Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Outlook now ignores Windows' Default Browser and opens links in Edge by default

support.microsoft.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

471–480 of 645 posts

Re: Outlook now ignores Windows' Default Browser and opens links in Edge by default

#471

Post by browningstreet »

I was looking at Distrowatch with my son.. lamenting at all the different distros, the distros I've never heard of, and the frequency of changes in the top 10 with distros I'm not familiar with. Free software devs are obviously free to do as they wish, but Apple vs Microsoft vs Google vs 100+ Linux distros wasn't going to lead to the outcome some of us were hoping for.

We're looking at building a monster Davinci Resolve workstation and we might use Linux. He certainly wants to.

But between our mobile devices (all iOS etc) and laptops -- we'd have a very mixed and heterogenous environment. I'm tired of maintaining all the different incompatibilities. I'm inclined to go all Apple, just to keep things clean.

But the Distrowatch situation showed me how much Linux missed its "year of the desktop" window, so many years ago, and how having optimal hardware experiences across form-factors doesn't include Linux as a default, or obvious, or user-friendly option.. the way it does for servers and cloud ops.

Re: Outlook now ignores Windows' Default Browser and opens links in Edge by default

#472

Post by lucb1e »

wvenable wrote: post #234
aezart wrote: post #132

I don't understand how Microsoft benefits from getting everyone to use their web browser? Is it all to spy on people's browsing habits?

You can't think of Microsoft, or any company, as a monolith or personify them. The question is not how Microsoft benefits from this but rather which executive benefits from this. Given that I believe Windows team is now grouped together with the Bing (and Edge) team, I think the reasons for these sorts of changes are obvious.

If you think it's so obvious, why don't you provide the answer? I don't think GP would have posted the question if it were obvious to them.

Whether you talk about Microsoft-the-firm or Microsoft-the-shareholders when asking about "what's in it for them": that's the same thing because it's a for-profit business, so that's an irrelevant thing to post as well.

Re: Outlook now ignores Windows' Default Browser and opens links in Edge by default

#473

Post by darkhelmet »

015a wrote: post #390
basch wrote: post #388

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Battery throttling doesn’t fit the rest of these. Preventing a device reboot is pro consumer.

Ah, found that "heated discussion" the OP mentioned.

Heh. I can't blame them for doing this, but not telling people what's happening (and why) was the big mistake.

People generally want their gadgets to be as lightweight as possible, cheap as possible, last as long as possible, and be reliable. There's tradeoffs in balancing those. eg: overbuilding the battery to make the device run longer in the face of degradation adds weight, size, and cost. Somebody has to make a call on where the balance should be.

What nobody really talks about in the context of device longevity is wear levels in the onboard flash. A battery replacement or three doesn't extend that clock. It's pretty good but it doesn't last forever. This is more of an issue on devices with smaller amounts of flash storage with a lot more storage churn.

Re: Outlook now ignores Windows' Default Browser and opens links in Edge by default

#474

Post by thebruce87m »

flagrant_taco wrote: post #425
basch wrote: post #388

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Battery throttling doesn’t fit the rest of these. Preventing a device reboot is pro consumer.

Shipping a device that will overheat and reboot when the device is a couple years old and fixing it by silently throttling the device isn't pro consumer either Those devices really should have been recalled or offered a generous trade-in value to account for the fundamental design flaw

It has nothing to do with overheating. It is battery ageing. The internal resistance of a battery increases as it ages, leading to brownouts when peak current happens.

The throttling feature still exists in iOS. All that’s changed is that you will be made aware that it’s happening and you can switch it off if you prefer a brownout when your battery is degraded.

Other manufacturers are happy to let your handset reboot, it could lead to another sale for them. Some would call that planned obsolescence.

Re: Outlook now ignores Windows' Default Browser and opens links in Edge by default

#475

Post by lucb1e »

haolez wrote: post #244

I'm currently using Linux due to this kind of hostile behavior from Microsoft on Windows. However, we are power users and the big masses won't care about an ever increasing misalignment between the users' needs and Microsoft's. We cannot vote with our wallets, e.g. by using Linux instead. It won't matter. What we could maybe do is contribute to projects like ReactOS[0] and make it easier for the layperson to migrate…

I keep thinking that when my grandma's laptop gets too slow from all the Windows updates, I'll install some linux on it and teach her that so she doesn't have to keep learning how the new Windows works every time (because, indeed, the masses aren't switching). Won't have a problem with malware either. Cinnamon is 100% stable for me and very similar to Windows, that's going to be as much effort to learn as Windows 11 would be.

