these days.
They only care about their shareholders and investors. They haven't given a shit about their customers in a long long time.
No, they care about their customers, their users are not their customers.
I want Edge to fuck off.
#linux
If you're stuck on Windows for work or whatever, just disable Edge's executable in Group Policy. Let Microsoft fight Microsoft.
Will you describe more ? How to do group policy?
Group policy is edited on a local per-machine level using the Group Policy Editor, or gpedit.msc (stick it in your Run box).
Computer Configuration \ Windows Settings \ Security Settings \ Software Restriction Policies \ Additional Rules
Right click and add a new path rule. Then disallow Edge's path. On the machine I'm sitting at it's c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\Edge\Application.
Just disallow everything in there (*) and any time something tries to launch Edge in your face you'll get this:
Look at me. I am the administrator now.
If you are on a non-Pro version of Windows and don't have access to the Group Policy Editor, you can just use this which is considerably less hassle.
gpedit.msc
If you're stuck on Windows for work or whatever, you probably don't have rights to do that.
If you are a cog in the corporate machine then yes, probably. Ask your IT people. But in my case in particular (and probably lots of others) I'm saddled with Windows at work because some of the software we need to use doesn't work in Linux. And no, it doesn't work in Wine either before the inevitable comment appears. I try about once a year to see if the new versions have gotten compatible enough. The answer is consistently no.
Although windows will still try to open edge and will blank out your default browser just to spite you. Absolutely infuriating.
I used to replace the edge .exe with a copy of firefox .exe, then write protecting everything in that directory and disabling scheduled updates and that seemed to work (for a while at least.)
Not that I've seen, at least not in the IoT versions of 10 and 11 we're currently running. Although there are some hard-coded functions wherein Windows will disrespect your default browser assignment no matter what, such as pressing F1 for help in Explorer. Since we have Edge disabled entirely on all machines here, instead when you do that nothing happens.
Some senior VP obviously has his annual performance bonus tied to increasing Edge market share, and is pulling shit like this to artificially inflate the numbers.
Ditto for Bing, Copilot, etc.
Inb4 it runs in the bg putting up randoms websites in the background without any UI "agentically"
Oh wait...
Why does everything microslop does feel forced?
Because they’re the Oracle of OSes. They only exist to supply lucrative corporate contracts.
Ooh, does that mean that we're in for a big "actually we're restructuring our licensing all the sudden and everyone owes us 10x, effective as soon as you renew" rug pull? All the cool silicon valley mega corps are doing it!
Because it is. The question is why a good product needs to be forced on users.
They cosy up to the Donny, …which tracks.
This bullshit again?
they are constantly looking for reasons to turn people away from their products
That's great. Yet another reason to tell people when they ask me why I'm using Linux on my computers.
Linux is easier than ever to adop, distros like Mint just works out of the box, gaming with on Linux with proton and newer Wine much easier now…
Macs are cheaper than ever with MacBook Neo, if you want something that would just works out of the box.
So people have options and they need to realize there is tons of options for every need.
Can second this comment regarding Linux Mint. Many years ago I tried switching to Linux (Ubuntu, I think, back around 2008) but I lacked the knowledge and skills to make it work. Three or four months ago I decided to try again and downloaded Mint and installed it. I've been reading that gaming on Linux had gotten worlds better lately.
I decided to just dip my toes first and set it up to dual boot, in case I chose to go back to Windows. I had very few problems with the installation and operation. Nothing that took more than a quick google search to solve. Since then it's been not unlike using Windows.
And yes, gaming seems to work pretty flawlessly too. I installed Steam and have had few issues with running any of the games I've tried.
Yeah until you need niche software... unfortunately
Run a VM for Windows....
there's a few projects for running windows in a container.. winboat and winapps are a couple that come to mind. dunno if they're ready for 'prime time' yet. interesting concept, though.
Nope. Not always an option, for example, My recording studio is running Win10. I cannot get the same audio latency\performance I need in a VM, and some of my software will not even run if it detects that it is in a VM.
There's also things like HASP\Sentinel license keys that will detect VMs and refuse to run, all kinds of licensing servers do this to combat piracy.
I could go on... but I do IT for hundreds of businesses, I run into these niches fairly often when trying to virtualize legacy systems or retrofitting hardware for industrial equipment.
