Spyke
lemmy.ca

Use an ad-filled browser controlled by a megacorp, with an engine built by another megacorp?

Hmmm, I dunno

178
lemmy.world

Even better. After you've explicitly triggered the default change MS is like "have you tried the all new megacorp spyware? It's not actually new, but identical to the spyware we already installed and absolutely nothing has changed in the last 10 seconds since you made the decision, but we figured we'd throw another churn barrier at you because fuck you; we own your OS. You're our product now bitch, and that's all you'll ever be"

72
feddit.de

Don't forget the OS built by a megacorp snorkeling up all your data anyways

34
lemmy.blahaj.zone

..that they ask you to actually pay for the privilege. Because remember, windows isn't actually free (and you pay for it if you buy a pre-built).

19
pawb.social

I feel it's important to point out that you can simply not activate Windows and use it indefinitely

Does make you wonder though where Microsoft is getting that money from

1

Corporate Users. My guess is, that almost any office job where you work on a Computer has Windows as OS. You have a license for your job. The license for home usage is bonus money to Microsoft.

2
Sigmaticsreply
lemmy.ca

At least I can mostly opt out there. Or use Linux

3
const_voidreply
lemmy.ml

Sure if you trust that the opt-out switches actually work.

24
lemmy.ml

They must do something, or Windows wouldn't constantly turn them back on with every other update.

22

Do you think Microsoft wants to get sued by the EU?

Those opt-out work. Or at least in the EU they do.

1
feddit.ch

Well, on the other hand, said megacorp finances the only other engine (Gecko, Blink being a fork of Apples Webkit), so they don't have to bother with monopoly restrictions.

Current web is broken.

5
Sigmaticsreply
lemmy.ca

I realize this, but technically Mozilla is still an independent entity. They also fight some Google attempts at Web DRM, so it's still healthy competition

9
lemmesayreply
discuss.tchncs.de

and web standards! chrome doesn't care much about web standards. they regularly add new nonstandard proprieties that eventually wins because of their market-size.

4

I think they’re referring to the fact that Edge runs on the Chromium engine which, as the name implies, is a Google product.

17
lemmy.world

Edge started itself on boot after a recent Windows update. It even had a little pop-up about how "helpful" it was to have it start right when my computer turns on so I can "get to browsing" faster. It's never been set as my default. Uhg.

110
zaphreply
sh.itjust.works

Make sure you go into the settings and turn everything off. It'll run in the background and do God knows what even though you've turned off startup.

41

And then on next update go turn it off again, since they'll enable everything again. Rinse and repeat for eternity. Or switch to Linux and be done with their shenanigans.

42
normonatorreply
lemmy.ml

If you sped through edge's first launch wizard recently it's now scraping your browsing data from other browsers.

8
lemmy.ca

Well, I switched to Edge for work with the latest Chrome update (since internal apps were Chromium only), and was pleasantly surprised. It actually let me turn off almost all the junk, and is responsive in a way I haven’t seen in a Chromium browser in years.

Safari and Firefox for personal use though, and nothing compelling to make me change that.

57
Pyroreply
programming.dev

The performance is pretty on-par with other major browsers now, but it is the obscene amount of popups built into the browser that irritates me.

24
grffreply
lemmy.world

Same I'm a developer who uses edge as my daily driver and once setup right I love it

4

I use arc on my mac and it’s nowhere near as nice as that, but I like the side tabs, the way it gets out of the way when I’m searching, and bing isn’t too bad; I’ve actually used it a few times. Once I found a customizable start page I haven’t looked back. Again, for work

2

There’s the shopping popup that tries to find better deals or vouchers for products you’re looking at. It’s easy to turn off though.

Searching the settings for “notification” does show others - a feature called Discover and sidebar apps seem to be able to send notifications but I’ve never seen either.

1
feddit.de

Maybe look at BromiteCromite? Open Source Chromium browser where you don't need to disable anything

7

Same, I'm only allowed to use either Chrome or Edge on my work laptop, so I chose Edge.

Librewolf on my personal laptop and Firefox on mobile tho.

6
lemmynsfw.com

Don’t worry Gill it will set itself back as default next Tuesday

56
Polarreply
lemmy.ca

I've never had that happen. Either the US version of Windows is fucked, or people are bullshitting hard.

13
bonn2reply

I had it happen once after a windows update. What it has done is put a shortcut on my desktop enough times that I wrote a script to check for and delete them whenever it does.

12
midwest.social

I'm in the US and have never ran into half of the stuff people say MS forces on them on a daily basis.

11
lemm.ee

I think this has a lot to do with what license you bought. My old Win8 Pro key install has never had ads and shit pop back up or re-enable candy crush or whatever. One of our shitty laptops at work with a win10 home license I absolutely dread updating because there is some new bullshit nearly every time.

