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

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

#501
post #434

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sucks, but it is kind of an overreaction. I turned the ad off... there's nothing but 32 pixel icons in my start menu. I simply never see the outrage, customize your Windows install and move the fuck on. That's why Linux gets jacked off all the time right, customizability? (that was rhetorical, I support Linux and realize the most beneficial aspect is it's open-source nature)

sure, but those types of ads aren't really for people like you. they are for the vast majority of Windows users who aren't in control of their machine but are instead being controlled by it. many don't even realize they can get rid of those ads, or they give in and just start using Edge..

My observation has been is that most users who use Firefox aren't the kind to be controlled by their PC. Someone who can use Firefox (specially because of privacy concerns and have installed extensions) should easily be able to switch off this ad. If anything I found it bold and kinda funny of Microsoft to do that. I myself am a Brave user, btw.

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

#502
post #78
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…

> just don't understand why people run windows.

Honestly, its DPI scaling and windows management with 4K monitors. Both Microsoft and Apple are still not perfect in this area so I assume its an extremely hard problem. The other issue is not all programs, like Daws and video editors, have a Linux version.

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

#503
post #372

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.

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

#504

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice. Actually some of these remind me of Windows, too. It's less common on Windows but plenty of applications seem to link against antiquated libraries which provide really unusable and nonstandard file selection dialogs. One thing I remember being annoyed with is old-style ones that are very small and you can't resize. Here are some, but I've seen weirder ones: https://i.imgur.com/jYa3qX8.png

With sandboxing, macOS is now forcing devs to use their file selection dialog because it will grant access to the selected files - a custom dialog box has no such blessing. It's nice, actually; it's finally making the file selection process feel uniform. Too many Java apps are still using random Swing dialogs though...

How do the java apps use their own file selection dialogs if they're sandboxed?

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

#505

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I used to have a screen shot showing me running something like 5 different GUI apps on a Linux system, all of them trying to open a file, each with a completely different file chooser dialog. That's because one app used Motif, one use GTK, one used Qt, and I have no idea what the others used. But they all perform the same function of choosing a file right? What does it matter if they all look the same? I don't under…

Windows has this same problem, with 3rd party and its own apps. I don't know why it needs 3 different file open dialogs, and it confuses the crap out of normies. Don't even ask me about people getting upset about not knowing when to click or double-click.

I tell people that if the cursor changes to a hand, then it's a single-click.

Everyone doubleclicks anyway though.

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

#506
post #468

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I used to have a screen shot showing me running something like 5 different GUI apps on a Linux system, all of them trying to open a file, each with a completely different file chooser dialog. That's because one app used Motif, one use GTK, one used Qt, and I have no idea what the others used. But they all perform the same function of choosing a file right? What does it matter if they all look the same? I don't under…

It's not that there are aesthetic difference like pink sparkles on some. It's that some have a file type filter and some don't. Some show all files while others hide dotfiles and provide a checkbox to show them. Some show files and directories in the same pane while others show directories in one pane and files in another. Some show ".." in their directory list and you go up by opening that, others do not show ".." a…

And NONE of them have usable keyboard shortcuts so you can avoid using the mouse.

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

#507
post #382

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 th…

There's Firefox for Windows you know..

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

#509
post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 th…

I think the parent comment was referring to "Privacy-minded people who insist on using Chrome" and not "Privacy-minded people who insist on using Chrome who use Edge", even though that's a reasonable interpretation.

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

#510

All of you that keep telling me I should get over it and accept Nadella as a 'new kind of CEO' compared to Ballmer and Gates please explain yourselves. Do you really believe that this sort of thing happens without an OK from the top? Do you really believe that MS can be trusted, that GitHub really is in the best hands that it could be in and that we should let bygones be bygones because MS has changed its ways?

> Do you really believe that this sort of thing happens without an OK from the top?

I mean I really doubt that Nadella or anyone else at the "top" is involved with minor UX changes to Windows.

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