But for this you can get a Mac, and would be better than Linux. I do use macOS for work but my personal computer even for gaming is using Mint.
.... not really
Lemmy... where you get down voted for the truth lol
thats why I keep a windows usb boot drive, in case I ever need some random software. the last time I needed it was a fallout shelter save editor to enable the new paid content without paying
Yeah, thats not even close to cutting it in the big scheme of things
luckily for my line of work and hobbies linux has been great, for work I am required to use a windows laptop but luckily all our appliances we make are linux machines so we just use one of them as a test bench that we ssh into and use that for all our testing of our other appliances since the windows machine is so locked down by IT we cant really use our laptops for production. for home use I mostly just use the browser like 80% of the time then photo editing and little music learning using a little focusrite interface to be able to listen to my piano and videos at the same time and basic recording for playback to see how I did. I never tried to run windows software on linux other than games through steam and proton, I always just looked for alternatives which luckily wasnt as bad as I thought it was going to be
Slopya Nadella: "Oh no, people are complaining this is the worst windows ever! We must do something!"
and this is the result. /slowclap
If my school didn't absolutely require windows I would be fully Linux at this point.
https://github.com/winapps-org/winapps/
Winapps might be of help to you.
I do have a few other pet peewees too for Linux, despite having that on my ThinkPad.
default, and how exactly, just found a massive issue with Evdev, etc.).Honestly (and probably naïvely), what exactly is it that Windows can do that you couldn't do on another OS? Why would a school need to force such a retarded requirement?
As someone who has been dealing with exactly this issue with my new employer's enterprise ICT department, I have some insight to share.
When you have thousands and thousands of laptops that you need to manage, it becomes a burden for the in-house IT department, so they often farm it out to a Managed Service Provider (MSP). This is particularly common for organisations like schools and hospitals that often don't even have an in-house IT department. The MSP will install policies and management software on the laptops to ensure the OS is up to date, the antivirus is not disabled, the VPN is configured correctly, passwords are changed regularly, etc.
Yes of course there are linux-native solutions for each of these things, but the MSP doesn't support it, doesn't offer that service. To keep their service prices affordable for enterprise organisations, MSPs usually hire the lowest cost technicians and support staff. These poor underpaid staff probably have never even heard of Linux. The MSP can increase their marketable value by advertising the certifications they've attained. The certifications are provided by Microsoft and are related to Microsoft software and systems.
If you have a small fleet of devices and an in-house IT team that has a bunch of Linux enthusiasts, and a user base who drives demand, then it is possible to support Linux. But it requires a lot of effort and dedication. My old employer did that. They had a fleet of around 5,500 devices (a mix of desktops and laptops), mostly Windows, approx 500 of them were macbooks, and about 50 were Linux. Some of these were users who needed to use software that is available only on Linux, some were like me who are simply more productive and efficient using a linux-based OS. But maintaining, administering and supporting those 50 Linux devices took around 20% of the time of the IT department. That's massively disproportionate to the number of Linux users.
Not long after I left there, the new CTO put an end to that, they saw and easy cost saving by simply refusing to allow users to have any OS other than Windows.
Ease of management and surveillance (most such tools marketed at schools are Windows only), first class integration into active directory for user and computer account management, hardware agnostic (rules out macos), and it's already integrated into the IT team's systems and processes so switching would be a major effort.
My first thought was Power Automate, the same thing is probably pretty easily doable with it.
I said NO, Microsoft.
Stop digitally raping me.
The rapings will continue until profits materialize.
...until their monopoly collapses
I pray this happens.
Then another monopoly will come... 😱
When I bought a new gaming PC a few weeks ago (where I live the pre-builts that were assembled before rampocalypse are still at a reasonable price until the stock runs out), I asked if I could get it cheaper without the Windows 11 license. The sales guy said, "well, it's already installed." I told him, "I'm literally going to take it home and wipe it for Bazzite." He said, "good call, but seriously, they're practically giving these licenses away, so even if we could it would only take like $20 off the purchase price."
Kind of a bummer to waste that $20, but honestly the satisfaction of hitting "reformat" on a brand new, slop-infused, bloatware-infested, data-harvesting-ready SSD and watching it all vanish before I even used it was almost worth the money.
EDIT: Not to mention, I got back a significant amount of space. 15+ GB.