14

What is does do way too often is make itself my default PDF viewer. I've got Adobe Acrobat Pro and Bluebeam. I have zero reason to ever want to see a PDF in Edge.

9
WashedOverreply
lemmy.ca

There was a while there where it would default to Edge for PDFs and as a web browser after a update. Quite annoying for a factory full of PCs that I wanted to use Chrome and Adobe Reader instead.

I tried Edge for a bit but stuck with chrome. Recently I've gone back to Firefox but I've not had one of those major updates yet that even tries to get me to log into Microsoft as a log in so it will be interesting when that happens again if Edge shows up as the default.

3

I have to use Acrobat for my job. If it opened it up in Edge every time instead, I'd go nuts.

3

From time to time when you update windows it'll show you a welcoming setup again similar to the first time you logged in. In that process it will try to convince you to setup some Microsoft stuff on your pc, including changing default apps, but it shouldn't do it on its own.

But sometimes it does. It happened once for me this year.

3
JokeDeityreply
lemm.ee

I'm still on 10, but half the shit I see people complain about with Windows I've never experienced personally. Maybe I'm just lucky? Maybe I just read? I don't know, but I'm not having the same experience as a lot of people on here.

3
Phenreply
lemmy.eco.br

In general any bad thing about windows that it manages to fixes still gets commented about online for several years after the fact. For example: BSODs stopped being a regular thing in windows user's life very long ago, but it took another 10 years after that for people to stop making BSOD jokes online.

3

Ironically enough, I actually did have my first blue screen in likely 5+ years yesterday. I was so shocked by it I wasn't even mad, just impressed it's been so long.

2
lemmy.ml

What does "built for Windows 10" even mean? It's just a browser. It's even cross platform.

47
lemmy.ml

Almost everything that runs on Windows was built for Windows. So it's a true statement, but pointless. That's like BF Goodrich advertising their tires as "built for cars".

22

You're right, clicked it away so many times over the years and never stopped to think what a silly statement that was. I feel like it was for a time when 10 was a new shiny 'mysterious' thing, that it might convince people into thinking it needed something special, but has just aged like milk.

9

That unlike teams, which they didn't bother to build for windows and instead used a webapp, they actually bothered to use their own ui tools on their own operating system for a change? (But I guess they only did that so that teams could be a webapp, based on edge...)

3
const_voidreply
lemmy.ml

In what way is it "integrated"? Please, I'd love to know.

2

Microsoft Edge is integrated with File Explorer in Windows 10 through a feature called "Pick up where you left off". This feature allows users to resume their browsing session from Microsoft Edge directly within File Explorer.

2
lemmy.ca

Their other apps use it or part of it in the background.

Kind of like old Windows apps always used Explorer when they needed a browser

I wouldn’t be surprised if the start menu was using Edge for their search/ads

1
kamenLadyreply
startrek.website

You're telling me, that Windows now shows ads in the start menu?

Sorry, it's probably a stupid question, but i haven't used windows since XP.

5

Wow - that's really something.

It could almost be compared to Google's feed, included in the pixel launcher...

For some time now, every 5th or 6th card is an ad ... And over time they slowly look just like the normal news cards.

Yeah, nowadays we're getting ads forced upon us - one way or the other ads have to be seen, preferably clicked on, by us.

2
1984reply
lemmy.today

Same story every time. Something good turns into shit because they need to add marketing.

I'm shocked Microsoft hasnt fucked up VS Code yet. Someone much smarter than average is running that team at Microsoft.

32

Nah the future for VS Code looks dark imo. They own VS Code, Github, NPM and Copilot and everything they touch turns into shit.

5

It turned bad because a bunch of users refused to use it because they remembered never updating past IE8 and made jokes about it lagging behind the competition

VS Code is the fucked up version of Code OSS

4

It's because they make their devtool money off of enterprise licensing costs, and they get those costs by getting developers to be okay using their devtools.
The tool is the advertisement for building software for Windows. If it gets too miserable to use the tools or build for the ecosystem, then some companies won't prioritize windows software, and developers will prefer jobs doing something else. It's got to be good enough so that decision makers at software companies don't start hearing that windows software takes three quarters longer to develop.
Web developers are already targeting their browser as an afterthought, and mobile developers are pretty pulled into to apple ecosystem, since you can develop android apps on a Mac, but you can only use a Mac to make iPhone apps.

Without developers, applications lag, and they lose business and consumer market share, which costs them more developers.
Hence: visual studio is fine, and they keep adding azure features to GitHub and tying it all to visual studio.

3
programming.dev

Edge is pretty good...

...for downloading Firefox.

I wouldn't even use a proprietary browser if they'd pay me for it. Let alone a chromium based one.

