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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

#281
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.

Whether these are reasons for you I can't say, for me it's: - proper support of dual monitor setups (particularly via Displayport) and remembering window positions - WSL2 integration (it really does work great) - eventual drop of Win 10 support

Not great: - new taskbar is meh - preferences are still all over the place

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

#282
post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After 30 years on Windows I switched this month to Linux, for pretty much the same reason. It's great. And it feels so fast . All my software exists natively on Linux (minecraft and game emulators for the kids, KNIME, Intellij, and Blender is a lot faster on Linux). No Word or PowerPoint, but there's Libre Office and it's good enough. Who'd have thought that 2021 would be the year of Linux on the desktop. Not because…

With Google Docs, Microsoft Office (maybe besides Excel) is pretty much redundant.

At this point I think if you desperately need MS Office, MacOS is the way to go. I will never buy a Windows machine again, and being forced to use it in a work setting would be a deal-breaker. Fortunately at this point even MS isn't stupid enough to make that a requirement as far as I'm aware.

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

#283
post #167

Linux Desktop feeling extra good today, my sound often doesn't work but I don't have to deal with Microsoft nonsense.

Frankly, sound has not been a problem for a long time now I think. Hell, the number of time windows killed the sound driver under usage for whatever reason it deemed useful, I actually would say nowadays Windows has the worst audio stack out of the 3 main OSs.

Yep. Bluetooth audio is probably best on Linux of the main 3 now that PipeWire exists (literally rock solid, I've never had a connection drop ever), but it's a toss-up when directly comparing CoreAudio to PipeWire. Once PW irons out it's latency issues, Linux may once again become the AV king! (well, maybe not the video portion with the state of Wayland these days...)

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

#284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's still Windows, we can tweak everything exactly how we want it. https://github.com/valinet/ExplorerPatcher https://ramensoftware.com/7-taskbar-tweaker-on-windows-11-wi... I've been using 7taskbar for years, it's rock solid. ExplorerPatcher is a new requirement, works great and adds tons of features.

Maybe it's just me, but tweaking Windows extensively always feels like you're fighting against the OS. I don't have these issues with my Linux installs.

You don’t uninstall snap if you use Ubuntu?

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

#285

Windows 11 was an absolute downgrade to my Windows 10 experience. To the point that I went back to windows 10 in less than a day of Windows 11. 1. I can't ungroup the taskbar windows. So now I have to hoover the taskbar to see multiple instances of the same software; 2. Who the hell thought it was a great idea to couple all the commands like WiFi, power energy, etc under the same menu? On Windows 11 I needed to click…

> Who the hell thought it was a great idea to couple all the commands like WiFi, power energy, etc under the same menu?

ahem, gnome, ahem

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

#286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Check out https://www.protondb.com The only games that I really ever struggle with are ones that have anticheat. And EasyAntiCheat is going linux friendly so something like 95 of the top 100 games on steam will either work natively or via proton. And with Valve pushing the SteamDeck is see that number going to 100 soon.

Steam on linux will automatically pull in protondb profiles for your games, so you probably don't even need to explicitly "check out" protondb at this point. Most games will "just work", with the exception of big AAA games with picky anti-cheat engines.

Yeah you may need to use Glorious Eggroll [1] for some games.

[1] https://github.com/GloriousEggroll/proton-ge-custom/releases

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

#287
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…

On windows 10, holding down the ctrl-button while clicking on the icon will switch to the recently used instance and if you keep clicking it will cycle through the open instances. If you want this behaviour as standard, you can enable it by editing the register. https://www.maketecheasier.com/enable-last-active-click-wind...

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

#288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> Settings app is now uses a more traditional left pane navigation instead of a list of large boxes for touch Serious question: why didn't they just do this in the first place? It can't be hard to check if the user has a touch input and dynamically resize buttons / list items, then size them back down when the user is done. They do exactly this for "Tablet mode"[0] in Windows 10. This, and the pitch black dark mode t…

I can see minimizing changes to the interface across devices as being good but as to why they didn't do this compromise of larger navigation entries instead of full touch first I'm not sure but it would have saved so much grief. It might have had to do with Windows Phone still being a thing at the time.

Regarding dark theme the dark app background is 12.5% gray and the lighter offset backgrounds are 17.5% gray. If it appears pitch black it's not because the theme is made for OLEDs rather your displays are miscalibrated and completely crushing blacks. If you enable transparency effects the color of your background will blend with these and raise/lower them accordingly.

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

#289

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.

Do you think that the OS is dead, or almost dead? That would lead to decades of stagnation, followed by a race to the bottom. If that's true Windows should become a dumpster fire. And the linux desktop will solve everything, just decades too late.

I'm far from saying the OS is dead: it is a necessary component of all modern devices. The point is, it's a commodity now. Apple doesn't charge for it. Linux distributors don't charge for it. Google doesn't charge users for it. And Microsoft not only charges for it, but introduces a ton of adware, telemetry and so forth. For technically-conscious users, it's suboptimal.

I don't believe in a sudden revolutionary change. Linux and macOS do increase their presence on the desktop, but the curve is almost flat, so it will take decades to even break even. Nevertheless, the trend exists, and Microsoft would have to do something very unusual to reverse it.

For me personally this is very important because the PC is one of the last open computing platforms.

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

#290

Linux Desktop feeling extra good today, my sound often doesn't work but I don't have to deal with Microsoft nonsense.

Linux desktop is amazing these days. Heck, even my mom runs Ubuntu as of 4 months ago and is loving it. Now is time to recommend it. Zoom, teams, webex, Firefox, chrome, Thunderbird, darktable, Gimp, inkscape, blender, kdenlive, openvpn, signal, OBS, stellarium, vim, Python, libreoffice, etc all work perfectly on it. My USB logitec wireless headset was plug and play. Cameras all work fine. Audio is good. Plus lots of power feature capabilities to boot. Whats not to like?
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