Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Microsoft begins showing an anti-Firefox ad in the Windows 10 start menu

news.softpedia.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

371–380 of 578 posts

Re: Microsoft begins showing an anti-Firefox ad in the Windows 10 start menu

#371

Post by latenightcoding »

Permit wrote: post #327
latenightcoding wrote: post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some friends think I'm overreacting for refusing to use Microsoft products to this day, yes they have open sourced a lot of cool tech but they are still Microsoft. I felt vindicated when I bought a Lenovo laptop after using mac for the last 8+ years and found out you need to create a Microsoft account to use it!

>I felt vindicated when I bought a Lenovo laptop after using mac for the last 8+ years and found out you need to create a Microsoft account to use it! I don't have the same laptop so I can't comment on your exact situation. That said, I have a Windows machine and I am not using a Microsoft account to log in so your experience is not universal.

it is a recent change: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21103683

Re: Microsoft begins showing an anti-Firefox ad in the Windows 10 start menu

#372

Post by fsh »

rafiki6 wrote: post #313

Has anyone here actually looked at the "anti-Firefox" ad in question? It's literally a tile that says "Still using Firefox? Edge is here!". I'm not really sure what we expected here. This is about the same as a browser asking you to make it default when you open it. All big companies do weird anti competitive things. This isn't one of those things. I know I'll likely get downvoted for this opinion, but to many commen…

I don't see how showing "Still using Firefox?" can be seen as anything but a targeted anti-Firefox ad. The title is completely accurate.

Re: Microsoft begins showing an anti-Firefox ad in the Windows 10 start menu

#373

Post by zeusk »

black_puppydog wrote: post #331
rafiki6 wrote: post #313

Has anyone here actually looked at the "anti-Firefox" ad in question? It's literally a tile that says "Still using Firefox? Edge is here!". I'm not really sure what we expected here. This is about the same as a browser asking you to make it default when you open it. All big companies do weird anti competitive things. This isn't one of those things. I know I'll likely get downvoted for this opinion, but to many commen…

This is Microsoft using their desktop operating system market share to drive their web browser market share. That's pretty much what they got sued for before. Given, their market position in desktop might be a different one now than back then. But it's still quite close to what antitrust laws were written against. Also saying "oh all corps do stuff like that calm down" is a really bad defense IMO.

Try using any Google property without chrome, or try using any iOS device without safari.

This is pretty harmless in my opinion.

Re: Microsoft begins showing an anti-Firefox ad in the Windows 10 start menu

#374

Post by erikbye »

retpirato wrote: post #362
rafiki6 wrote: post #313

Has anyone here actually looked at the "anti-Firefox" ad in question? It's literally a tile that says "Still using Firefox? Edge is here!". I'm not really sure what we expected here. This is about the same as a browser asking you to make it default when you open it. All big companies do weird anti competitive things. This isn't one of those things. I know I'll likely get downvoted for this opinion, but to many commen…

I'm more bothered by it's placement being in my start menu, than I am by what it's for or against. The PLACEMENT is what's really crossing the line.

I have been using Classic Shell for a long time. It's faster and less buggy, searching works better, and as a bonus, I don't see any ads.

No longer in development but the latest version works fine. Anyone is welcome to take over: http://www.classicshell.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=8147

Haven't tried this fork yet: https://github.com/Open-Shell/Open-Shell-Menu

Re: Microsoft begins showing an anti-Firefox ad in the Windows 10 start menu

#375

Post by TheRealDunkirk »

alxlaz wrote: post #78
iso1631 wrote: post #59

Earlier 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 just don't understand why people run windows. I've used Linux for about the same time and honestly, I understand it completely. I would switch, were it not for muscle memory and for the fact that at least 50% of my work involves systems-level development for Linux (mainly embedded stuff, so a lot of cross-compiling). In the last five or six years I've come to dread the Linux desktop and its constant churn of rewr…

> I really don't care about things like UI consistency and whatnot -- what I do care about is stability and functionality.

