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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

#391

Post by hbn »

greggman3 wrote: post #315
jccalhoun wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

It could be worse. You could be on MacOS where Cmd-Tab switches between apps not windows. I currently have 13 browser windows open (each with 3 to 15 tabs) and another 9 windows of other things (terminal, vscode, etc....) and IMO The Cmd-Tab vs Ctrl-Tab vs Ctrl-Up vs Ctrl-Down suck compared to Windows. I really want to easily switch to the previous window, not the previous app. Command + backtick doesn't work either.…

> I really want to easily switch to the previous window, not the previous app. Command + backtick doesn't work either. It doesn't switch to the previous window. It switches to the previous window "in the same app" which is not actually the previous window as that could be from another app.

I really can't figure out what your issue is after reading this several times. If the last active window was a different app, you hit Cmd+Tab. If the last active window is from the same app, you hit Cmd+`

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

#392

Post by munk-a »

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.

The lack of any ability to move the task bar to the side of a screen is killing me on Win11. As an ADD person who has spent years training myself to glance to the right for notifications it's been really breaking my workflow by making it difficult to ignore various applications beeping and blooping.

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

#393

Post by dotnet00 »

StillBored wrote: post #183
cedricd wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've run all of them over the years (progressively upgrading like a good computer user). It's not even subtle. The good / bad dynamic is drastic. And each 'bad' always brings to it a horrible UI change. Vista brought the window manager and those weird transparent windows and was generally ugly and buggy. Win 7 cleaned up the UI and made it flatter and simpler. 8 brought a full-screen start menu (!!). 10 went back to…

Can you name what made the "good" releases good? Because when I look at the list, I can name bad things for every single "good" release that I disliked. Much of what makes a "good" release though, isn't that MS fixes anything from the "bad" release they just reskin a later service pack from the "bad" release and try not to break to many things. If you skip the "bad" releases it makes the "good" ones bad. 2000->XP, fo…

I think what makes the "good" releases good is that they drastically pull back on the so-called "innovation" in each.

Vista tried a lot of new stuff, most of it was meh, then 7 came along and reined it in a lot, then we got 8/8.1, again, changing a ton of stuff unnecessarily in the name of updates, then 10 tried to strike a middle ground. Now we have 11, with its exceedingly aggressive hardware requirements and forced changes. With 12 we'll probably be back to MS trying to compromise so people move on from 10.

I think MS's issue with OS planning is that they really don't understand "don't fix it if it isn't broken", after every successful Windows version they get overly ambitious, change too much and push users away. Then for the following release they have to consider the fact that a large portion of their userbase hasn't upgraded, so they actually pay attention to feedback and try to compromise between what people want and what MS wants.

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

#395

Post by AviationAtom »

gentleman11 wrote: post #274
modeless wrote: post #196

Firefox should go all the way on this. Exploit bugs, modify binaries, whatever it takes. With user consent of course. If the user says they want Firefox to be their default browser, Firefox is justified in modifying the operating system to achieve that. Ultimately Microsoft is powerless to stop this except by using their antivirus to block installation of Firefox in the first place, and I'd like to see them try that…

Microsoft already warns you that Firefox might be malware and that edge is more secure sometimes. It’s only one step away from a full ban. Decades ago, they got the monopoly treatment for this stuff

It's sad to see them slipping back to such tactics, as they've made strides in changing their image in the last decade or so. I have to wonder if there was one particular good idea fairy there, and it pained the devs to have to code this "feature" in.

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

#396

Post by 1_player »

gunapologist99 wrote: post #336

Why do people still run Windows? Linux is almost universally easier to use now (except for a few things like scanner and printer setup), and gaming has almost caught up as well (with things like Steam, and that's if you're not already using a dedicated console, SteamDeck, or mobile device.) At work, I can understand it a bit more, but I can't understand why anyone would still choose Windows as a desktop at home.

Because the $200 crappy laptop you buy in the store comes with Windows preinstalled and people couldn't care less about their operating system as long as they can write the TPS report they need for work.

