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

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

#231

Post by Rhedox »

lopkeny12ko wrote: post #220

I don't like MSFT as much as anyone else but this does feel like a misattribution of blame. On Linux, the "default web browser" is part of the XDG specification and available under the settings key `default-web-browser`. In the absence of such a standard at the DE level in Windows, it seems reasonable to me that developers would have to maintain a hardcoded candidate list of web browsers and their likely executable p…

Windows has a configurable default web browser too.

If you click a link in any other application, it will open whatever browser you've set up as your default in the system settings. Microsoft just went out of their way to explicitly always open Edge.

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

#232

Post by josefresco »

can16358p wrote: post #149
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.

20 years ago this was a problem you could blame exclusively on MS. These days, they'd be negligent not to leverage their platforms to promote other products because the competition (Google/Apple) does so on a similar level.

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

#233

Post by josefresco »

Hamuko wrote: post #44
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.

> Edge is interchangeable with Chrome Okay. What if I want to use Firefox though?

My daily driver is Firefox but I also have Chrome open (for Google products) and Vivaldi for personal surfing. Easy switch considering I'm already juggling browsers.

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

#234

Post by manuelabeledo »

pjmlp wrote: post #123
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 surely do, one of the reasons why Windows Phone failed to gain adoption was how Google blocked access to their apps from Windows Phone.

But they didn’t. There were PWAs of the most popular Google products that worked just fine in Windows Phone.

Microsoft didn’t do the same with theirs. Outlook didn’t get an Android version until late 2015, Edge took a few years to arrive, and Bing Maps never made it.

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

#235

Post by worrycue »

capableweb wrote: post #208
worrycue wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You replying to the right person?

Yes, you said that Microsoft is "just like any other public company" but "Except way more mercenary". I'm saying that no, Microsoft is just like the others. They're all like that. All of them would hit below the belt if the risk/reward calculation is correct for shareholders.

Surprisingly, most of them don't, not to the level Microsoft does at least.

Can you give an example of another company as mercenary as Microsoft?

P.S. The Halloween Documents give a good overview of how Microsoft thinks.

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

#236

Post by jsmith99 »

GeneralMaximus wrote: post #147
dismalpedigree wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Music settings like the Equaliser actually only apply to Apple Music. You can uninstall it but there is no systemwide equaliser, because why would you need one when you can use Apple Music?

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

#237

Post by nickjj »

themoop wrote: post #206
nickjj wrote: post #171

Interesting timing. 2 days ago a place I'm at switched us from Google mail + calendar + meet to Microsoft outlook + calendar + teams. I almost can't believe at how good Google's suite of tools are compared to Microsoft. I never used any of MS' office tools until a few days ago. Outlook's web app doesn't even let you click into an email to mark it as read. You have to explicitly click the mark as read button. It also…

I think most things you describe are just getting used to product difference / configuration options. Clicking an email definitely marks it as read. The calendar schedule not being revealed is a just a privacy option, each person must opt-in to share the exact meeting details. Having used both gsuite and office I find that they both get job done fairly well

> The calendar schedule not being revealed is a just a privacy option, each person must opt-in to share the exact meeting details.

We've done this as far as I know. We also added each other to our directory. I can see the details of other team mate's calendars in the full view but this does not show up in the mini-view when you add a guest to an event.

With Google, when you create a new event and put in a user's email as a guest it immediately showed you a full list of their exact events with times and whether or not they accepted an optional meeting (an outlined or filled circle). It was great to see at a glance while you're in the process of creating the event.

With MS' calendar all you see is a red block of color around the times they are not available.

> Clicking an email definitely marks it as read.

It doesn't for me when using Chrome. When I click into an email the title remains bold and the inbox count doesn't decrease. Keep in mind this is the web app. I didn't install the dedicated app, but I also used the web version of all of Google's tools too.

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

#238

Post by peoplefromibiza »

CrampusDestrus wrote: post #56
peoplefromibiza wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that's not what you think it is. Alternative browser engines are still disallowed. They are a skin on Apple's Webkit see: https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/07/mozilla_google_apple_...

I replied in topic, your reply is off topic. GP was talking about how Apple does not force you to open links with Safari except in one case. The situation with webkit is a different thing.

> I replied in topic, your reply is off topic.

It's always Safari.

In a different skin, but it's Safari nonetheless.

Do Firefox or Chrome on iOS support web apis that Apple does not support?

No, they don't, because it's Safari.

Sorry if I skipped a few steps and went straight to the conclusion, that's why it probably looked off topic to you.

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

#240

Post by linuxdaemon »

chakintosh wrote: post #3

Microsoft is shoving their software down people's throats with impunity. Just yesterday I had to install VS Code for a Homebridge integration, and out of nowhere they slapped a Bing search bar bang in the middle of the desktop.

I had been using Swiftkey on my iPhone and in the middle of typing something, my keys disappear and is replaced with, what is effectively, an ad to use "Microsoft Speech Recognition". Extremely annoying to be in the middle of typing something and having to say "no thanks" to extra MS crap they are trying to shove onto you.

Previously, they also added a Bing AI button to the keyboard, but they did actually make a setting to disable that.

Edit: Upon mentioning this to a coworker and digging into this a bit more, it may have been that I accidentally clicked the microphone to bring up that screen, and that it didn't target an ad. I'm not quite sure what happened though, so I'm leaving my comment as is :)

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