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Last Windows 11 update changed all default browser settings to Edge

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Re: Last Windows 11 update changed all default browser settings to Edge

#451

I hate MS's stance on privacy like anyone else, but I have serious doubts about your post. This would be a very big thing if actually true. Most likely thing that happened was that you started Edge yourself, then clicked on the pop-up that sometimes shows up (regardless of updates installed) asking you to switch to "recommended settings" which replaces your default browser. Yes, shitty dark patterns, but definitely n…

I don't know why you would doubt this. Windows updates have been doing this for decades, first with Internet Explorer when they were battling Netscape/Firefox and now (apparently) with Edge. edit: clarity

I've been using every version of windows since 3.1, literally never had it revert default browser settings on me

Re: Last Windows 11 update changed all default browser settings to Edge

#452
I worked on Edge for a bit (before it became chromium based). Browsers are ridiculously expensive to maintain. Like on the order of burning billions.

The way Edge was funded was that the default engine was Bing. Bing ads is how Edge stays afloat.

Seeing how many users changed Chrome to default, this was a constant struggle. It seems some exec finally pulled the trigger and went full hostile to maximize their revenue KPI.

I legit still hate the Bing page. It’s slow. It loads with msn ad crap. They even put ads on start menu.

We had to constantly spin up new VMs to get Edge. The first user experience with ads on your face was very annoying. I don’t think the execs even seriously dogfooded Windows. It seemed like promo driven development.

I don’t know how Apple is able to resist ad revenue unlike Google and Microsoft, but oh boy Apple seems to be cut from a different cloth.

This decision seems shortsighted.

Re: Last Windows 11 update changed all default browser settings to Edge

#453

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you gain from having every single journey in your app and seeing the fuel consumption? Have you ever actually looked at those stats? I think I've never in my life been in a situation where I thought "Dang, I wish I knew how much kilometers my last 18 trips where, if only I had some kind of tracking device that kept these stats for me!"

>>Have you ever actually looked at those stats? Literally all the time. It's a PHEV, and maybe not for every journey, but for 8/10 journeys I will look how many kWh of electricity and litres of petrol were consumed, and how many kWh of electricity have been regenerated. When I drive I try to stay in EV mode as long as possible, and regenerate power as much as I can and looking at those stats after every journey gives…

So your argument is "I like to look at it". Which is legitimate, but honestly does not convince me. My car reports stats on my dash, which works for me.

I don't think people need to record trips on non-shared business cars here.

Re: Last Windows 11 update changed all default browser settings to Edge

#455
post #439

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Last time I checked, FreeRDP was screen capture-based like VNC, with the associated horrible performance. Has this been improved now?

It seems to have much better performance than VNC for me, so I don't think it's doing the screen capture thing. Or maybe it is and it's just fast regardless. In my experience it feels almost as good as RDP for Windows, which I think is a great achievement.

Thanks, guess I'll have to try again then. Last time I tried it was definitely orders of magnitude worse than Windows RDP.

Re: Last Windows 11 update changed all default browser settings to Edge

#456
post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately laptop driver support is often rough. I used an XPS 9343 (one marketed as supporting Ubuntu) but I faced issues with popping speaker sounds and mobile data tethering sucking GBs of data for some crazy reason.

For some reason I've never really had any issues with any of the many many laptops I've used over the years. Various HP laptops in the past, mostly, and DEC laptops back in the 20th century. Lately a private NEC laptop (all parts Intel, everything worked out of the box), and my work laptop is currently a Fujitsu Lifebook. No problems with anything. It Just Works.

Dell XPS have great drivers support in kernel, but I actually found the vanilla Mate DE experience to be a downgrade from Ubuntu 18 to 20, I needed to do an unusual amount of tinkering. I am convinced this will always be the case for Linux DEs unless some company starts to sell support packages for properly tested configuration combinations.

Re: Last Windows 11 update changed all default browser settings to Edge

#457

Windows Update uses all disk space on space limited VMs hosting various services, disabling it has become more difficult (Disabling the service doesn't work anymore, recently a helper service to restart it was released) Which has led to something a bit drastic but I haven't looked back - blocking all Windows IP's on router level for the VM address space. I still run updates every few months. Edit: If anyone want's a…

Oh, that's nothing . Windows Update can forcefully power-on a sleeping laptop, and then do 100% CPU load for a decent chunk of an hour whether you like it or not... ... while your laptop is in your laptop bag. This destroyed one laptop for me already. It very nearly caught fire on a crowded train with no way to even throw it off for safety. I keep saying: Microsoft will keep ramming this crap down people's throats un…

This is especially true for Macbooks also btw.

https://www.latestly.com/technology/apple-macbook-pro-15-inc...

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/macbook-recall-apple-recalls-43...

Re: Last Windows 11 update changed all default browser settings to Edge

#458
post #436
post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've used win 8 and win 10 exclusively for years but have never seen an advert. Is this because I have the business (enterprise) edition, not the home version? I'm not sure how good or bad Bing, Edge etc are as I only use them occasionally, but it does seem concerning that Microsoft has changed these defaults during an update. Is this even legal, post anti trust etc?

Your company may have removed the crapware; that’s what our image team did.

Possible, in my experience it's always been the hardware vendors that add all that stuff, but it seems like Microsoft wants in on the action.

Re: Last Windows 11 update changed all default browser settings to Edge

#460

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would suffer if I had to use Windows applications. Because having to pay (or even pirate) quality paid software that I have to sit and learn is less convenient than downloading pretty good free (as in beer) software that I've used for the past 5 years and I'm very comfortable with. GNOME applications are surprisingly polished and good, and I'm not getting that on Windows.

I'm one of those who use Solidworks and there are no Linux equivalents, let alone polished ones. So, as in everything, YMMV.

100% fair.
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