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Comment by tgtweak | Hacker News Reader

The amount of dark design patterns around getting edge as the default browser is sickening. Opera was flagged as PUA by many AVs for simply changing the default browser after asking users post-install if they wanted to use that browser as their default - just as edge does (and before Firefox copied that same mechanism here). Now every post-windows update screen (which takes place before you even log in...) comes with a full-page nag screen asking you to "Use Microsoft recommended browser settings" [1]... This is on the heels of a screen that says "Let's make Windows even better - this shouldn't affect what you've already set up" [2]. Even more disappointing is not that they're doing this but that nobody is taking these platforms to court over it in a meaningful way.

[1] https://www.windowslatest.com/2020/11/15/windows-10-is-now-n...

[2] https://www.windowslatest.com/2020/06/07/windows-10-full-scr...

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+1 on that: It's still manageable to set a default browser which is not Ms Edge, but I found especially dark pattern - that Windows apps do not respect that setting. Take a look on the news feed in the recent Windows 10 release. When you click on a link, it opens Ms Edge regardless what you have set as default browser. I think I've seen also some user guides / support pages opening also in Ms Edge that way. Frankly speaking, even if I found some news feeds interesting, the fact it will be opened in MS Edge made me to disable the feed at all.

> Even more disappointing is not that they're doing this but that nobody is taking these platforms to court over it in a meaningful way.

Average citizens don't have the money needed to fight big corporate lawyers.

FTC, FCC, SEC, etc are all neutered in will and in budget.

Will nobody rid us of a corrupt collusion between government and corporation?

>Will nobody rid us of a corrupt collusion between government and corporation?

We could by changing who we vote for.

Yeah, considering the amount of money needed to be known and collect votes i guess it's either the government starting to fund campaigns and disallowing corporate donation or i see it as very hard to change that

I'm sure if party A doesn't fix it, party B will totally fix it! Definitely.

Oh, but maybe you're right, if we all just collectively decided for party C, then things would really work.

Huh, I guess party C can't get in because of FPTP, well we can change that! No big deal! Let's use a new voting system!

~ Signed: A person who lives in a province that has had 3 failed voting referendums.

If you're in BC (probably) then you need to look a little further back. The reason we have the BC Liberals (aka Conservatives) is because the NDP (socdems) won on FPTP and the Libs and Cons merged. Voting 3rd party is why we are the only province in Canada with a vaccine passport.

I fully expect the Greens to win eventually. BCers will vote their conscience, everybody else be damned.

Changing votes won't solve the problem in America's two-party system. It needs serious election reform not just in donations but also in how the election works.

I think the first step is to changing voting system so that it isn't possible to have spoiler candidates or "throw away" your vote. Of course it'll probably be 20-30 years before that happens.

So the solution to the two party system is to eliminate democracy altogether?

I mean, I guess I expect that in 20-30 too...

IMO the solution is at least releated to ranked choice voting, where people can vote for people that will never win (at least this time around) without their vote becoming meaningless.

That's not what they said?? I assume by "change the voting system" they mean to use something like IRV or STAR voting

Alaska (my home state) implemented ranked choice voting and open primaries via a ballot initiative. This applies to both state and federal elections.

If anyone is going to save public sector from private, it's gonna have to be good-actors in private sector.

Public sector is long, long, long beyond corrupted. The only way forwards is to carefully migrate away from the infested wreckage into something built from the ground up.

It's like a code-base that's been hacked mercilessly, and was written in a dead language to boot.

> Will nobody rid us of a corrupt collusion between government and corporation?

You need, Idunno, maybe a bothersome cleric.

Let me add: last Windows update nuked VLC sound.

I wanted to report details of the bug, but after creating an account with VLC, I can't post anything unless I provide my phone number.

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