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Windows 11 Officially Shuts Down Firefox’s Default Browser Workaround

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Re: Windows 11 Officially Shuts Down Firefox’s Default Browser Workaround

#151

Post by ByThyGrace »

soco wrote: post #28
josephcsible wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately, there's one very big reason you'll need Windows 11: that Windows 10 won't get security updates forever. After October 14th, 2025, you'll need to "upgrade" to it to stay secure.

That's 4 good years to wait and see.

I left Windows desktop for Linux two years ago, and what I realize now that took a while to happen was a shift in mentality:

- When you use Windows, you consume the OS. Everything about it is given, all you do is take.

- When you use Linux, you take part in a give-and-take relationship with the OS, because the OS is attached to a community that works on it, around it.

Using Linux means that you're not going to have everything given to you on a silver plate. But you also get to make your own silver plate and pass it around.

Re: Windows 11 Officially Shuts Down Firefox’s Default Browser Workaround

#152

Post by NullPrefix »

cheschire wrote: post #124
NullPrefix wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

they pushed updates for windowns 7 to nag windows 10 upgrade

If you setup a VM with WSUS, you can use that to setup an ideal install that is missing the annoying updates. If you capture an image right after doing that, you'll never need to install again.

You need to know which updates are bad and which are OKish. I assume there's a list somewhere, right?

Re: Windows 11 Officially Shuts Down Firefox’s Default Browser Workaround

#153

Post by matkoniecz »

BrandoElFollito wrote: post #127
scruple wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thankfully we have options. I'm planning on moving my main desktop to Arch over my Christmas break from work. It's been a while since I ran Linux as my main desktop, my only complaints have been around gaming performance. I have a friend who plays the same games as I do and he's got everything working on his Arch install. That's really the only thing that holds me on Windows and if it's as smooth of a transition as I…

I try to move to Linux desktop one or twice a year for the last, what, 20 years. I have Linux on all my servers, was an early (very minor) dev on pre-1 kernel and generally love it. The desktop is a walking nightmare. Something continuously does not work: multiple screens, waking up from sleep etc. I really would like to move (we use Outlook but I am even ready to go for OWA) but Windows is considerably better on lap…

Well, it is not like Windows is free from annoyances.

That at least for me were worse than inability to hibernate.

Re: Windows 11 Officially Shuts Down Firefox’s Default Browser Workaround

#154

Post by delecti »

jccalhoun wrote: post #114
cronix wrote: post #22

So far in the last year or so, I've heard 0 reasons why I'd even need, want or benefit from Win11 over Win10. Tons of reasons in the negative column though. There isn't even anything to salivate over that might make you think it might be worth it to deal with the other tradeoffs. Hard pass.

I updated to 11 on my laptop but kept 10 on my main machine. I see zero reason to update my main computer to 11. I was willing to give centered start button a try but the fact that you can't turn off grouping of applications in the taskbar is a deal breaker. If I have two firefox windows open I want to know it and to be able to pick which one I want without having to hover my mouse over the icon for a second while th…

If you use the Windows+# shortcuts it's pretty easy to navigate multiple instances of an application. I don't know how the ordering works with the centered start button, but traditionally, the left-most application can be switched to by pushing Win+1. The second instance of the first can be switched to by holding Win and then pushing 1 twice. That's been available since Vista.

I don't want to excuse taking options away from users, but there are workarounds.

Re: Windows 11 Officially Shuts Down Firefox’s Default Browser Workaround

#155

Post by tjalfi »

behnamoh wrote: post #118
hdjjhhvvhga wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes you think that, say, the Edge link issue will be solved in Windows 12? It looks like Microsoft has run out of ideas and does not have enough innovation to genuinely offer anything interesting in an operating system. Besides, an OS has become a commodity, something you expect to just work, not to be excited about like in the old days of Windows 95 when people literally queued to buy their copy.

I mean, they could get rid of legacy designs (e.g., control panel and screen saver windows), but instead, they've focused on offering yet another design layer on top of the previous ones, which has much overlap in functionality with the previous design (e.g., you could control your bluetooth both in Control Panel and in the new settings app). You'd think MS would be able to unify all this mess and consolidate Windows…

> You'd think MS would be able to unify all this mess and consolidate Windows settings, but no.

Removing or redesigning the Control Panel would break third-party apps that rely on the existing structure; Raymond Chen's blog[0] has mentioned apps doing this.