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

#397

Post by tentacleuno »

tombert wrote: post #254
tentacleuno wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I can't really blame people for thinking that the Linux desktop experience sucks, to be fair. Nor me. A lot of it has been small things in my experience though, like this trackpad being terrible, or GNOME crashing once in a blue moon. I've definitely not experienced the level of pain you had with Optimus, or the rendering issues, which seems like a good thing. Although... on the subject of rendering issues, Firefox…

Actually, outside of having trouble disabling tap to click, I haven't had a ton of issues with the trackpad. I also haven't had the Firefox rendering problems, but I think that might be because for the last Linux laptop I had, I specifically sought out a graphics card that was likely to not have any issues. > I might learn C so I can look into making my own. I've thought about that too. If I weren't on Apple now I pr…

> Actually, outside of having trouble disabling tap to click, I haven't had a ton of issues with the trackpad.

Ahh, interesting! Not sure why, but it seems that some people have a horrible experience with the trackpad on Linux, while others have a great time (from a quick observation, anyway).

As a dumb guess, maybe it's due to different drivers being used? It's exactly the same on Wayland and Linux, so I'm guessing it's happening a lot lower in the stack (I read something about libinput? Not sure where that lies at the moment.) Grr, so much to think about! Perhaps one day I'll have a much better trackpad...

> I also haven't had the Firefox rendering problems, but I think that might be because for the last Linux laptop I had, I specifically sought out a graphics card that was likely to not have any issues.

Ahh, what graphics card is that? I'm guessing it's not NVIDIA.

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

#398

Post by addicted »

hbn wrote: post #391
greggman3 wrote: post #315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It could be worse. You could be on MacOS where Cmd-Tab switches between apps not windows. I currently have 13 browser windows open (each with 3 to 15 tabs) and another 9 windows of other things (terminal, vscode, etc....) and IMO The Cmd-Tab vs Ctrl-Tab vs Ctrl-Up vs Ctrl-Down suck compared to Windows. I really want to easily switch to the previous window, not the previous app. Command + backtick doesn't work either.…

> I really want to easily switch to the previous window, not the previous app. Command + backtick doesn't work either. It doesn't switch to the previous window. It switches to the previous window "in the same app" which is not actually the previous window as that could be from another app. I really can't figure out what your issue is after reading this several times. If the last active window was a different app, you…

I’m not sure why I should be thinking about whether my last active window was in the same or different app.

In windows it doesn’t matter whether I switched from a Chrome window to a Firefox window or from one Firefox window to another one.

The cognitive load is way less.

Also, CMD+’ is way more ergonomically inconvenient to hit.

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

#399

Post by mihaic »

OSS fanboys have been hailing the coming of Linux on personal computers for years, but it just looks like Windows 11 might be the thing that makes it real, forcing it finally to mature.

This is not Vista times, where you can easily get away with a bad OS generation. For the first time in about 12 years I'm dual booting Win 10 and KDE on Ubuntu, and it actually feels like a usable and practical setup.

Win 11 really seems to be hateful of users almost. Does it have a target audience anymore, or is it now designed by Mac users that work at MS? Seems like almost everyone should stay on Win 10 or migrate to Mac or Linux. The greatest strength Windows had was that developers could mess around while non-techies would always have a way to do whatever work they needed.

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

#400

Post by keithnz »

aufhebung wrote: post #327
jccalhoun wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

The centered start menu is terrible UX. In 10 you just move your mouse to the bottom corner, where in 11 the position changes. Of course, everyone except your grandma knows you can just press the windows key on your keyboard to open the menu. But grandma is also the person least likely to have the dexterity to hit the tiny button in the middle left of the screen.

I think the grandma case is just made up. I've seen older people use win11 just fine, they aren't so incompetent that they can't click a button on their task bar. If they are having trouble with that, then even if they could get to the windows button easily in the corner, they'd have a tricky job clicking any of the things that come up in the windows menu which are all the same size, and now, not even aligned to the bottom edge of the screen! Poor Grandma :)

Also on big screens the centered taskbar is great

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