Same. When bought a new laptop recently, I didn't give a single chance for Windows to run. The first time I launched it was with Arch installation flash drive plugged in.
I ran windows on my new build (it was cheaper to get someone else to build it than to buy the same exact parts myself 😩) just to make sure everything works and my god, I could barely get past the setup before getting annoyed. Linux is just waaaay easier to deal with, even with having to troubleshoot driver installs. Windows is set up now to where you can’t really do anything to your own computer.
Linux storeage system just works better. I use CachyOS. In Windows, I could only play like 2 games, until my ssd would get full. But Linux is so unimaginably light-weight that I can play a lot of games, and still have a few GB space left. Linux is just plain better.
How is Bazzite these days for gaming? I mostly use my steam deck these days and my desktop still has windows but I’m always interested if I should make that swap
I honestly feel like I'm doing Linux wrong, because with one exception it's been seamless. No driver issues, no framerate problems, no game compatibility problems for anything I play. I thought I was having issues with Bluetooth dropping randomly, but I've tracked that down to a hardware issue with the antenna.
The exception is that my Wi-Fi chipset has a bad driver that I think causes it to sleep after every packet, meaning that my Wi-Fi speeds are so slow that a speed test times out. This isn't an issue for me because I was planning to be hardwired anyway, but if you're going to put it on a mobile device you should check your Wi-Fi hardware; I think a fix is coming soon, though.
In fairness, I'm not a cutting edge guy (I mostly play stuff a few years after it's released, patient gamers style) and I don't play many games that have any kind of anti-cheat. But I regularly get three-digit framerates on highest graphics settings.
What a coincidence, I want to edge every time I open my computer.
It's fine.
More people for Linux!
Wasn't MS just saying that they were going to work to de-shittify Windows? Evidently the same decision makers for the previous shit are still in charge.
By "de-shitify" they meant removing all the shit which isn't owned and controlled by Microsoft.
It already does, on startup, on 11. The process is set to auto-run in task manager on every single new installation, it just doesn't "appear" though the process is already loaded in memory the moment you log in.
Go ahead, check task manager > startup apps
Microsoft is malware.
that's a different thing. chromium edge has always had the 'load at startup' option (enabled by default, of course).. to make 'loading' it when you do run it, 'faster'.
this new innovation will launch the actual browser window, too.
"iNn0vAti0N"
its always edging to launch
Who's computer is it?
This is why you should use Linux instead
No means no, Microsoft.
🤢
with MS, all roads lead to AI peddling.
Is this…is this just an even worse active desktop?
SteamOS Desktop can't arrive fast enough. Once it has, I will jump ship to either CachyOS or SteamOS, depending on what reviewers say.
If you're on a PC, SteamOS won't give you anything that any other major distro already offers. Cachy and Bazzite are probably the most similar to SteamOS, but Fedora, Mint, Pop are all also solid choices. There's no reason to wait for Steam to switch to Linux.
SteamOS comes with a mighty corporation to fully fund its development, plus likely being the default for the wider gaming community. If the desktop version is flexible enough to let me do mods, locale, and so on, it would be ideal for my usecase. I hate the idea of distro hopping, because I don't want to spend time and energy figuring out things more than once.
It is my preference to only have one OS for each machine, for its entire lifespan. I would stick to Windows, if it weren't for Microsoft being invasive and commandeering.
You need to do more research. Valve has in total about 300 employees, and maybe a dozen work on SteamOS. Their priority will always be to maintain it for Valve-produced hardware. If you're expecting golden unicorns from SteamOS on a PC, you will be very disappointed.
To make matters somewhat worse it's based on Arch, which is one of the more difficult distros to work with from a user perspective - Valve uses it because it provides more flexibility to aggressively optimize it for their specific hardware. You will not get the experience you are thinking you will get from it.
Fedora on the other hand is based on and funded by Red Hat, which is one of the largest names in enterprise Linux. It's been in production for PCs for over 20 years. On top of funding, Red Hat also has employees working on it.
Red Hat was purchased last year by IBM for $34B USD, roughly 3x what Valve as a whole is estimated to be worth. If you want a so-called "mighty corporation" backing your OS..... valve ain't it.
FWIW it doesn't seem like Valve is really looking to make Steam OS a general-purpose operating system. They are developing it to work on their hardware offerings and may or may not add support to other hardware. This means that they may not work on supporting Nvidia cards well unless they start shipping gabe cubes or decks with Nvidia hardware.
