I'm gonna plug my favourite solution to most Win10 BS> Open shell. It does a decent job of turning the start menu / add platform back into a start menu.
Microsoft begins showing an anti-Firefox ad in the Windows 10 start menu
341–350 of 578 posts
Re: Microsoft begins showing an anti-Firefox ad in the Windows 10 start menu
#342I just installed and ran Firefox. I was presented with a page of ads: https://i.imgur.com/HiS8k1L.png Note that the "top sites" aren't my top sites. They're ads. And then there's an ad at the bottom.
Unless you're personally donating large sums of money to Mozilla, you need to stop whining about their innocuous, non-spyware ads that are easily removed. Your alternative isn't some hypothetical "pure" browser. Your choices are Microsoft spyware, Google spyware, or presumably some Chinese spyware. Or Firefox, imperfect though it may be. There are now only two viable rendering engines left in the browser world, and F…
I wasn't whining about it. I was just pointing out that the people saying "Micrsoft is evil! Use Firefox" aren't telling the whole story.
I don't mind either ad. Both are easily removed.
Re: Microsoft begins showing an anti-Firefox ad in the Windows 10 start menu
#343Earlier quoted context omitted.
I switched over to running desktop linux a couple months ago because I was so fed up with these things, but the truth is... it's just pretty bad. Like if I let my laptop go to sleep my touchpad will never work again. I had to do a bunch of weird kernel hacks to keep my wifi working when the device goes to sleep, and even then it's a hack (I had to enable the airplane mode button, and then make sure to hit it twice an…
Yes, you MUST buy certified hardware [0], preferably with it pre-loaded with Linux [1]. Ultimately, Linux didn't make enough of a dent in the desktop hardware space in the 90's/00's. The level of interest from hardware vendors (ODM/OEM/component manufacturers) has gone down - that's why things are worse. If you don't use non-preloaded hardware you are NOT signalling to anyone that desktop Linux is important. This red…
Well, I'll definitely keep an eye on that piece of hardware. I do intend that the next system I buy can run Linux well. I mean I'm going to stick with it, even if it is bad.
That said.. even though I'm pointing out hardware issues I don't think the free software world should get a pass on these things. I get that a lack of corporate sponsorship can make things hard, BUT, a lot of the issues I'm running into are things that are just about having decent project maintenance.
Like, if my touchpad stops working after I close the screen, clearly they had enough info to actually make a working touchpad driver, but not enough to actually, uh, make it reliable. In most companies you have the concept of "alpha" or "beta" level of software, and I feel like EVERY component in Linux is alpha level. As long as you're 100% on the happy path your experience will be perfectly mediocre, and otherwise it's going bad VERY fast. Like I mean, it's pretty sad that the login screen is broken. I can't be the first person that plugged their laptop into a monitor! And it recognizes the monitor and works fine with it! So it's just an issue of kdm (or whatever the hell it is now) not actually being able to handle a multi monitor setup in... 2020? This shit has been old hat for 15 YEARS.
I don't know what it will take for free software to produce a decent desktop system, but I think blaming it on 3rd party companies is off the table at this point, there's obviously something not quite working with this model when it comes to producing software people can use.
Re: Microsoft begins showing an anti-Firefox ad in the Windows 10 start menu
#344Earlier quoted context omitted.
How is this different than getting an ad for Chrome when you go to google.com?
you pay for windows and still get ads.
You pay for TV and still get ads. I'm more than happy to pay to remove ads but I think it's presumptuous to assume that if you pay any amount of money it's expected that it will be ad free.
I mean Red Hat has ads in their RHEL installer.
Re: Microsoft begins showing an anti-Firefox ad in the Windows 10 start menu
#345Earlier quoted context omitted.
Over the last couple of years I've been coming round to the fact that microsoft aren't necessarily a major problem now, compared to google and amazon at least. Doesn't take much to put the shields back upto full. I just don't understand why people run windows. Maybe I just use computers wrong, having been on linux for the last 20 years, but my family (who I refuse to help with IT needs) are all far happier on chromeb…
I switched over to running desktop linux a couple months ago because I was so fed up with these things, but the truth is... it's just pretty bad. Like if I let my laptop go to sleep my touchpad will never work again. I had to do a bunch of weird kernel hacks to keep my wifi working when the device goes to sleep, and even then it's a hack (I had to enable the airplane mode button, and then make sure to hit it twice an…
This is why, despite Apple not caring about us anymore, you still see an overwhelming amount of Macs.