I was on Linux for about 20 years, and now I've been on Mac for 6. Of course, I've had to deal with Windows all this time, too, for gaming and work. (I was even certified on NT.) Anyway, I've no doubt that Windows is pretty stable by now, but the glorious configuration that my company sets up on their laptops starts bugging us to reboot after 5 days, just because it's been "a long time." I blame Microsoft for making their software cater to people who cut-and-paste from Google results to create IT policy, and creating an ecosystem which leads companies to do things like this, and, say, locking the desktop background, of all things.

And you can keep Powershell, along with WSL.

Sure, Apple doesn't play well with enterprises, because they start with the fundamental assumption that the device is PERSONAL, and you're not using someone else's loaned device. I'm very glad for this. (And I'm never giving my company permissions to remotely wipe my devices with Mobile Iron.)

I'd really love to see OS usage percentage numbers with corporate use factored out. My gut feeling is that Windows has absolutely nosedived for personal use over the past few years, and it's only corporations that are keeping the numbers in the air. Half the people I know don't even have a computer, and are just using their phone or an iPad.

Re: Microsoft begins showing an anti-Firefox ad in the Windows 10 start menu

#376

Post by acidburnNSA »

robinhood wrote: post #356
deaps wrote: post #324

Earlier 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…

Still – it’s a misleading title (border-line click bait). Anti-Firefox ad implies that they say something negative about Firefox, which clearly isn't the case.

"Still using Firefox?" Seems to me implies that it's old and antiquated and only used by people who don't know any better. Of course the opposite is true.

Re: Microsoft begins showing an anti-Firefox ad in the Windows 10 start menu

#377

Post by noncoml »

rafiki6 wrote: post #313

Has anyone here actually looked at the "anti-Firefox" ad in question? It's literally a tile that says "Still using Firefox? Edge is here!". I'm not really sure what we expected here. This is about the same as a browser asking you to make it default when you open it. All big companies do weird anti competitive things. This isn't one of those things. I know I'll likely get downvoted for this opinion, but to many commen…

Whatever it says it has no place in my paid for OS.

Seeing this is the top comment here I can only assume MS PR is hard at work upvoting on HN.

Unless HN crowd had a change of heart overnight about privacy, freedom and software license ownership.

Re: Microsoft begins showing an anti-Firefox ad in the Windows 10 start menu

#378

Post by Shendare »

fsh wrote: post #372
rafiki6 wrote: post #313

Has anyone here actually looked at the "anti-Firefox" ad in question? It's literally a tile that says "Still using Firefox? Edge is here!". I'm not really sure what we expected here. This is about the same as a browser asking you to make it default when you open it. All big companies do weird anti competitive things. This isn't one of those things. I know I'll likely get downvoted for this opinion, but to many commen…

I don't see how showing "Still using Firefox?" can be seen as anything but a targeted anti-Firefox ad. The title is completely accurate.

"Targeted" for me would imply that Windows is checking first to see whether Firefox is installed, and only showing the suggestion if so.

If this is just a general suggestion that gets pushed out to all Windows computers, then it's not so much targeted as merely questionable use of platform.

Re: Microsoft begins showing an anti-Firefox ad in the Windows 10 start menu

#379

Post by itomato »

eternalny1 wrote: post #24

Back to the anti-competitive behavior that got them in trouble years ago. Someone inside Microsoft at a senior level needs to intervene here with the marketing teams and tell them to stop.

Who would hold them accountable in the present political climate?

Just stop buying from them.

Re: Microsoft begins showing an anti-Firefox ad in the Windows 10 start menu

#380

Post by codewithcheese »

zeusk wrote: post #373
black_puppydog wrote: post #331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is Microsoft using their desktop operating system market share to drive their web browser market share. That's pretty much what they got sued for before. Given, their market position in desktop might be a different one now than back then. But it's still quite close to what antitrust laws were written against. Also saying "oh all corps do stuff like that calm down" is a really bad defense IMO.

Try using any Google property without chrome, or try using any iOS device without safari. This is pretty harmless in my opinion.

Your reasoning does not make it harmless, it makes Microsoft the same as Google and Apple.
Post reply on HN