Just because a corporation is backing the OS doesn't mean that they are doing so for anything beyond their own products.
So does bazzite technically. They are based off fedora.
April fools was three days ago
Just jump to something like Bazzite and get rid of windows, don't wait unless you have to
Could someone PLEASE build an idiot proof way to permanently remove Edge from your system!?
Its sometimes fun to watch this drama from the otherside. Windows is 'that other OS' for me now. I was switching between Linux and Windows a while ago, and made a permanant switch around 2021-ish (I think). I only use Windows at work as I don't have a choice, and in certain instances where I'm forced to use a Windows device e.g. for online exams, etc..
That's me too. Every time someone tells me that windows pulled off another shit move, all I can do is laugh at how they choose to deal with that and keep getting fucked.
If they were actively trying to push people towards Linux, would their choices look any different? Perplexing.
IMO they'd be wise to take every step they can to make the OS feel like it belongs to the user, but more and more the attitude seems to be "it's our OS, so we do what we want" which is their right, but it's shit marketting that makes them feel more like Apple every day.
Who is windows for anymore now that you can run games on Linux?
business users
I can’t take an OS with ads seriously. It’s a fucking joke. And any business that uses it is a joke, too.
Just a vector for malware.
Unfortunately corporations are addicted to the micromanaging control that Active Directory gives to them. They don't give a single flying fuck about the actual experience of using the OS, that's a problem for the plebians, they care that AD let's them do things like lock everyone's background to a corporate approved image or force everyone to use Edge as their browser while disabling the password saving feature.
Basically the OS is irrelevant, it's all about Active Directory.
Try being a sysadmin in a decent sized company (500+ employees) and you'll understand why.
I've been in one of those, we moved to samba first and to ubuntu later, in the end of the day we only really needed updates and centralized login storage. There were like 10 windows machines for accounting.
Which, funny enough, Microsoft is thinking about sunsetting, because they can't stop losing. Although they have very similar features with Intune.
I still don't understand this. I've never, ever, seen an ad on Microsoft. Is it an EU thing? Finland thing? Why is it?
I have 3 PCs with windows, my kids have windows, every work laptop I've ever had has had windows.
Never an ad.
Admittedly the fact that they are ads is hidden better than most websites would. But it's there if you think about it. Recommended apps in the start menu. The truckload of things you have to decline on install like an Office subscription, Game Pass, etc. The settings app will occasionally have pop ups that remind you that you have a free trial. There are pop ups that cover the entire OS reminding you to "finish setting up your PC" with no option to say no.
Nope, none of these.
https://www.howtogeek.com/windows-11-start-menu-ads-how-to-turn-them-off/
In case you didn't know, you can actually fully uninstall Edge.
https://www.neowin.net/guides/here-is-a-simple-method-to-uninstall-edge-in-windows-10-and-11/
(You probably don't need to do the "vivetool" steps)
Why stop there, you could just make a whole operating system out of it and call it EdgeOS.
Edging starts with your os
Steam is able to play most Windows games now via Proton. You can wipe out the cancer that is data mining you and feeding all your porn habits to the US government.
Well I want Microsoft to take a big step back and fuck their own face
Who downvoted this. The parent comment is correct.
Funnily enough I actually have Firefox open by default whenever I boot up my PC.
I have no taskbar or desktop items. I always default to a specific workflow of pressing the windows key (or whatever we call it for Linux), and searching for everything. I have since early windows 10.
I realised that 90% of the time, I was opening Firefox, so now it just opens. I have a pretty minimal toolbar setup for it, so it's basically just an address bar that automatically focuses when I start typing.
One day I'll set up something where I have multiple search hotkeys for web search, file search, application search, music etc, that will sort of replace this.
Sounds like you'd like a power launcher style workflow like KRunner or Rofi. Instead of hitting the meta key to bring up the start menu and search for the app you need, bind a key to KRunner or Rofi and invoke the app you want directly. These solutions also natively integrate file search, web search, quickly toggling settings, do in-place calculations etc.
Psst... KDE's launcher search is the same search as KRunner, just in the launcher! So you don't need to make any changes at all for a "hit command, start typing" workflow.