36
m-p{3}reply
lemmy.ca

You don't even need a browser

winget install Mozilla.Firefox

25
CeeBeereply
lemmy.world

That's a weird way to write apt install firefox

26

Who needs to sudo apt install firefox when it already comes preinstalled on most distros?

7
programming.dev

No!

apt: ok

pacman: ok

flatpak: ok

appimage: ok

built stuff from source: ok

snap: over my dead body

11

True, I missed that winget is now preinstalled with newer windows versions. I don't use windows a lot though, especially not for browsing the web.

3
lemm.ee

This joke was funny when Chrome was superior, but now Edge is actually better.

32
darcyreply
sh.itjust.works

maybe, but they are both proprietry spyware and chromium based. firefox is better than both

36
jaschenreply
lemm.ee

I agree. But sometimes your pages won't load with Firefox. For you and me it's great. We can get around it. For your parents and grandma's, it's a nightmare.

1

ive heard of that, but ive never had that happen? stock firefox seems to load everything for me, but maybe its due to spoofing a chrome useragent, or bc i tend to avoid sites like that. librewolf with default setttings, or hardened firefox is admittedly pretty buggy for a lot of websites. i would say brave is an easy upgrade from other chromiums, for family members, but i still think stock firefox is alright for that too

1

I'm a WEB UX designer that helps with testing new pages and Firefox sometimes doesn't render things that all the other browsers can.

Firefox is great for privacy but shit is buggy.

1
shalafireply
lemmy.world

Edge is my daily driver and has been for a couple of years. Seems faster than Chrome, but maybe that's just my perception.

I think these haters are hating because Microsoft. Or, they're too ignorant to realize Edge is Chrome under the hood.

7
lemmy.dbzer0.com

I wouldn't have a problem with Edge if it wasn't always running in the background, it's quite spooky. Not to talk about when it gives me the popups to not change the browser, it is my computer and I will do what I want with it

11
Polarreply
lemmy.ca

Firefox always runs in the background on my PC also. I'm sure there's a way to disable it, but by default it's always there.

-1

Sometimes you let some apps linger but edge is in the background from the beginning. And I'm sure you can disable an option in firefox but to get rid of edge the only option is the command line and erasing all of its files until the next update comes around

5

There is a setting in Edge to stop it running in the background after it's closed (it shouldn't do that in the first place, but this is at least useful because if you don't turn off the web links in your Start menu search results, Edge can be triggered to open by accident from there and then continue to run in the BG after you close it).

Still on Windows 10 and I haven't noticed Edge running in the background on startup (and obviously I have it set not to do that in Windows). I'm guessing though that it's possible it might always be on if you use Cortana? I always have Cortana off too.

1

We use Edge in our company for the integration since off of our users are on 365.

On some hold outs that kept trying to cling on to Chrome, I just changed the beachball shortcut on their desktop to open Edge instead. None of them have noticed the change over a year later.

6
joneskindreply
lemmy.world

Not sure if it really could be faster than Chrome since they share the same web renderer (chromium) but Edge is definitely better optimised than Chrome when it comes to memory usage since MS has a better understanding of how its own OS works on a lower system level.

6

I also own a Chromebook and their Chrome browser blows on it. So ya.

1

Isn't chrome also based on chromium? I would argue they are equally bad, because both are proprietary.

8

It's like saying Mac OS is just a Linux distro. It's similar but actually pretty different when it comes to how it manages its memory.

1
lemmy.blahaj.zone

Windows put a full page ad for windows 11 before my computer started, I'm never upgrading. Hope to God Linux gaming gets better by 2025

31
phuntisreply
sopuli.xyz

linux gaming is basically there at this point proton can run most games flawlessly unless you wanna play games with hyper aggressive drm or anticheat it mostly "just works"

23
lemmy.ca

As a linux noob, I'd say it 90% there. I got a new computer recently, decided to only install linux to see if I could dump windows entirely, expecting to dualboot eventually. The only problems I've had so far are Curseforge, MC realms, and One Shot. I've got Modded Skyrim and modded Hollow Knight working, I'm incredibly happy with linux gaming.

11
phuntisreply
sopuli.xyz

yeah I'm also quite a noob with linux I've only been using it for about a year and also dual boot my pc for the few games I have to for me it's actually bethesda games mostly due to no mod managers on linux and I know there's the workaround for MO2 which is what I use anyway but fomods didn't work :/ I'm also actually playing through hollow knight on my deck at the moment though vanilla and that's been working flawlessly as for curseforge dunno what you're modding but if it's mc I used prism launcher and that worked flawlessly way better than curseforge on even windows with that being full of bloat

3

Prism is life, I agree. My friends don't, so I need a curseforge pack to distribute server updates with. The stupid part is curseforge has a working linux version, but it only does WoW.

