You know what is more frustrating? Edge is nice browser (it would be even better if they allowed you a way to remove all the bloat they insert it), Microsoft didn't need these dark patterns.
> From a privacy perspective Microsoft Edge and Yandex are qualitatively different from the other browsers studied. Both send persistent identifiers than can be used to link requests (and associated IP address/location) to back end servers. Edge also sends the hardware UUID of the device to Microsoft and Yandex similarly transmits a hashed hardware identifier to back end servers. As far as we can tell this behaviour cannot be disabled by users. In addition to the search autocomplete functionality that shares details of web pages visited, both transmit web page information to servers that appear unrelated to search autocomplete.
I think people are getting too cared away on things such as "open-source" or "it invades my privacy", or some weird deep hatred for Microsoft aspect, when most people don't care with that. It's not even a parameter for them to judge if a browser is bad or not, because they simply do not care. So you have to see the situation through the average people's eyes.
I don't use Microsoft Edge, but I'm not some radical free-software absolutist either, I'm capable to see that most people don't care with that and make a fair observation about a piece of software. If you are worry with privacy/open-sourceness, there is Firefox, there is LibreWolf, etc...
I’d be much more likely to run a fork of Edge without the incredibly annoying/distasteful coupons and rewards it keeps trying to push on me, for example.
That is... an odd take?
While it's true that society, as a whole, don't care much about, and I cannot stress this enough, many things, outside whatever may have some direct effect on everyday everyone's lives, someone needs to do the job of informing them about why something is actually more important than they may think.
Thus, Edge users who are fine with the software, for a variety of reasons, may not understand why the browser is better or worse than the competition, if they choose to ignore the facts about it, regardless of it being open source or not.
I think privacy is a big one. Perhaps I wouldn't choose Chrome over Edge, but I would absolutely not choose Edge over pretty much anything else. Privacy violations do have a larger effect on people lives than they may think, and they choosing Edge just because they can have vertical tabs, is a bit like choosing to smoke because it "calms the nerves".
Much better memory and power efficiency on Windows devices. Plus the Copilot/Bing AI mumbo jumbo.
[1]: https://support.google.com/chrome/thread/110870809/default-p...
Invariably someone is going to note that with this extension and that extension and various canary flags you can do similar things, but I'd rather not have the nuisance.
Edge actually has its uses. It is unfortunate that Microsoft is tainting it -- something the company just seems unable to stop itself from doing -- as it should sell itself.
Then microsoft started adding MSN type of bullshit to it (rewards, bing chat gp nonsense, reset new tab page / privacy settings / games (wut?) / shopping suggestion).
Switched back to firefox after using edge for around two years.