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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

#301

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…

> Linux has been making progress but still isn't a good alternative for the common user unless they have an expert to rely upon when something breaks down IME "common users" already rely on an expert when their Windows OS breaks down. Not long ago I had to walk my aunt through opening the command prompt in Windows 10 and entering the command to do a full reboot (as opposed to that hybrid shutdown+hibernation) because…

If Windows says "restart" that should always mean a full reboot as far as I know.

I usually disable fast startup, and it sounds like she should disable it too.

Whoever set it up so that you have to reboot to shut down should have realized that the way they were implementing this was a bad idea.

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

#302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No one at my company needs games or gaming related software to do work. I imagine that's true for most companies.

Some people use the computer for leisure as well. And some of these even enjoy computer video games. Crazy, I know.

Yeah, but it was explicitly brought up that macs don't have a good gaming story right now. Also, a lot of the focus was on office apps specifically.

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

#303

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…

So what are the typical attributes of a normal user? AFAIK, everybody who doesn't need an expert to care for his system, would be capable of installing and running one of the more popular and user friendly Linux distributions.

If you need an expert anyway, it doesn't matter much which OS you use. The only exception I can think of are disabled people, who might rely on very specific software.

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

#304
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm struggling to understand how that quote could be anything but satire

Google's has been bashed so consistently on privacy issues on mainstream media that non-techies often associate them with creepy data collection. Microsoft hasn't been in the news as much, at least not regarding privacy matters. They're often seen by the public as the solid company behind trusted products like Office and Windows.

> Google's has been bashed so consistently on privacy issues on mainstream media that non-techies often associate them with creepy data collection

What? Every non-tech person I see is happily running Google Chrome and has never even considered Firefox. Hell, I think most still think Google is one of the "good guys".

Non-tech people still trust Google much more than Microsoft. Microsoft is bad, but they haven't made your data their core business just yet.

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

#305
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t like this new form of writing, I’m not sure what it’s called. It’s not just informal, it’s cringy. I especially hate funny error messages as they just frustrate me. It’s ok when Reddit has a funny image because they can’t show my video game forum, but it’s infuriating when Microsoft shows a “whoops, what happened” when it just failed to sync the last 30 minutes of my work document.

"OOPSIE WOOPSIE!! Uwu We made a fucky wucky!! A wittle fucko boingo! The code monkeys at our headquarters are working VEWY HAWD to fix this!"

Oh shit, corporate Twitter is going to adopt this kind of meme language in 5 years or so. Not even Idiocracy went that far.

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

#306

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…

> Linux has been making progress but still isn't a good alternative for the common user

For non tech savvy people, Linux can cause problems, but only if they do something weird to their system. Linux, specifically Ubuntu or Mint, untouched, and unaltered is a great out-of-the-box experience.

The key (if turning someone on to Linux for the first time) is to stress that the command line is for power users who want full control of every bit on the system.

It's best to gradually introduce the command line once they're familiar with using the system and are comfortable doing their first (command line) update/upgrade ritual.

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

#307
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…

I noticed the same thing. However, I trust MS less now than in the 90’s.

Back then, I felt like the owner of my machine. Sure they had bad things like IE but I could just ignore it.

Now, it restarts itself and installs updates despite me specifically trying to stop it.

It’s a shame really because I really enjoyed Win 10 and even Bing doesn’t suck completely.

Thank goodness for competition and the new M1 laptops! Now Apple just needs to launch a good search engine and get Numbers to where Excel is and I can wave goodbye to both MS and Google.

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

#308
Debian 11 with Firefox for me. Firefox does need some tuning like opting out of any studies and telemetry. Verified with tshark until it really doesn't prefetch all previously visited sites and bookmarks. Some sites are able to request infinite invisible visits somehow but it's stoppable and Firefox at least gives the user the freedom to do something about it.

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

#309
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…

I would imagine surely there’s a distro that is just as functional as what you’re imagining Haiku will be one day right? The main issue I find with Linux is app support but that would be worse again with Haiku. What sort of usability issues would you expect to run into with something like Mint? Btw not saying Haiku isn’t cool, it absolutely is. But I see it being a long way behind even the Linux desktop.

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

#310
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…

> 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? Almost every single person that I can think of in my life does not give a shit about an edge reminder. The one that does doesn't use Windows anyway. Hackernew is a unique audience.

Agreed. Have you tried using google products without a google browser? It's _worse_. Much much more annoying.
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