The other one is playing on a realm. The desktop solution is supposed to be the Win10 version, but screw that. I'd love to see a mod that lets java join bedrock servers, but they all run the other way. The solution is running the android version with a third-party launcher.

3
discuss.tchncs.de

As Phuntis said, curseforge is easily solved with prism launcher. They have a nice GUI to browse modpacks and set up everything automatically. For mods that don't allow direct downloads over the API, they give you a browser link you can open and automatically pull the downloaded files from your download folder.

The launcher also has integration into modrinth and a bunch of other useful features. IMO the better launcher compared to the official one, even if you don't play modded.

2

Love Prism, love Modrinth, still can't make modpack updates curseforge clients can use. Since everyone else on the server uses CF, I need to build the modpack on CF then import to Prism for myself.

I did see that making a CF modpack file might be possible soon though.

1
bleuthootreply
lemmy.world

I still have many issues regarding VR games. Mostly related to the view being delayed from what I am actually doing, making me nauseous.

For me, that's one of the biggest issues holding me back from switching. I don't want to bother to dual-boot OSes just for a few VR games.

4

ah haven't tried vr too expensive for me and not enough space really wanna try it in future though alyx and beat saber look really cool hopefully that'll improve soon with all the rumours of valves deckard headset and them dedicating so much to linux I mean deckard will probably still be tethered to a pc so it's not a guarantee since most people will be on windows then but maybe it'll come with improvements to vr on linux

1
islesreply
lemmy.world

Man, I just tried for a few weeks and just had no luck on the games I was trying. It maybe is there for most people, but I still ended up in the "google for commands that might resolve these weird crashes / errors" and building random packages from source. However, I tried on a gaming laptop, which have notoriously had worse support than standard discrete cards. I wonder if my experience would have been different with a standard PC. I also recognize that Steam is the answer for a lot of people, but I just don't have that many Steam games.

2
islesreply
lemmy.world

I was on Mint and primarily using Lutris, but tried many different WINE runners. I would have tried Ubuntu, which I think is a little closer to upstream updates, but I only had a 4gb USB stick to install from. For games, I tried Horizon: Zero Dawn (which I finally got to open, but it was running 0-3 FPS), Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, and Baldur's Gate II (which seemed to work). I'm not giving up forever, my next gaming tower will likely run linux of some type. I do lots of self-hosting on a Ubuntu PC, so I'm pro-Linux. Just ran out of patience with the laptop!

1
IronTalonreply
lemm.ee

Interesting. Got Horizon Zero Dawn to work out of the box myself but I'm using Garuda. Any chance you're using an nVidia GPU? They tend to be a lot more fussy with Linux than AMD

1

Yep, sure enough nVidia 1650 laptop GPU. I tried the proprietary drivers, forced so many versions of VKD3D and DXVK to try for better performance. Oh well, my next box will have an AMD GPU.

1

It needs a larger user base before companies will make the native version for it

By not switching you play into a self fulfilling prophecy

14
utopiahreply
lemmy.world

Genuinely no idea how Linux gaming could be better. I've been playing on desktop and Steam Deck for years, both "flat" games and VR games and it just works. Sure I don't try literally everything but with ProtonDB I'm confident it will work, or not, and decide accordingly. Obviously not all games work on Linux but definitely more quality games that I have time for. For me it just works, I spend at least 99% of my time gaming on Linux actually gaming, in fact I can't even remember when is the last time I tinkered. I don't even have problems with GPU drivers despite tinkering with containers with machine learning. I'm not trying to say nobody has problems or dismiss problems people do have, just sharing my experience.

7

I think this is overselling it a little. I still run into issues with Proton from time to time that require sigkilling it and its children, and some games (especially EA titles) are finnicky and can take a few tries to launch properly.

As for VR, SteamVR on Linux outright sucks. It virtually never works the first time I launch it and requires some combination of reconnecting hardware and restarting software and the computer, and it's plagued with bugs (most recently the UI rendering upside down in the new beta).

Don't get me wrong, Linux has been my primary platform for some 5 years and my only one for the last few and I'd never dream of going back to Windows, and gaming on Linux has progressed unbelievably in the time I've been daily-driving it. But it still isn't totally painless and there's definitely more room for improvement in the coming years.

1
Cihtareply
lemmy.world

Honest question - what is the current problem(s) in Linux gaming? And I don't mean that the way it sounds, I just haven't done it in a long long time. I mean back then it had to have a linux specific version and you had to deal with X11 mouse input.

Now with Wayland and things like steamdeck existing I'm surprised it's not more viable.