Re: Microsoft begins showing an anti-Firefox ad in the Windows 10 start menu
#346Is it specifically anti-Firefox or anti-not-Edge?
Is there a "Still using Chrome?" message, or a "Still using IE?".
I don't really understand the reason for going after Firefox specifically. Going after Chrome would make more sense to me. Chrome has the biggest user base, and now that Edge is based on Chromium, they can get users to switch without having them change their habits too much.
Re: Microsoft begins showing an anti-Firefox ad in the Windows 10 start menu
#347Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not an overreaction. It's literally a targeted ad showing up in your day to day work space. It's invasive. I switched to mac a long time ago, but I still have a Windows device because some things are just painful (or impossible) to use on a mac. The difference between using an application that prompts "make this default?" and a specifically targeted ad showing up on your start menu is that the user used the appl…
Apple does the same sort of thing these days, Music.app on my phone keeps showing me a full screen ad for Apple Music around a month, dismissed it about 5 times now.
it's everywhere outside of overtly freedom-concerned software.
the idiots are winning.
Re: Microsoft begins showing an anti-Firefox ad in the Windows 10 start menu
#348Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think part of the issue is that it is on the OS level rather than browser level on a specific website but I agree, they are all shady.
We should all (immediately) forget the old days, when Microsoft was just selling us the "Operating System" and then let us to our own devices. Now they realized that they lost the Smartphone game (the opportunity to siphon our data like Android and iOS do)(to some degree or another). I am using Firefox because it doesn't belong to anyone. I have zero faith on the privacy of Chrome. I believe (haven't tested and I won…
> I am using Firefox because it doesn't belong to anyone.
Others mentioned are in a different league, but even firefox is mostly developed for an organization, that seems to be pushing to enter the service industry.
Have you looked how many connections firefox makes without even opening a page? I tried to silence it, and it was a PITA - ended up using a firewall.
I'd donate to firefox development, like 3, maybe 4 digit numbers, but AFAICT they only accept donations to Mozilla, and don't let you specify types of activities you would like to support.
Re: Microsoft begins showing an anti-Firefox ad in the Windows 10 start menu
#349Earlier quoted context omitted.
Over the last couple of years I've been coming round to the fact that microsoft aren't necessarily a major problem now, compared to google and amazon at least. Doesn't take much to put the shields back upto full. I just don't understand why people run windows. Maybe I just use computers wrong, having been on linux for the last 20 years, but my family (who I refuse to help with IT needs) are all far happier on chromeb…
I switched over to running desktop linux a couple months ago because I was so fed up with these things, but the truth is... it's just pretty bad. Like if I let my laptop go to sleep my touchpad will never work again. I had to do a bunch of weird kernel hacks to keep my wifi working when the device goes to sleep, and even then it's a hack (I had to enable the airplane mode button, and then make sure to hit it twice an…
Unless you choose a laptop carefully by picking one that is known to run Linux well, you run the risk of running into driver issues.
I chose a Dell XPS 15 two years ago (although with Windows installed), and have had no driver issues beyond what was known at the time of purchase (no fingerprint sensor driver, some problem with chip that switches between Intel and NVidia graphics). Dell have updated the BIOS about once every three months, and there is usually mention of fixes for BIOS for Linux (none that have affected me AFAIK) - helpful BIOS fixes which you don’t get on most other laptops - a very clear indication that there is effort by Dell to support Linux.
The previous 5 years I used boring business Toshiba laptops and had a lucky run of few problems with Linux drivers.
Re: Microsoft begins showing an anti-Firefox ad in the Windows 10 start menu
#350Earlier quoted context omitted.
FWIW, Microsoft did add tracking prevention tools much like Firefox and Safari have. So they did add the common browser feature Google refuses to integrate. Privacy-minded people who insist on using Chrome should switch to Edge over Chrome. But I refuse to contribute to the Chromium monoculture.
No they shouldn't. They should switch to Firefox or Safari. Or at the very least Chromium (from a Linux package manager).
Your advice makes no sense.
Are you assuming that the user is on Windows? In that case, Safari is not an option (Apple stopped working on Safari for Windows ages ago), nor is the Linux package manager an option (the closest option is Chocolatey, but most people don't use that). Since we're discussing Edge, it's probably safe to assume that they're running Windows.
Or are you assuming that they're running a Mac? In that case, the Linux package manager still isn't an option, and we're kind of off-topic because the original post was about Windows and its default web browser.
Or are you assuming that they're running Linux? In that case, you can't get Safari, nor can you get Edge, and you're probably running Firefox or Ungoogled Chromium already by default. So what's the problem?