Microsoft Edge is starting to annoy me big time
dedoimedo.com
dedoimedo.com
Apparently this was part of Microsoft Rewards, which you can opt out of... in your Microsoft account. If you jumped through the hoops that are now required to get a local account, tough luck.
[0] https://old.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/15z6rol/windows_g...
It's less nice when you'll probably need to opt out from more adware in the future
Unfortunately for VR (Virtual Reality) gaming there is no alternative right now.
But yes, I know what you mean, obviously.
I really am OS homeless. There is no good choice anymore.
I need an OS where I never ever have to think about the OS. I’m there with my very limited time to do something. Not figure out compatibility or updates or why my monitors don’t come online in the same order and same resolution every time or the fear of closing the lid or plugging in a TV for a bit. This month’s issue is that a quarter of the time my wifi just doesn’t exist as a feature and I have to reboot.
I want to hook myself up into an alternate reality where I’m just frozen in time with OSX 10.6 =)
Install fedora silverblue. Use your computer how nature intended. You can do everything from the GUI.
If you’re using your PC as your development machine then you’re probably already fucking around with it. Especially on windows (PATH variable is a very fun one there)
I had Nvidia card before that whilst it had other issues on linux, at least it didn't crash.
I've been using a 6000 series, and now a 7000 series GPU from them without a problem.
If you buy a device that's designed to run Linux from the start from say, the good people over at System76.com, you'll get a much smoother experience.
After one malware too many I confiscated my wife's Windows PC and gave here my old PC and installed Ubuntu on it (FWIW I don't use Ubuntu, I use Debian since the nineties).
It's been, what, 18 months? If my wife can use Ubuntu, I think nearly anyone can.
It's been literally fire and forget: zero issue.
Now it's desktop Linux, as in actually running on a desktop (with an Ethernet cable), with a dual-monitor setup (I prefer a single ultra-wide monitor but the wife prefers to have two monitors).
I opened it up, and sat before me was Ubuntu 12.04. It hadn't been updated since before we broke up. The only real issue was some weird stuff going on with the networking, so it wouldn't connect to WiFi. Got it fixed, and I assume she's still going strong with it.
That said, I absolutely wouldn't trust modern Ubuntu (at least back to 20.04, maybe farther) to remain so stable. Ubuntu is now nothing more than a Rube Goldberg machine.
Redmond product managers all appear to add pure negative value to me. All of their products do this routine of triumphantly blasting things that I would never want right on top of my experience under the guide of somehow helping or benefiting me.
I miss the old days when Mac OS X was the ultimate "leave me alone and let me get my work done" OS.
Now it's all in one Microsoft store app with a collection of classic games, fine. But when you click minesweeper it doesn't start minesweeper, it opens the microsoft store, even after it's installed.
And he accidentally clicks a banner ad instead of the Spider freecell icon because they're identical and placed over each other. And instead of just changing the number of decks he has to answer questions about settings, coins to collect or something... it's insane.
Not like they need photoshop…
He would scoff at my suggestion to install anything other than what he's known for 30+ years.
Very fair. I've started earlier, but I've been trying to remind my parents that if they want to have a good relationship with their, non-existent as of yet, grandkids - they need to have a good relationship with new tech. That's what the grandkids are going to want from them.
Somehow that convinced them.
(I set him up with an adblocker since)
What's bizarre is that the employer is outwardly very security conscious and surfing random websites is a route to dismissal. Yet the porous and intrusive Edge is allowed to run amok. Of course, extensions to minimize the suck aren't permitted, either.
I’ve finally hit a wall with “enhancements” in chrome I can’t shut off. If I type “man” in the Omnibar I don’t want to know about Manchester United and get an icon with the team. In fact I don’t want any pictures at all in the omnibar.
Apparently my Google Fu isn’t good enough or it’s just flat out impossible to change, because I still get what I feel are ads for brands in the Omnibar when I search for stuff.
It doesn’t need to be. The domain admin can allow users to change it, or configure sane settings to begin with.
It overrides backgroubd updates that Edge may try to install.
This was the best thing I ever installed on my personal pc
You are SOL if the updates are coming from sysadmin tho
You can even see it in the error messages they show. For example, if you disable the App Store, it shows a big message to the user “This feature has been disabled by your IT department”, which drives animosity where people complain that “IT is blocking me, and if we just got rid of them (i.e. used the cloud instead), we would all be happy and run the apps we want like I can on my phone”.
IT controls directly prevent users from signing up with other paid services, so their incentive is to get rid of IT.
We actually think that our IT and Microsoft are in it together and that we, the users, are their mutual enemy.
>> Now, let's talk about the prompt message and the buttons ...
It says: "With your permission, we'll collect and use ...". Now, the reason for this prompt is because I disabled this very option in the browser. But Microsoft seems to not like that, so it prompts me to reconsider, every now and then. Your choices are to click either Got it! or Learn more.
