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Microsoft’s new Windows prompts try to stop people downloading Chrome

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Re: Microsoft’s new Windows prompts try to stop people downloading Chrome

#191

Post by stronglikedan »

annoyingnoob wrote: post #95
kgwxd wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows releases always alternates between horrible and good enough. 11 will fester on some machines for a while like 8, Vista and ME did. Enterprise will stick to 10, and anyone who cares enough to fight dark patterns every time Windows update runs. 12 will likely be good enough for everyone to upgrade. 14 (they'll skip #13) will be garbo, 15 will be ok. Sun goes up, sun goes down.

My experience with 11 is that is just like 10 but with bad UI changes. 11 is stable and runs everything I need. I think 11 is more about changing hardware requirements, requiring a TPM. The UI garbage seems more like an opportunity to try new things, they'll figure out that people don't like these new things.

> people don't like these new things

I personally don't like the lack of old things. Namely being able to drag to the taskbar. That's baked into a lot of my workflows, and I can't believe they removed such a useful feature.

Re: Microsoft’s new Windows prompts try to stop people downloading Chrome

#192

Post by stronglikedan »

tapoxi wrote: post #37
0x_rs wrote: post #30

I heard some people having a decent time with Edge in the past with some features implementations. Not that I would use it myself, but I'm firmly convinced these childish plays only ruin whatever good work was done on it. Who on Earth would continue using a browser that has such hostile behavior and dark patterns all over the place e.g., buy-now-pay-later at browser level? It's so hard to trust Microsoft anyway, I'm…

Outside of requiring a newer PC I don't think Win11 is a trainwreck at all, I was auto-upgraded to it a few weeks ago and it's been fine. Auto HDR is neat for games and there's been a UI refresh, other than that it's basically Windows 10.

> it's basically Windows 10.

It's crippled compared to Win10.

Re: Microsoft’s new Windows prompts try to stop people downloading Chrome

#193

Post by aquir »

AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #129
aquir wrote: post #96

It's a shame the Linux is still "not there" to be a good replacement for Windows. I keep trying but having stupid issues all time, like my laptop is identified as a mobile device when connected to a Bluetooth multipoint headset so I can't connect to my phone and laptop in the same time :( Scaling is awful and unfortunately simply there are no good drivers for certain hardware. Windows 11 is awful, I went back to 10 w…

I agree. Linux Desktop still has all the same basic usability problems it did in the 90s. In some ways it is even worse since it has massively overcomplicated a lot of its subsystems. Still, I foresee a future where the pain of Linux Desktop for me will be outweighed by the pain of continuing to use Windows. Which is sad. Linux Desktop will have won not on its merits, but because Microsoft just decided it didn't want…

Yes, Haiku would be awesome! The UI is great, it's highly functional. We'll have the same problems re hardware :(

Re: Microsoft’s new Windows prompts try to stop people downloading Chrome

#194

Post by mnholt »

jeroenhd wrote: post #190

Back when Edgeium was new and just Chrome but with a lot of Google cruft removed, I actually used Edge instead of Chrome when I was on Windows. It was the same browser with some additional tweaks that I quite liked. Then Microsoft started this aggressive, disruptive push to bring it to iOS Safari's level as the only browser people should use. I don't know any good operating systems for normal people anymore. Windows…

> macOS only runs on very expensive hardware and doesn't run most programs people need (because the business world is still Windows oriented)

What programs won't run on macOS that "normal people" are going to need? In my experience most "normal people" use a web browser, the Office suite, and maybe some Adobe programs.

Re: Microsoft’s new Windows prompts try to stop people downloading Chrome

#195

Post by jefftk »

authed wrote: post #180
the_duke wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which efforts would that be? Pretty much every other browser is based on Chromium. Some very niche ones on webkit.

I don't think that Otter Browser is based on Chromium.

Otter Browser looks like it uses QtWebKit. So not chromium, but still the same KHTML/WebKit/Blink family.

Re: Microsoft’s new Windows prompts try to stop people downloading Chrome

#196

Post by kgwxd »

mook wrote: post #167
kgwxd wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Phone OSes got/get away with it because they came out of the gate doing it. MS and Apple have been trying to convert their PC OSes into the same thing ever since. They're envious of Chrome OS. "Compatibility", "standards based" and "open platform" used to be badges of honor. In my opinion, MS and Google would be better off sticking to being open, because if everyone is forced to chose between walled gardens, Apple is…

I've been using Firefox as my browser on my Android phone for something like six or seven years now (I guess I'm weird). I don't recall any hard pushes to switch to Chrome. Using a non-Blink browser there is probably rare enough that making people switch isn't worth it. The websites don't seem to want to support Firefox, so Google definitely isn't blameless, but we should probably at least blame them correctly.

Oh snap, I misread the original comment and went off on the wrong rant, they didn't even mention phones :/

I use FF on Android too. Android is better than others. I have Chrome disabled on my phone and there are some things that just won't open without it. It won't let me shut off the "Play Protect" nag every single time I install or update something from F-Droid. I've accidentally turned it on countless times. But it is the least worst of the mainstream mobile OSes.

Re: Microsoft’s new Windows prompts try to stop people downloading Chrome

#197

Post by Angostura »

jeroenhd wrote: post #190

Back when Edgeium was new and just Chrome but with a lot of Google cruft removed, I actually used Edge instead of Chrome when I was on Windows. It was the same browser with some additional tweaks that I quite liked. Then Microsoft started this aggressive, disruptive push to bring it to iOS Safari's level as the only browser people should use. I don't know any good operating systems for normal people anymore. Windows…

> iOS Safari's level as the only browser people should use.

FWIW, iOS doesn't chide you when you download Chrome or Firefox. Of course Apple requires them to use the iOS rendering engine - but that's perhaps a slightly different point.

Re: Microsoft’s new Windows prompts try to stop people downloading Chrome

#198

Post by ajsnigrutin »

mc32 wrote: post #49

Microsoft has had a good few years of building up their reputation after their self inflicted blemishes from the IE integration fiasco as well as their EEE mode of operation. Now they are throwing away their good will with smarmy tactics --why? for some short term gains? They were passing Google reputation-wise, of late, but these moves undercut their work of the last few years. It seems they see Google, FB, even App…

> Now they are throwing away their good will with smarmy tactics --why? for some short term gains?

I mean... if you're paid to increase the usage of X, do you really care about long-term reputation, if you'll be five companies away by then?

Re: Microsoft’s new Windows prompts try to stop people downloading Chrome

#199

Post by pseudalopex »

mynameismon wrote: post #63
easton wrote: post #42

Humorously, using tools built into Windows 10 and 11 now, you can open a PowerShell window, type winget install Google.Chrome, and never open Edge once if you don't want to.

That is exactly what I love about Windows 11 particularly. I don't have to deal the abdominations like Microsoft News, just a winget away. Don't like Edge? winget uninstall -e "Microsoft.Edge"

A future update will block other browsers from opening start menu or widget links.[1]

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29251210

Re: Microsoft’s new Windows prompts try to stop people downloading Chrome

#200

Post by alexchro93 »

dotancohen wrote: post #130
vadfa wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"iwr https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1 | iex" installs chocolatey without having to open IE

I see. That's why my comment was worded so carefully: though I'm sure one _could_ install chocolatey from the Windows CLI, a tiny minority ever would do so. But that's for introducing me to the iwr command. I don't use Windows often, but it's good to know what tools are available in the rare instances that I need to. Now I need a mnemonic to remember it... "I Want Real (curl)"

Invoke Web Request is another good one, considering iwr is just an alias for the PowerShell cmdlet Invoke-WebRequest.
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