(yeah we call it the command key, we come from Mac, but I like 'command'/｢⌘｣ and it doesn't have to be apple-specific :3)
-- Frost
We call it the "meta" key. And no, not related to the company formerly known as Facebook.
Good thing uninstall is a function right?
It looks like you're trying to install a programme, let me help you . . . [link to microsoft app store].
Edge cannot be uninstalled. It's utterly ridiculous that I cannot remove superfluous programs that I do not use from my own computer. (Before anyone tells me to just install Linux, I already use Debian but I have to use Windows for my classes)
Edge can indeed be uninstalled, but if you are not in a region subject to EU regulations this requires jumping through some hoops, and it does require access to an administrator account.
I am Edge free and forever indebted to you 🙏 That was shockingly easy. I'm surprised my system didn't put up more of a fight. I feel freer already.
I am not in a region subject to EU regulations ❤️ It sucks so much ❤️ But I didn't know I could bypass the typical uninstall process for Microsoft-installed apps! I will be looking into how to delete Edge now because I'm tired of it opening when I don't want it
You can uninstall it, or disable the startup. They aren't getting rid of that ability.
Only in some parts of the world.
As a computer user with ~30 years' experience with Windows: why? Why does the browser need to open? Since Windows 98, the OS and the browser have shared common elements. Those get preloaded already whether you like it or not. This is how IE got its performance gains and this is how Edge gets them as well. Firefox once had an extension that did a similar thing, it added a system tray icon that would preload parts of the browser. The effects were not that great, but some people kept it around. I suspect Chrome has similar things in Android/ChromeOS.
So generally I say this is fine, especially since you can opt out and it probably won't touch business/enterprise, government users, and maybe even Windows 11 Pro users who are spared a lot of the bullshit.
As a Mac guy, I don't think macOS is loading any part of Safari without permission. Safari isn't part of Finder (the file manager), it's not part of the OS aside from being included with it. I run Firefox full time on both my Macs.
And of course Linux is less likely to do this. They typically bundle Firefox (some bundle Chrome or something else) and Firefox isn't really meant to do that out the gate, so I doubt it's happening at all on Linux.
But even if I had 11 Home to game on, I'd just opt out, but also accept that it's probably still loading parts of Edge that other parts of the OS use (like the help system, is that still a thing? Haven't seen it since 98 or 2000 or maybe XP).
But also, my Macs and iPhone convert the Windows company to, let me just type it so I can show you, Microslop . Yeah, I set that up. It was funny for a while. It's still funny. Maybe if it stops being funny, I'll disable it.
It needs to happen because the MS Edge product manager has to meet some sort of arbitrary user level to get a bonus
Serious answer:
I believe many office environments have customer service reps using only web apps. They don't run an .exe, they go to a webpage that has the corporate web apps.
Personally I had to spend a lot time getting my raspberry PI to autoload Firefox at boot because I have a custom html home automation panel. A distro that had the option of "boot to web page" at start up would have saved me an hour of googling.
Glad that they specified WindyPlop11. Linux wins in every branch of every one its splendid variations
Laughs in Linux...
Idiots...
Bro Windows 11 is hot garbage even just for games, my xbox games kept getting corrupted after EVERY update. I don't care about anticheat games anymore its not worth it getting frustrated every single damn update. I will literally play retroarch forever before caring about MICROSLOP again.
MS neglected thier XBOX franchise so much, it has become a joke/meme.
Ye olde active desktop for you noobs
I dual boot Linux with windows 10 for more than 10 years now, networking from windows is just unacceptable for me, on Linux you can also add any games that you want, if Adobe wouldn't keep resisting I would be totally free of Windows! They were always trash
At this point I'm starting to wonder if Microsoft is paying Adobe to not work on Linux. For most people I know, Adobe is the main reason for not switching.
Maybe you can try Adobe through CrossOver Linux's demo and see if it works? They contribute lots of work towards Wine, but also sell a more 'hacky' commercial software that isn't as strict about how it does stuff.
After switching to Linux, I will try out their software and decide whether to buy a lifetime license.
I ll check it out for sure, thanx!
I recommend FOSS alternatives to Adobe's garbage. GIMP for a photoshop alternative. Krita for digital art. Inkscape for an Illustrator alternative. Ruffle for the Flash Player Standalone Client. So on and so forth.