I'm sure it's a long list but what are the main factors? Just a curiosity. Unfortunately I just don't get to play games these days. Still GPU and sound driver issues? Publishers refusing to take the extra steps to make a multi platform engine work on it? Too many unknowns based on flavor of Linux installed?

4
Galereply
lemmy.world

Only reason I don't switch to linux is because of both riot games and easy anti cheat(you can kinda play league of legends most of the time)

but valorant's vanguard is just straight up built for windows so you can't cheat in their game, so you can't even open that game in linux

And 99% of games that use easy anti cheat are also unplayable (except elden ring somehow)

Tbh I haven't really played their any games that fall into this category lately, but I don't want to have to install windows every time I get a urge to play league and tilt myself

and I know that dual boot exists but I have a very limited storage right now (I'm only on a 480gb ssd since my hdd broke)

2

An interesting point.. i didn't even think about the anti-cheat engines nor considered they'd be bound to windows but yeah i get it, i deal with that on licensing services.

I feel your pain on storage. It's cheaper now but it's all relative. I'll save your UN and hit you up if i stumble into something that may help.

1
bitspleasereply
lemmy.ml

I'm not the guy you asked but I can answer for myself - it's still not nearly as effortless to use for gaming as windows. I work with computers all day, so when I sit down to game at night I absolutely refuse to debug shit. For Starfield as an example, it works via proton, but the protondb page is full of "to get around X issue use the following workaround", and I just can't be bothered.

I use Linux for work and hobby software development, but for me to switch my gaming pc over would require it to not just be "viable", but effortless

2
Cihtareply
lemmy.world

Thank you, that's the perspective I was looking for.

And while i understand, it's certainly not limited to games or Linux. I too just want things to work and it's become a struggle for one reason or another. I can find a common thread on that but probably not the place for that.

I am optimistic though that gaming will continue to get better and that will be helpful. Despite all the faults it's at least going in the right direction.

3
IronTalonreply
lemm.ee

I will say this - nowadays I have to figure out maybe 5% of games I play on Linux, and often times those games have issues with certain windows setups too

2
Cihtareply
lemmy.world

That's actually pretty positive. Probably a multitude of reasons but in my very limited experience with recent games they are pushed out with tons of problems on any platform. Sometimes the game was just rushed out and this is what turned me off of games for the most part. "It's online, we can just patch it later!"

Also not a fan of paying for the privilege of being a beta tester. Open betas used to be fun times.

That said, based on yours and others replies i think it seems worth it to dig up an old ssd and try some of my games out on Linux on my main. Honestly it seems way better than what it was years ago so I should go see for myself. Thanks!

1
IronTalonreply
lemm.ee

Absolutely. It's honestly the older titles that tend to work better as well, perfect for an older setup. A nice static target for the conversion layer. Proton was pretty good 3 years ago, now it's amazing.

Lots of Devs I've noticed tend to be happy to tweak things on their end to get something to work better with Proton as well, or if we're lucky they just use Vulkan out of the gate and make it a very straightforward job.

A good benchmark is seeing how steam deck users get along with that game. If they don't hit any snags it's a very good chance you won't either

2

Great info, thanks. Most of my hardware is old. But that's actually a good thing I think. I have a Lenovo ideacentre i plucked back from a friend as it was gathering dust. I upgraded the ram and SSD and installed neon on a whim and it's amazing.

That's what sorta started tracking me back.. have continued using Linux for servers but i was impressed at that desktop. Now I know neon is a bit bleeding edge so any recommendations on a distro? I started with freebsd back in the day, then gentoo for desktop, then Ubuntu minimal for servers if that helps. Not afraid to get my hands dirty but prefer simplicity.

I found a 256GB SSD that should be enough for some testing. I need to grab some files off it but then it's ready to go. Distro advice appreciated. Remember i just want to test :) TIA

1

Definitely more work to set things up the first time, though

This is ultimately my point - looking through protondb, it looks like all the games I play today work, but a good few require some workarounds, hacks, or just have crashes reported while playing

Gaming is my escape from my day job of working on software, fiddling with configs and whatnot is really the last thing I want to do when I have free time to play.

Don't get me wrong, I'm stoked that gaming on Linux is improving so much, and I deeply look forward to the day that I can ditch Windows for good on my gaming PC, but for now its just the best tool for my requirements

1
mercuryreply
lemmy.blahaj.zone

My main issue is a lack of support from games like DCS, which will never get Linux support, and not having trackIR support, but I suppose that just needs someone who is experienced.

Also I can't play fortnite/cod and that's what my friends play.

1
Cihtareply
lemmy.world

Hah I had to look some of that up. I bet I could guess your age within a couple years. :)

DCS seems like a cash grab and travkir thing seems quite the gimmick. But i understand you wanting to play with your friends and so do they and they aren't going to bring Linux support despite it's likely built on it.

