Brave blocks Microsoft Recall by default • Hacker News Board

Re: Brave blocks Microsoft Recall by default

#201

Post by pickledoyster » Wed, Jul 23, 2025, 3:41 PM UTC

hbn wrote: post #191

wlesieutre wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or the old "oops we installed an upgrade and accidentally flipped your setting by on purpose not having QA" I don't know how many times I've had to tell Windows that I don't want Edge to be my default browser and OneDrive should not open at login.

My "favorite" tactless Windows update story in recent memory was when an update pinned a Copilot link to my taskbar. I unpinned it, then a few weeks later another update added the Copilot link back to my taskbar, but not as a pinned app. Rather it replaced the god damn "show desktop" button in the bottom right of the screen! They replaced an always on-screen OS navigation button that's been there since Windows 7 with…

> They replaced an always on-screen OS navigation button that's been there since Windows 7 with an ad!!

That must be doing wonders for the click rate. I can see the pre-promotion powerpoint slide now: "User engagement with Copilot is showing exponential growth"

Re: Brave blocks Microsoft Recall by default

#202

Post by johnisgood » Wed, Jul 23, 2025, 3:41 PM UTC

poulpy123 wrote: post #152

johnisgood wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also recommend https://github.com/LeDragoX/Win-Debloat-Tools to debloat your Windows 10-11. Familiarity is not really a good reason against Linux, however. Just install a Linux distro that comes close in looks. What are these Linux distributions these days? Pop OS? Elementary OS? Most people are only using their browsers anyway.

Familiarity is shorthand for time and energy. Neither of them are infinite. Ironically your second sentence is an example of the impact on time and energy the switch will have: someone who just decided to switch from windows to linux will have to take the time and spend the energy to chose between the dozen of linux distributions before any practical consideration.

Well, I have been told by many people to install Windows on their PC or laptop. I installed Linux instead. They were quite happy with that.

If you want it out of the box, there are laptops out there with Linux pre-installed, but it is not as common, unfortunately.

So I do not see the irony. They usually ask someone to install an OS, or they buy a computer pre-installed with an OS.

Re: Brave blocks Microsoft Recall by default

#203

Post by delfinom » Wed, Jul 23, 2025, 3:47 PM UTC

bornfreddy wrote: post #110

aleph_minus_one wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if you don't mind staying with older software. The problem is: it depends a lot on the specific program whether I want the newest or stay with some older version of some program. Many GNU/Linux distributions make this hard, while Windows makes this easy.

Huh, what? With Linux you can at least dockerize apps and run multiple versions with negligible performance impact. Doing the same in Windows is a mess at best. Or did you mean that you want to pin an app to a specific version? This can be done also, trivially - not that it is a good idea in general.

Ah yes, dockerize apps. Jump through hoops to use an app, compared to Windows where it's just some clicks.

Nobody ever disputes that there are workarounds to the default packaging workflows of Linux distros. The problem is, your average user, even technical ones don't want using an OS to be a second job outside their real job.

Re: Brave blocks Microsoft Recall by default

#204

Post by dawnerd » Wed, Jul 23, 2025, 3:47 PM UTC

jksflkjl3jk3 wrote: post #77

I can never understand how anyone with an interest in tech hasn't switched to Linux for their personal desktop/laptop at some point in the last 20+ years. Why would you want to use a closed source OS controlled by a corporation with a past as checkered as Microsoft's?

I use Mac daily but a windows desktop for gaming. I tried to switch. There’s still too much incompatible although proton has made huge advances.

Re: Brave blocks Microsoft Recall by default

#205

Post by diggan » Wed, Jul 23, 2025, 3:48 PM UTC

crtasm wrote: post #169

diggan wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if you use google then history.google.com I use gmail from time to time, and YouTube, but literally everything else I do on the computer won't be visible there. What would be cool would be to ask "What documents about ICs did I have open last night around 23:00?" and have it give me a list of local paths that I looked at, and it's all outside of browsers/Google. And of course, have it all be local.

