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

Over the edge: The use of design tactics to undermine browser choice

research.mozilla.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 330 posts

Re: Over the edge: The use of design tactics to undermine browser choice

#31

Post by zipping1549 »

dizhn wrote: post #23
zipping1549 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not an answer but better alternative: Kagi. Paid, but it pays for itself. Not affiliated. Just satisfied.

How about for people where having to log in to search is a nonstarter? Has a method to be able to take payments without the ability to track the users been invented yet?

If you are not comfortable with trusting their claims of not saving search history(which is very reasonable not to belive so imo), you don't have to use it. They also take Cryoto so if you think crypto is .. a thing, you can do that.

Re: Over the edge: The use of design tactics to undermine browser choice

#32

Post by RedShift1 »

Animats wrote: post #3

Is it that bad with the enterprise edition?

There's something worse: only the enterprise edition respects certain group policies which it doesn't in the pro, all related to default application settings and such. Same with Office 365 subscriptions, you need some higher level than for example business standard to have it honor the "open links with system default browser" group policy. Unfortunately not covered in the Mozilla report.

Re: Over the edge: The use of design tactics to undermine browser choice

#33

Post by janwillemb »

Outlook has been a nightmare lately regarding this. It could be that it is my organization that pushed this, but links never open in the default browser, and get routed through a Microsoft link, which for some reason does not work on Edge. The only way to open links is to right-click them, copy, open browser, paste in address bar.

Re: Over the edge: The use of design tactics to undermine browser choice

#34

Post by jonathantf2 »

urbandw311er wrote: post #29
YPPH wrote: post #26

Windows just keeps getting weirder. There's this regrettable dichotomy between (1) a rock solid OS core with great features like Hyper-V, PowerShell and exceptional back-compat, and (2) a crap, sluggish, inconsistent UI slapped on top, laden with ads, "Rewards" Points and tracking.

Many years ago, they used to charge a not inconsiderable amount for Windows. Given the trend towards making an OS cheap/free, I wonder is this some corporate response driven by a department somewhere that is charged with balancing the books.

That's the worst part (and I know that most people will never buy a license because they get it through their OEM or just crack it) but Microsoft are still happy to charge you £220 for a Windows 11 Pro licence [0] and shove ads in your face.

[0] https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/d/windows-11-pro/dg7gmgf0d8h...

Re: Over the edge: The use of design tactics to undermine browser choice

#35

Post by noduerme »

MacOS allows you to "hard click" (long click) a text selection in any application, which pops up a bubble that lets you do a web search for that phrase. But the search only launches Safari. I wasted at least a couple hours scouring boards and kext files, screwing with automation macros, trying to find a way to make this potentially helpful shortcut not open Safari, but instead open Firefox. Eventually I just gave up. Apple buried the decision so deep in the OS that it's basically impossible to change the default browser for search.

Re: Over the edge: The use of design tactics to undermine browser choice

#36

Post by netsharc »

chinathrow wrote: post #27

They even let Edge running at startup in the background - ignoring that my choice on Windows will always be Firefox. https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/articles/startup-boos...

Aha... thanks for reminding me. Firefox asked me yesterday if I wanted to let it run on startup. The options were "Activate" and "Not Now"

To me this reads like it's going to behave like many apps nowadays, there is rarely a "No, go away", but only "No, but annoy me again in the future".

One time after an update Firefox loaded a page that said "Thank you for loving Firefox". Eww, no?

God damnit, why do I tolerate such asshole behaviors from our OS and browsers? Chrome also deserves a duck you..

Re: Over the edge: The use of design tactics to undermine browser choice

#37

Post by noduerme »

YPPH wrote: post #26

Windows just keeps getting weirder. There's this regrettable dichotomy between (1) a rock solid OS core with great features like Hyper-V, PowerShell and exceptional back-compat, and (2) a crap, sluggish, inconsistent UI slapped on top, laden with ads, "Rewards" Points and tracking.

When I was a kid it was just a crappy, sluggish, inconsistent UI built on top of DOS.

Re: Over the edge: The use of design tactics to undermine browser choice

#38

Post by skrebbel »

YPPH wrote: post #26

Windows just keeps getting weirder. There's this regrettable dichotomy between (1) a rock solid OS core with great features like Hyper-V, PowerShell and exceptional back-compat, and (2) a crap, sluggish, inconsistent UI slapped on top, laden with ads, "Rewards" Points and tracking.

It’s weird right? 1. keeps me firmly on the platform, I find it a delight how often things “just work”. Run a linux app? Just works. Hook up some niche 15yo printer? Just works. Run a game/demo made 20 years ago? Just works. Even MS Paint very much still just works.

It all just works and then the perfectly good Mail app is forcing my mom to switch to the new Outlook, which is Mail, but messier, with ads. What?

I wish Satya Nadella would pull a Steve and yell at some people for this shit. It’s eroding trust in the company that they maintained for so many decades, that can’t be a good long term game can it?

Re: Over the edge: The use of design tactics to undermine browser choice

#39

Post by epolanski »

YPPH wrote: post #26

Windows just keeps getting weirder. There's this regrettable dichotomy between (1) a rock solid OS core with great features like Hyper-V, PowerShell and exceptional back-compat, and (2) a crap, sluggish, inconsistent UI slapped on top, laden with ads, "Rewards" Points and tracking.

WSL2, power toys and hands down the best window management of any OS, I hate working on my MBP just due to the difficulty of managing different windows and aligning them on the same desktop.

Re: Over the edge: The use of design tactics to undermine browser choice

#40

Post by pasc1878 »

zipping1549 wrote: post #19
sideshowb wrote: post #5

Is there a way to use bing chat from Firefox yet?

Not an answer but better alternative: Kagi. Paid, but it pays for itself. Not affiliated. Just satisfied.

Kagi does not have an equivalent to Bing Chat does it. The latter is an AI.
Post reply on HN