Windows is essentially free anyway these days so you'll just have to suck it up for now. You can disable things like realtime scanning for a performance boost. If you can't make your own DNS try quadr9 to block a majority of the telemetry and shit.

Being able to play with your friends is more important really. Just dual boot or use a VM to get your nix skills. I'm sure many won't agree with me and that's cool. There is nothing Linux can't do, yet there are apps (or games) that will simply require windows to participate. Sucks, but that's reality.

1
Cihtareply
lemmy.world

Sorry yo, wasn't intended that way I promise! I don't have great people skills text based or otherwise. And actually I'm the one that sounds like an idiot anyway haha In my defense I'm quite tired and seeking excuses to not be working so yeah, my bad, no offense intended

1
mercuryreply
lemmy.blahaj.zone

I get that for sure! I'm also a bit uh, trigger-happy with people online. I definitely get that feeling, though.

1

Appreciate that but now I don't know how to reply without sounding condescending.. dammit! :) but you know, if you go back to 1995 bad boys that was how i communicated. Years later i relocated and nearly got killed for pointing out a funny and quite justified slight at a certain NFL team.

I'm not sure I have a point beyond stay trigger happy and call fuckers like me out! We all make mistakes and I have no problem being called out.

Shit, i still sound condescending don't I? It's just hard not to after a while. I don't know if it'll be Linux worthy but hit me up if you decide to try out borderlands 4. We'd be happy to have a new player in the group.

1
IronTalonreply
lemm.ee

I switched back in 2019. It was pretty good then and it's almost seamless now. Hell EAC works now and I can play Squad without any hiccups

2
CeeBeereply
lemmy.world

Linux gaming is even better than Windows in many ways now

-1

Well, Elden Ring had a bug in it that killed performance, Proton was able to fix it without touching the game itself and resulted in Linux performance being markedly better.

Then with Starfield it performs about 30% faster than windows consistently.

I can force AMD FSR on any game (and I have an Nvidia card) to get a significant performance boost with no visually detectable loss in quality.

The list goes on.

1
Honytawkreply
lemmy.zip

Linux is still only compatible with 10000 games on Steams 70000 games store.

Windows is compatible with all of em.

1

It's 12,000 and those are rated as "playable". The majority of games on Steam would be playable out of the box, but Valve is being cautious with their verified program.

ProtonDB has over 18,000 user submissions for playable games.

There are many games in my library that aren't listed as Steam Deck verified or even on ProtonDB and they just work.

1
lemmy.world

Y'all I dislike forced browser adoption as much as the next guy.

And I've been using Firefox for years and years and years now.

But, I'm forced to use edge for work. And, as a browser purely, none of the anti-trust baggage attached....

It's really not too bad. A lot of things work just fine. And sometimes, if I'm having weird performance on a website on a personal device, loading the same URL in edge has resulted in improved/expected functionality of the website

29

Yes, when I have used Edge it's been absolutely fine. Probably better than Chrome. I'd likely be quite happy to use it most of the time if it wasn't for the fact that Microsoft are so intent on forcing me to do so.

I mostly use Vivaldi now which I think is by far the best of the Chromium-based browsers.

20

with the amount of updates I think Edge is better than chrome now, but I still use firefox

5

Edge isn't terrible at all. That's why it's such a risk to browser diversity and competition

5

Yeah the problem with memes like this is (according to market share) that there are people that switch from Edge to Chrome and think they are actually using a better product

2
tautalasreply
lemmy.world

How it's on android? Have they added back extensions?

3

There's dozens!

But yeah, the important ones exist though and I haven't found a better option

1

In beta it does, Stable should get access to the entire addons list around December IIRC

Of course addons that weren't updated with mobility in mind might not work as well.

2

Android extensions work, even on ancient versions. Not all extensions of course, but the important ones.

1

The Mull version of Firefox has always had extension support, never even knew the official version had even removed it. Mull is otherwise identical with some hardening against tracking and removed telemetry. I've also never had issues with sites breaking which can be otherwise common with hardening

1

pretty awesome, especially with extensions. I use it everyday.
In fact, I have two firefoxes. one of them reserved for slack as I don't want to download the app and slack detects that I'm using desktop mode on android(on chromium-based browsers). but Firefox's(with chameleon) spoofing saves my device from one of the worst proprietary applications.

1
lemmy.world

I switched from Chrome to Edge and initially was really impressed. But then Microsoft had to go and Bing it all up. So now it’s back to Firefox after a 15 year hiatus.

23

That duckduckgo default is the thing that aggravates me the most. Sometimes those results just don’t cut it but I don’t even have the option to chance my default browser. I had to bookmark google

1
lemm.ee

It's a decent browser, but half the reason people hate it is because MS tries to force it on you. They should let it stand on its own merits then maybe it wouldn't have such a negative reception.