Mypaint and Krita are favorite programs that I use daily, but still I can't import those photoshop brushes I accumulated over the years in Krita, the last time I tried the program didn't load anything.
People are annoyed with this I was already annoyed back in windows xp when I originally switched to Linux.
They will never learn because they make Windows for Microsoft not for users. They do whatever suits them and they think will maximises profitability and their share price. They have to keep "growing" so they have to find new ways to make money.
As for the article; what shill bullshit is this?
No, it does not make sense to do this. Apps can be set to auto launch if users want them to. This only makes sense from the perspective of Microsoft trying to push Edge onto user so it can grow it's market share and harvest even more data.
Will do
Edge will connect to the online Windows remote OS server so you can run your applications in it and access your data from the MS data servers. How convenient.
Like in the old days, you open windows, and an internet explorer pop‑up appears.
I thought we settled this years ago
Every shitty new idea in Redmond will just generate more Linux users.
At least it seems pretty easy to disable? From the way they’re talking about it, it’s just a single click on a big banner in the edge window. But still, come on microslop
Laughs in Linux
Why?
No, I can’t be bothered to read
This is literally a "I need to meet an OKR" decision
It never prompted me. Zen's my default and I didn't even open Edge once on my laptop.
On my other computer I'm considering Mint or Ubuntu tho, but want to test first before migrating.
How will you open with no exe?
New theory: Microslop makes Windows shitty on purpose so that eventually all people leave and they can stop "developing" Windows and therefore save a lot of money, also by then firing all the devs (if they haven't been already, cos of AI)
I'm very glad I use Windows 10, and I have Vivaldi as my default browser. Seriously!
Bring back Janet Reno
puts on Microslop
Good for them. Chrome needs a corporate competitor, and the recent lawsuits that (I think) prevent Google from giving FireFox hundred million dollar bribes might lead to a diminished product.
This post and its entire comment section are hilarious because the vast majority of people browse the internet on their phones, usually through Safari or Chrome.
What I find funny is that some people arrogantly and confidently turn their noses up at Windows users for not using Linux, yet they themselves are still using either an iPhone or an Android device
Android is Linux
Oh please, that’s such a lazy “gotcha.”
Yes, Android uses the Linux kernel. Congratulations, you’ve identified the lowest common denominator. That does not mean you’re “using Linux” in any meaningful sense of the word.
When people talk about using Linux, they’re talking about an actual Linux environment, full control, GNU userland, desktop distributions, package management, the whole ecosystem. Not a locked-down mobile OS where everything is sandboxed behind an app store and you interact with it through a touchscreen UI.
By your logic, using Android makes you a Linux power user, which is obviously absurd.
You’re technically correct in the most superficial way possible, but it completely misses the point I was making.
Linux is the kernel
I don’t think you actually read what I wrote before responding. What does the kernel have to do with the point I’m making about Linux kernel, Linux, or Android?
Yes, Android uses the Linux kernel. That’s not the argument. The kernel by itself is not the operating system people are referring to when they say they “use Linux.”
Android is not a traditional Linux system, and more importantly, it is not some bastion of open-source purity. It is developed and controlled by Google, with most real-world functionality tied to its proprietary ecosystem.
So bringing up the kernel doesn’t actually address what I said.
You have it backwards. Linux is the kernel. That's it. The distribution isn't Linux. A distro includes the Linux kernel as well as extra user land applications. Anything that uses the Linux kernel is Linux. Android uses the Linux kernel, that makes it Linux. Yes, it's a restricted and locked down version of Linux, but it's still Linux.
No.
I will try and explain.
To use a simple analogy, the Linux kernel is like the engine of a car. A Linux distro is everything else around that engine. You can take the same engine and place it into many different shells. While the engine remains the same, the surrounding components can vary wildly.
That’s why there are dozens, if not hundreds, of different Linux distros.
A company like Google can take the Linux kernel and build an operating system like Android around it, resulting in the fragmented mess it is today.
However, saying that Android is Linux is an oversimplification. It is more accurate to say that Android is built on the Linux kernel, not that it is Linux in the same sense as a traditional GNU/Linux distribution.
The people that literally created Linux disagree with you. They all say that Linux is the kernel.
You can stop trying to explain your point of view. I understand exactly what you're saying, it's just incorrect. No amount of explaining is going to change that