Windows 10 taskbar is now pushing Microsoft Edge web apps • Hacker News Board

Re: Windows 10 taskbar is now pushing Microsoft Edge web apps

#101

Post by krapht » Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 4:21 PM UTC

inetknght wrote: post #46

jonatron wrote: post #34

I spent hours at the weekend making a windows 10 image with as much bloat disabled as possible. It looks like after just a few days, Microsoft have given me more stuff to remove. I only use it for gaming, so maybe my efforts would be better spent on getting games to work on Linux?

Most games work! Notably, if the game you're playing doesn't have an anti-cheat that's deeply tied to the kernel then there's a good chance it will work with Wine (or Steam Play's version of it) out of the box. The anti-cheats that are deeply tied to the Windows kernel are usually dumpster fires of remote code execution so I don't think there's much of a loss there.

Things I never liked - spending hours debugging WINE issues or browsing the wine compatibility website trying to get things to work to play a video game, which I'm already using to get away from doing tedious work.

Re: Windows 10 taskbar is now pushing Microsoft Edge web apps

#102

Post by nitrogen » Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 4:27 PM UTC

rob74 wrote: post #58

Arigato wrote: post #4

Related: Microsoft Edge’s user numbers are continuing to grow while Firefox's, which at one point was the second-most popular browser behind Chrome, keeps falling: https://www.techspot.com/news/89180-mircosoft-edge-user-numb... Advertisements or recommendations in Windows 10 are definitely helping Edge

Yeah, but that's Firefox and Edge fighting over scraps while Chrome, which has more than four times the market share of both of them combined (67% vs. 8% each), is still eating their lunch...

Those aren't scraps. In what other world would businesses willingly throw away 16% of their addressable market right out the gate?

Re: Windows 10 taskbar is now pushing Microsoft Edge web apps

#103

Post by bombcar » Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 4:29 PM UTC

luke2m wrote: post #92

OnlyOneCannolo wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand the vertical tabs. The top bar still takes up just as much space. But now I also have less horizontal space too.

On a widescreen display, the horizontal space is less than the vertical space, and the tab bar should not show on the top anymore.

Especially if you have an ultra wide screen this becomes really noticeable. Vertical real estate is precious (and which way do pages/phones scroll?) - but horizontal is not.

Re: Windows 10 taskbar is now pushing Microsoft Edge web apps

#104

Post by oehpr » Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 4:29 PM UTC

CivBase wrote: post #71

wvenable wrote: post #64

So Microsoft is advertising an existing feature of the Edge browser to people who are using Edge. What's the controversy here? I have many apps that do that when a new version is pushed out and they have new features.

> It’s worth noting that the pop-up will appear even when Microsoft Edge is the default browser and you’ve already pinned sites to the taskbar. The company is not targeting people who use Google Chrome and Firefox as default browsers. That statement implies to me that they are also advertising to people who aren't using Edge.

Can you walk me through how you're reading that? I don't understand how you have reached that conclusion.

Re: Windows 10 taskbar is now pushing Microsoft Edge web apps

#105

Post by nitrogen » Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 4:30 PM UTC

luke2m wrote: post #92

OnlyOneCannolo wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand the vertical tabs. The top bar still takes up just as much space. But now I also have less horizontal space too.

On a widescreen display, the horizontal space is less than the vertical space, and the tab bar should not show on the top anymore.

It is possible to display more than one application on screen at arbitrary sizes, so the shape of the window should be what matters, not the shape of the display. Browsing maximized on a 27" widescreen display is an uncomfortable waste of space. Vertical tabs or not.

Re: Windows 10 taskbar is now pushing Microsoft Edge web apps

#106

Post by jasonlotito » Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 4:34 PM UTC

EE84M3i wrote: post #82

zeta0134 wrote: post #79

Just this week, I discovered that even after installing Python from the official website, if you happen to run a script that executes "python3" instead of "python", you'll instead trigger an unhelpful link to the Microsoft Store suggesting to install python from there. Yes, the command line itself has ads for the store sprinkled throughout it. Later, when I needed to pull down the Rust compiler, I discovered that the…

Does OSX do this with the xcode tools?

iOS and OSX are littered with Ads. I've even seen ads in Apple apps (Music for example) where there shouldn't be any (for example, popping up a full screen ad in front of the screen to play a song I already own). I use both Apple and Microsoft OSs on a daily basis. Anyone who thinks Apple doesn't do this stuff isn't paying attention.

Re: Windows 10 taskbar is now pushing Microsoft Edge web apps

#107

Post by Causality1 » Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 4:38 PM UTC

When I was a kid I remember Windows getting better every time it updated, and especially when new versions came out. Was I just ignorant? Why does the last five years feel like a whole new type of fuckery?

Re: Windows 10 taskbar is now pushing Microsoft Edge web apps

#108

Post by jonatron » Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 4:38 PM UTC

stinos wrote: post #83

jonatron wrote: post #34

I spent hours at the weekend making a windows 10 image with as much bloat disabled as possible. It looks like after just a few days, Microsoft have given me more stuff to remove. I only use it for gaming, so maybe my efforts would be better spent on getting games to work on Linux?

By now there are plenty of tools out there which turn hours (I hope we don't have to take that literally? Unless you're not used to Windows and/or there's even more bloat than I know of) into a couple of minutes though. Check e.g. O&O ShutUp 10 https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10 . Or else use an IOT or LTSC release or so.

Installing, updating, running debloat scripts, running ShutUp10, manually uninstalling things, changing settings, disabling services from safe mode. Each step isn't too long, but it adds up.

Re: Windows 10 taskbar is now pushing Microsoft Edge web apps

#109

Post by zeta0134 » Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 4:38 PM UTC

EE84M3i wrote: post #90

wpm wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. At worst it prompts you to download and install the Command Line Tools (all actionable inside the prompt; it doesn’t use the App Store) if you try to run a command not included in the OS by default like `git`.

How is that different than what windows does with "python3"?

In fairness, annoyed though I was, the command line message you get in Windows includes directions into the settings page to disable the feature, and any others like it while you're in there.

The real surprise was mostly that python3.exe isn't included in the 3.9.x download, despite the documentation mentioning it in a few places. Since the error message didn't name drop the executable, and it appeared python was otherwise installed and working (and even available as "python" on PATH) it took some sleuthing to locate the real issue. I'm sure there's a better fix than copying "python.exe" and renaming it "python3.exe" but that worked, and I had stuff to do, so it's fine. :)

Re: Windows 10 taskbar is now pushing Microsoft Edge web apps

#110

Post by nojito » Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 4:38 PM UTC

livre wrote: post #21

While this is likely yet another bad move by Microsoft I hope this pushes web devs to start focusing on web apps and puts a stop to all those websites packaged with a browser that are around 200MB each.

How is this a bad move?

They are promoting the ability to pin websites on the taskbar.