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

MSFT is forcing Outlook and Teams to open links in Edge and IT admins are angry

theverge.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 753 posts

Re: MSFT is forcing Outlook and Teams to open links in Edge and IT admins are angry

#141

Post by criddell »

wkat4242 wrote: post #94
AraceliHarker wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Simply put, people don't love Edge as much as they love Chrome. The browser bundled with Windows 11 is naturally Edge, but users who use Chrome install Chrome of their own volition, so forcing them to open links in Edge is extremely annoying.

I don't use either chrome or edge but why would I use a clone instead of the real thing? I never understood why Microsoft thought cloning chrome was a good thing for adoption. Edge is just chrome now but with some annoying bloat like the coupon pop-ups and pay later scams.

> I never understood why Microsoft thought cloning chrome was a good thing for adoption.

It’s all about Electron. There may be a Microsoft contingent that thinks it’s the future or maybe they are just hedging, but for now it’s important for stuff like Teams.

Re: MSFT is forcing Outlook and Teams to open links in Edge and IT admins are angry

#143

Post by dahauns »

dustedcodes wrote: post #6

I have no skin in the game, but even I am starting to think the obvious thing here: Apple and Google own the entire mobile OS market. They could literally destroy Microsoft if they started to hugely degrade the experience of Microsoft products on iOS and Android with dark patterns a la Microsoft. But they don't. So far they were competing by making their own products better. Microsoft needs to think hard how hostile…

>They could literally destroy Microsoft if they started to hugely degrade the experience of Microsoft products on iOS and Android with dark patterns a la Microsoft.

Sorry, but Google really isn't a saint regarding degraded experience. The shenanigans around UX for example using Google services in Firefox have a long, well documented tradition. They just aren't as overt and clumsy with it as MS.

Re: MSFT is forcing Outlook and Teams to open links in Edge and IT admins are angry

#145

Post by can16358p »

isanjay wrote: post #33

I am thankful that I don't use Windows at home anymore. While I use Fedora, I believe most frustrated people will look to Apple ecosystem.

Yup. I'm on macOS and while Apple has its own weird and hostile behavior, it's still much better than Microsoft.

Re: MSFT is forcing Outlook and Teams to open links in Edge and IT admins are angry

#146

Post by vetinari »

3np wrote: post #9
dustedcodes wrote: post #6

I have no skin in the game, but even I am starting to think the obvious thing here: Apple and Google own the entire mobile OS market. They could literally destroy Microsoft if they started to hugely degrade the experience of Microsoft products on iOS and Android with dark patterns a la Microsoft. But they don't. So far they were competing by making their own products better. Microsoft needs to think hard how hostile…

Not to give Microsoft an out here but really? The equivalent for this on iOS or Android would be allowing opening links in a different browser and web view engine. The equivalent Microsoft apps on mobile OSs aren't degraded - they aren't even allowed to exist in the first place. Microsoft is bringing the desktop experience in line with mobile here. Doesn't make it less terrible but contrasting Apple and Google as bet…

> The equivalent for this on iOS or Android would be allowing opening links in a different browser and web view engine.

In Android, all my links open in Firefox. I don't see any issue there. Might serve as an inspiration to Microsoft ;)

Re: MSFT is forcing Outlook and Teams to open links in Edge and IT admins are angry

#147

Post by GeneralMaximus »

dismalpedigree wrote: post #112
dustedcodes wrote: post #6

I have no skin in the game, but even I am starting to think the obvious thing here: Apple and Google own the entire mobile OS market. They could literally destroy Microsoft if they started to hugely degrade the experience of Microsoft products on iOS and Android with dark patterns a la Microsoft. But they don't. So far they were competing by making their own products better. Microsoft needs to think hard how hostile…

Apple controls the browser on iOS with an iron fist. Even if you are using a different app, its still Safari under the hood. And even though they control the rendering, they still open all links from Apple apps in Safari. Oh and music. I use an alternative to Apple music because I choose to. That doesn’t stop Apple music from being the auto play choice even when I don’t use Apple Music. If Apple’s products are so muc…

If you don't use Apple Music at all, you can uninstall it from your phone and it will stop being the default choice. I do this on my phone without any problems.

Re: MSFT is forcing Outlook and Teams to open links in Edge and IT admins are angry

#148

Post by maccard »

dustedcodes wrote: post #6

I have no skin in the game, but even I am starting to think the obvious thing here: Apple and Google own the entire mobile OS market. They could literally destroy Microsoft if they started to hugely degrade the experience of Microsoft products on iOS and Android with dark patterns a la Microsoft. But they don't. So far they were competing by making their own products better. Microsoft needs to think hard how hostile…

> They could literally destroy Microsoft if they started to hugely degrade the experience of Microsoft products on iOS and Android with dark patterns a la Microsoft. But they don't.

I disagree here. Despite me using firefox on my android device and it being set to my default browser, many apps will still open in chrome (usually google apps - maps, gmail, etc) despite me explicitly asking it _not_ to do that. It's also not clear that it's using chrome, as it's the "generic" browser modal. The way that google services are bundled together on android and have limited interop (Samsung and Google Pay regularly fight with each other on my device for "who is the default payment method", and google is _not_ happy to not be my default).

Google have been pushing manifest v3 despite massive objections, introducing undocumented "fair usage" limits [0], require third party cookies to use some of their services to download files (gmail, gdrive). Google are drowning in dark patterns.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35329135

Re: MSFT is forcing Outlook and Teams to open links in Edge and IT admins are angry

#149

Post by can16358p »

josefresco wrote: post #13

I don't get the anger, at this point Edge is interchangeable with Chrome. The only thing I "miss" are my saved password and extensions which can be easily imported. Complaining online is an international pastime though.

It's not a technical problem.

It's more of an ideology about Microsoft forcing whatever they want on users.

Re: MSFT is forcing Outlook and Teams to open links in Edge and IT admins are angry

#150

Post by [deleted] »

nstart wrote: post #25

Urgh. Did they forget the lessons of the Ballmer era that forcing choices doesn’t give more usage. It’s making sure you meet people’s choices where they are. That was the big change that seemed to be in the air when Satya took over. Not entirely sure what is happening here.

[deleted]
Post reply on HN