Windows already tracks file usage (e.g. recent files), maybe that could be set to keep more history.

I'm not sure if both you and previous parent don't know, but the main useful thing with Recall is understanding whatever is on the screen, not just file accesses, or URLs visited but basically anything. So while Google's activity might see some parts, recent files sees another and so on, deriving that from screenshots captures everything you'd see on the screen.

Re: Brave blocks Microsoft Recall by default

#206

Post by 65 » Wed, Jul 23, 2025, 3:48 PM UTC

poulpy123 wrote: post #163

65 wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you seriously suggesting someone new to Linux use Debian, one of the most annoying distros to set up for desktop use? I used Linux Mint for about a year and gave up because everything was constantly breaking and the software was a direct downgrade from MacOS in terms of usability and prevalence. Oh, and new hardware usually doesn't even work on Linux. Linux is like Communism, sounds great in theory but in reality…

> Linux is like Communism, sounds great in theory but in reality it doesn't work. Man I'm using windows and defending it's usage in this very thread but that's totally stupid

Care to explain why you think this analogy is stupid?

Re: Brave blocks Microsoft Recall by default

#207

Post by Eggpants » Wed, Jul 23, 2025, 3:49 PM UTC

Yolopix wrote: post #156

I'm tired of all these apps using Recall as a lazy way to create pointless "privacy improving" features. This is pure marketing and there is absolutely no actual intention of improving user privacy. As far as I know, Recall has never been enabled by default on any Windows-PC, even the new "Copilot+ PCs", so this should not be a concern as users have to explicitely opt-in to enable this privacy-invading feature. First…

Cool story bruh. It was initially enabled by default and by design had intern level security.

Microsoft has earned, many times over, its hate.

Re: Brave blocks Microsoft Recall by default

#208

Post by delfinom » Wed, Jul 23, 2025, 3:49 PM UTC

dotancohen wrote: post #136

aleph_minus_one wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Microsoft specifically allows software in the category “browsers” to disable Recall. 1. "Browser" does not mean "web browser": many kinds of applications can be considered a browser. 2. Even if you identify "browser" with "web browser": Electron apps are basically (web) browsers (though not fully functional ones). Nobody claimed said for a software to be in the "browser" category, it has to be a fully functional we…

How does the OS know that foobar application is a [[fully functional] web] browser?

It doesn't. Windows is just checking if there's a protocol handler entry in the registry for http/https.

In theory you don't abuse that because it will come up as a possible browser option for users. :shrug:

Re: Brave blocks Microsoft Recall by default

#209

Post by dataflow » Wed, Jul 23, 2025, 3:54 PM UTC

__rito__ wrote: post #118

shevis wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gaming. Linux gaming has come a long way (especially thanks to the steam deck) but the vast majority of games are still only released on Windows.

What stops you from dual-booting? You use Windows for games, and only games. For everything else , you use Linux. This is a practical setup.

> This is a practical setup.

What if you need to check emails or take care of some other task mid-game?

Re: Brave blocks Microsoft Recall by default

#210

Post by 65 » Wed, Jul 23, 2025, 3:55 PM UTC

chromiummmm wrote: post #154

65 wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you seriously suggesting someone new to Linux use Debian, one of the most annoying distros to set up for desktop use? I used Linux Mint for about a year and gave up because everything was constantly breaking and the software was a direct downgrade from MacOS in terms of usability and prevalence. Oh, and new hardware usually doesn't even work on Linux. Linux is like Communism, sounds great in theory but in reality…

What's so hard about debian to set up?

Besides having to boot from an ISO and the arduous process of installing Linux in general compared to not having to do this with MacOS or Windows, hardware compatibility is by far the most annoying part of Linux desktop. Want to use a new laptop to run Linux? Well it probably will have a bunch of hardware issues you need to monkey patch.

It appears a site for software engineers can get lost in the sauce with the concept of something being "easy" - but Linux absolutely will never take off if it's a pain in the ass for the average computer user to install and use.