The latter takes you into the Settings, ergo disrupts your browsing and usage flow. You are FORCED to interact with the browser's shitty attempt to force you to give up your data, instead of you browsing like a normal human being. The former is worse. It TOGGLES the option on. So it's not an explicit YES. It's a vague indirect approval, which supposed stems from your "understanding" the message "With your permission" and that you're OK with it. <<
Mind you, it didn't just do this for Sharepoint links; it did it for all links. They did create a special, "no, really, respect my browser choice," but it took me a hot minute to find.
I'll be impressed if that option lasts more than, say, 18 months. They also had a "don't integrate Bing search into the Start Menu" option, until they didn't.
I sure wish there was a little more protection over what's considered a yes/no versus what's considered harassment and dark patterns in order to coerce that behaviour into profitable funnels. But then, who's dollar as developers do we fight for? The same one's that enable this crap. The thumbs are big.
So the cycle continues.
Once you start looking at things through this lens, Microsoft's handling of Windows starts to make sense. For example, they've laid off their full-time Windows QA staff in favor of volunteer "Windows Insiders", and have basically given up on having a consistent look and feel for their operating system. Meanwhile, all their new Windows features and programs exist to drive business to growing business segments. To name a few examples, Visual Studio Code and WSL exist to drive business towards Azure and Github, Edge exists to collect user browsing data to sell to advertisers, and the game bar (Win+G) and preloaded Xbox app exist to drive business towards Xbox. They even replaced the right Windows key on their later (made after ~2019) keyboards with an unremappable button that launches the cloud version of Microsoft Office.
Web browser should be as basic as possible by default. Only with minimal set of features, that user expects: bookmarks, history, etc. All other nonsense should come as extensions that user installs if he needs them. I might go as far to say, that notifications or gelocation should be extensions too, that can be easily disabled. So you take "browser base" (engine) and build whatever you desire on top of it. Want Google integration? Use Google extensions. Prefer Microsoft ecosystem? Install Microsoft extensions. Or just install an ad-blocker and browse in peace.
But then, many of my colleagues use it, put up with tabloid-style New Tab pages and don’t use an ad blocker, so there’s that.
That said:
>> As you know, I always neuter my browser's "tracking" activity, as much as I can.
Yet their choice is Edge. (as secondary, definition unknown)
>> it seems I ought to stop using Edge altogether, and uninstall it from my Linux machines
That much is obvious. I feel they should question how they ended up here in the first place. :)
Every time I open Edge on a server, I have to click through the same three nag screens.
“Would you like to…” NO
“Enhance your experience…” NO
“Migrate your non-existent…” NO
It’s obvious to me that nobody at Microsoft uses their own garbage.
They use Macs on the laptops and use Linux in Azure for their own services.
It's still on my TODO. Mostly cause my parents want XP back.
https://winaero.com/how-to-disable-personalize-your-web-expe...
the problem likely comes from externals being pushed in on request from OS.
if the cruftcraft originates from a dll, that means a lot more work
Then Microsoft added microsft.com as a telemetry endpoint to work around such blocks.
Governments have forgotten their antitrust responsibilities. We need to make it simple and automatic: Define an upper limit where a company is too big to exist. Companies above this size must divest.
Micrisoft, Alphabet, Apple, Meta - many tech companies are too big, by an order of magnitude. Split them up.
Similar to how it's difficult to go to war with countries that supply you energy (like.. Germany's recent tough time with Russia): USA being in this position means they dictate the rules of the internet and internet companies. This is an amazing position politically because they are the de facto owners of the economy for the next century.
Imagine making a business without AWS, GCP or Azure? Imagine Making a business without Google Docs or MS Office? -- it's unfathomable to most, I promise, and that's a great amount of power.
All they have to do, is not break the monopolies.
> Governments have forgotten their antitrust responsibilities.
Is it possible that these are two sides of the same thing? That is, what's the real difference between a corporation versus a government? I'd imagine a lot of similarity in terms of organizational dynamics. If we see a problem from corporations when they grow too large, shouldn't we also expect problems from governments when they get big?
Because they can't just be steady earners. Everyone has to show quarter after quarter after quarter increases. It's madness and it really needs to stop.
Nowadays, Microsoft's behavior is undeniably shitty. But Edge's 10% or 15% marketshare is hardly a monopoly, so I don't think it falls under the jurisdiction of antitrust laws. Though I certainly wouldn't cry to find out that it falls under some other kind of consumer protection law.
The EU's upcoming Digital Markets Act seems to more explicitly target that problem – I'm very curious how that will go.
You are naive if you think that this is what DMA is about. DMA is simply about Europe squeezing some money out of American companies. This is evident in the design and how carefully it was written to capture as many American companies and as few European ones as possible.
afaik, thats still the case.
Have they forgotten, or have they simply reached that certain size whereby they must actively become evil?
Now no matter whether you are a user or a developer, you will suffer. You have a feeling you are part of a human experiment, because nothing makes sense. Oh if Edge will reach a given userbase expect even more madness.
Historians, what a time to be alive! Just sit back and enjoy.