38
Shardreply
lemmy.world

Meh, Chrome is a piece of shit as well. If you use gmail on another browser, they keep pestering you to try Chrome.

16

I just opened my gmail in Firefox and I don't see this Chrome notification right now. Maybe it pops up every now and then. I wouldn't be bothered by it that much, since started using Thunderbird as mail client last month, and the interface is so much better and customizable than gmail ever was. I did use Thunderbird a long time ago, but stopped when I got gmail in 2004. And all this time I thought Thunderbird still had the old classic UI. Apparently it became a bit too messy with all different volunteer contributions and Mozilla didn't have a project management to stay with a certain direction. In Feb 2023 they announced in this blog post to rebuild Thunderbird from the ground up and invest the resources to support the community again, although with more control. Then a few months ago this big update to 115 was released, which was featured in a computer tech website so I became curious again. One of the best decisions of this year (although I'm still using it to access gmail), together with joining Lemmy of course.

3
Phenreply
lemmy.eco.br

It's better than chrome for sure. Depending on what your criteria for using a browser it, it might even be in the top 3 browser options.

But it's still a Microsoft product filled with the usual Microsoft shenanigans. If you don't care about your browser keeping track of what you do and that sort of privacy concerns, absolutely give it a try. You can even use it on Linux and Android and it works fine on those too.

One other negative aspect I can think of is that Microsoft is quite open to adhering to Google's own shenanigans like that recent proposal they got ridiculed for. For that reason I'd rather recommend Vivaldi instead - there's very little that edge does better than Vivaldi and there's plenty that Vivaldi does better than it.

But also, please, consider using Firefox if you don't have any problems with it. You'll literally be helping make the internet a better place just by using it. So many people use chromium based browsers today that Google literally owns the way the internet works.

9
lemmy.world

I wasn't a fan of Firefox either and personally lived using edge. When the whole web integrity thing started happening, I felt like I should switch to Firefox and haven't looked back.

I still have some complaints, like you can't install sites native app which I used a lot. I don't think tab groups have been implemented yet, which isn't a huge deal but very useful. And there were a few others I can't remember off the top of my head. In the end I value my privacy a bit more so I've decided Firefox is worth it.

Plus mobile ad blocking is a god send.

5
lemmy.ca

There are several, possibly dozens, of tab group extensions for firefox.

4

Sure, and there's also an extension to install a web page as an app similar to Chrome. The point is that, out of the box, it lacks some features that I enjoy. Extensions are great and I use plenty of them, but that doesn't mean that Firefox has those features, it just has extensions that have them.

Firefox is great, don't get me wrong, I'm definitely preferring it, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have all the features that I wanted up front.

2
CeeBeereply
lemmy.world

you can't install sites native app

There's an extension that lets you do this. I use it and it works great.

I don't think tab groups have been implemented yet

Funny thing is that forced group tabs on Chrome mobile is what made me ditch it.

1

The PWA app works decent, but, unless I did something wrong, it would open links in itself instead of my main Firefox window which wasn't what I'd want normally.

I still use it, but it's definitely not as nice as I'd want it to be.

Definitely one of those things that's minor and I can look past though.

1
CeeBeereply
lemmy.world

and I don't really care.

This is why we can't have nice things, like privacy.

2
lemmy.world

Fuck no, I'm not particularly a fan of how it forces itself on you like Brock Turner (the rapist).

It can go and join IE in whatever pit of hell we threw IE in

If you wanna say that Chrome is trash and people should use Firefox, Opera, Safari or whatever else is currently trending among privacy focused people that I can agree with (Even if I personally won't make the switch)

But Edge is NOT the answer, Edge is NEVER the answer. At this point I'm starting to wonder if all these Edge people in here are being paid by MS

20

There are some things from reddit I hope never come over here, but shitting on the rapist Brock Turner is always welcome in my books.

8
slrpnk.net

Welcome to the boat, I tried edge from all the people recommending it on reddit and I hate it

And the rapist analogy is not enough for how bad it is, it'll copy everything from your default browser without your permission (or I somehow missed it)

Like I was caught by surprise when all my bookmarks, passwords, etc were just straight up copied by that privacy intruding piece of crap.

Fuck edge

5

Definitely missed it. It doesn’t grab everything without permission, but probably wants to stay out of the way so you do pull it all in

2

Edge is probably my favourite chromium browser. Seems like you care too much.

-1
slrpnk.net

I gave it a try because I kept reading how it's so good on tech subs on reddit, turns out it's worse than Chrome… and it only got worse (with the Bing AI stuff, which was supposed to be even better)

I now think those redditors might have been astroturfers.