[0] https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/

Re: Windows 11 Officially Shuts Down Firefox’s Default Browser Workaround

#156

Post by canadaduane »

InitialLastName wrote: post #66
josephcsible wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately, there's one very big reason you'll need Windows 11: that Windows 10 won't get security updates forever. After October 14th, 2025, you'll need to "upgrade" to it to stay secure.

That gives me four years for the tools that lock me to Windows to decide to port to literally any other OS.

That has been my thinking as well. I officially migrated from my Windows PC and my MacBook Pro to Linux (Pop!_OS on a Framework laptop) this year. Both companies have been slowly showing signs that their values are drifting away from things I care about (ownership, control, privacy). I'm willing to budge a little to accommodate alternate viewpoints, but it's been clear that they've picked a direction and their tanks will just keep crushing each of the lines in the sand.

Re: Windows 11 Officially Shuts Down Firefox’s Default Browser Workaround

#157

Post by judge2020 »

zamadatix wrote: post #99
AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you mind outlining specifics? All I see are the current tends of tabletization continuing.

UX Things I've liked about this upgrade cycle on my desktop setup: - More snap zones and ways to trigger snap - Snap zones can be pulled up or switched to as a group - More things moved in the Settings app - Settings app is now uses a more traditional left pane navigation instead of a list of large boxes for touch - Window layouts better remember and adapt to monitor changes (such as unplugging from an TV) - AutoHDR…

The new context menu should improve things over time since it forces IExplorerCommand usage, which only allows in-process command logic so there should be no more UI hangs when someone has 20+ context menu entries (even if the command options end up lazy-loading in).

https://blogs.windows.com/windowsdeveloper/2021/07/19/extend...

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/shell/shortcu...

https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/127365#issuecomme...

Re: Windows 11 Officially Shuts Down Firefox’s Default Browser Workaround

#159

Post by jptech »

dragontamer wrote: post #71
dorchadas wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They've changed it. I have Brave set as my default, for instance, and can change apps to tell them which one to open.

IIRC, all web browsers on iOS are using the Safari rendering engine though. So its still Safari underneath it all. Much like how Internet Explorer / Edge on Windows is really just a Chrome renderer / frontend these days. EDIT: And since Google is in charge of the Chrome renderer, Microsoft absolutely has less control over internet-APIs / Javascript APIs / CSS details than say... Apple or Google does. Which is the "mo…

With the new Edge they're giving themselves a boost. They probably won't catch up to Chrome so easily but will have more to say about the underlying engine in a few years time.

Re: Windows 11 Officially Shuts Down Firefox’s Default Browser Workaround

#160

Post by tombert »

BrandoElFollito wrote: post #127
scruple wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thankfully we have options. I'm planning on moving my main desktop to Arch over my Christmas break from work. It's been a while since I ran Linux as my main desktop, my only complaints have been around gaming performance. I have a friend who plays the same games as I do and he's got everything working on his Arch install. That's really the only thing that holds me on Windows and if it's as smooth of a transition as I…

I try to move to Linux desktop one or twice a year for the last, what, 20 years. I have Linux on all my servers, was an early (very minor) dev on pre-1 kernel and generally love it. The desktop is a walking nightmare. Something continuously does not work: multiple screens, waking up from sleep etc. I really would like to move (we use Outlook but I am even ready to go for OWA) but Windows is considerably better on lap…

Haven't you heard? It's the year of the Linux desktop :)

In all seriousness, until about a year ago when I got a discount on a Macbook and changed to that, I had been running Linux for about a decade across different laptops, and feel that since ~2017 the desktop experience has improved substantially. I bought a new laptop in 2017, installed Ubuntu on it...and that was it. I spent exactly zero minutes installing drivers or mucking with configurations, multiple monitors with HDMI audio worked out of the box, and "going to sleep upon the lid closing" just worked. Granted, I'm a bit of a Linux veteran at this so maybe there were a lot of things I was tweaking that I just don't remember since I do them so often, but I do not think that was the case, since I got my wife (who is not a software engineer) using Ubuntu as well for awhile.

I think part of what made it better was using AMD hardware for everything. The drivers are just included with the kernel, and they work great out of the box, at least for me.

I realize that telling everyone to shop for a computer based on the drivers that will be available isn't exactly a great sales pitch for Linux for the average consumer, but I suspect if you frequent HN you probably have a reasonable ability to differentiate video cards and whatnot.

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