5
lemmy.ca

The weirder thing is I was replacing a users desktop the other day and updating default apps. Edge did its usual "pleas love me" bit but then so did Windows Mail as I was changing it to Outlook 365 of all things..

14
lemmy.world

How long is Microsoft going to play this game? We don't want your browser and we didn't want it since Netscape. No one trusts you.

13
Phenreply
lemmy.eco.br

For as long as they want. What we want doesn't matter. They are a very large company, so what they want is above what we want.

6

And this mentality is exactly why they keep shoving it down our throats.

People should stop equating Edge to Internet Explorer. It isn't the same browser, it has a lot less problems, it is quite a lot faster, it it compatible with anything.

Edge shouldn't have the stigma of Internet Explorer. It is a very decent modern browser.

1
sopuli.xyz

I've been using Edge for 2 years now. No problems whatsoever ever. You can stop begging MS.

11
lemmy.world

Bing chat has saved edge and bing search for me, it just works. I ask it a random question, like how many spiders you'd have to eat to have eaten a pound of them and it just tells me and shows the work. I don't need to look up how much a spider weights and then do math myself, it just does it.

Firefox is still my main browser, but I'll open edge to ask dumb questions and I have a lot of stupid questions and it has answers without me needing to dig through bullshit to find what I need.

11

It shows it's work, you can follow it's citations to ensure it's not complete bullshit.

Also no seriously these are dumb questions, I was watching Fraiser the other day and it implied his ratings were in the millions, and I asked bing if that was even possible considering he was on AM radio in the 90s (it's not), but even if it was completely wrong it literally doesn't matter...

1
Pamasichreply
kbin.social

The great thing about Bing Chat compared to other chatbots is that it sources its claims. I always check the sources before trusting it.

1

With regular search, I have to look through all kinds of results before I find something, and often I have to adjust my search parameters until the search engine even understands what I'm looking for.

The AI still needs me to actually confirm what it's saying, but that's checking 1-3 links, not entire search result pages.

It's also just waaaaay easier to talk to my search engine in natural language than keywords imo. I never know what keywords get me to my intended destination, I guess the difference is less big for people that do.

1

You really should reconsider your priorities if stupid questions like that are what causing you to stay with edge.

"Hmm do I need privacy, or do I need to know how many spiders are in a pound?"

1

Sounds like good opportunity for US and Europe to whip out some fines over Anticompetitive practices. With Microsoft sort of being repeat offender the fines should reflect that.

Honestly with Edge being not too bad alternative for Chrome this sort of shady behavior from Microsoft doesn't do it any good at least in my eyes.

10
lemmy.world

here i go....strangely enough i used edge for a while and did not switch back

8

I used and liked it for a few years, but now they started filling it with bloat ware again... switched to Firefox last month.

8

I use it at work all the time and frankly, it's completely functional. I also prefer the Bing image search over Google images search these days... And I was a hardcore googler back in the day!

6
maxreply

Same. It worked great for me with the profiles (personal microsoft account + uni microsoft account) until my uni disabled the bookmark syncing feature for all our accounts. For some odd reason.
Then I switched to Firefox and I'm not turning back.

5
lemmy.world

edge uses half or less of the system resources versus firefox with twice as many tabs open even on linux

plus edge allows microsoft office to run on linux without workarounds

6

It was. Now it's bloated with Microsoft's services and thrown in your face if you don't use it as your default. For example Outlook defaults to opening it for links in emails even if you have a different browser as you default. Bullshit move Microsoft.

9

Microsoft tried to make a browser that had an edge, and they just decided fuck it and gave it the name Edge.

2

Idk, I really like Edge. It just has bad reputation due to Internet Explorer... It is actually very good imo.

2
LwLreply
lemmy.world

Ff has that feature too. It's if anything more secure than remembering passwords because at least you still need the expiration date and cvc (unless edge saves that too).

2

already using chrome for that. nothing but random passwords for about 300 sites. edge: import? no thanks dis chrome if you like. G has been good to me so far. was ff for a spell, got bloated

1

Because my university is very Microsoft-centric when it comes to software and infrastructure. So using Edge allows me to keep myself logged in and not having to introduce my credentials every time i need to do something.

2

Next time edge is going to ask... what are you going to do? Install Google chrome? 😂

1

Honestly have been using edge on my work computer for a while now and see no reason to change. I use Firefox on my personal computer but for now Edge is just fine.

1
lemmy.world

I was getting a bit annoyed at Firefox and after recently formatting my PC, I decided to freshen things up. So after the mandatory new PC Edge Google, I must say I'm really enjoying the new UI of Opera.

Now I use Opera as my main driver, Firefox for the things that Opera struggles with, and Edge is there too.

-10