Now, if only I could convince my dad, he might allow me trying to put it on my mom's computer as well... he insists on buying Microsoft Office for everyone under his roof so that I don't have an excuse to install LibreOffice

Sometimes it seems like old-ish white men is why we can't have nice things (I'm gonna be one of those :/)

Re: Outlook now ignores Windows' Default Browser and opens links in Edge by default

#476

Post by jahewson »

lostmsu wrote: post #159
TX81Z wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think people have started using “dark pattern” to mean any UX decisions they disagree with. There is a hugely substantive difference between this feature being on by default and say, making a ”reject tracking” button in 2 point grey font. Dark patterns are primarily things that if presented equally would result in a different decision which often go directly against the users self interest. I don’t see that here.

The dark pattern is redirecting Google search to Apple maps.

Maybe you don’t remember when Google started inserting its own maps at the top of location searches in place of the top-result: MapQuest. Probably a good 15 years ago.

Re: Outlook now ignores Windows' Default Browser and opens links in Edge by default

#477

Post by politelemon »

SebastianKra wrote: post #305
acomjean wrote: post #89

Its getting worse everywhere: some things I've noticed: Mobil Safari seems to be using the search bar to hijack my google search (Particularly for locations which open in apple maps) Although I'm mostly linux these days I went to install an alternative browser on a windows machine (using edge to download). I mentioned this in another post, but edge seems to watch for "chrome" or "firefox" downloads and politely remin…

Apple are experts are experts at creating these patterns that fall just at the edge of being classified as anti-consumer, to the point where you frequently find heated discussions about whether they are. Battery throtteling on the iPhone 6s; The sandboxing / sideloading discussion; The no-iCloud experience; The way that regular bluetooth headsets work fine, but AirPods work even better; How unauthorized Apps on MacOS…

> Apple are experts are experts at creating these patterns that fall just at the edge of being classified as anti-consumer, to the point where you frequently find heated discussions about whether they are.

I argue that they are blatantly anti-consumer, but have created a brand identity association that causes people to pretend (and argue) they are not. Try using an ipad without handing over your credit card details. Even google is better in this area.

Re: Outlook now ignores Windows' Default Browser and opens links in Edge by default

#478

Post by derefr »

SebastianKra wrote: post #403
vladvasiliu wrote: post #372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But that's how bt heaphones work everywhere, right? I have to go and manually pair them. But once they're paired, they connect automatically to my iphone, and I can select them easily from a list when e.g making a phone call, though they're usually selected automatically when connected.

No, this is for connecting headphones that are already paired but disconnected. For my Sonys I had to do this every time I activated them, because I use them with multiple devices, and its not guaranteed that they connect to the right one. Some headphones support connecting two devices simultaneously, which is great... unless you have 3 devices :) Anyways, if I was Apple, I would have added paired headphones to the s…

The W2 chip or whatever it’s called, inside the AirPods, allows it to detect the closest “known” (not “paired”) device when it’s removed from its case, and if it’s not the one that it was connected to when it last went to sleep, then the headphones will avoid automatically connecting to the device they were previously connected to on last use, instead going into an implicit “trusted pairing” mode that allows the first known device to express an audio intent to become the BT auto-pair + auto-connect device.

You can’t do this with a regular Bluetooth audio device that doesn’t have the W2 chip, because according to the Bluetooth spec, you can only be paired to one device at a time; there is no separate concept of “known” devices; devices that auto-connect stay auto-connected on sleep+wake; and devices that connect (therefore devices that auto-connect) must stop announcing themselves as available over BT discovery. (BT is essentially a protocol state machine — a device can be either idle, in pairing mode, searching for its paired device to auto-reconnect, or connected, and none of these states can overlap.)

These are all limitations of the audio device, not of the host OS. Limitations required for Bluetooth conformance! Apple can only work around these limitations by having the device and host both run a completely separate, second discovery protocol over completely separate hardware, that just forces the BT hardware into certain states as a result of its own negotiation. They can’t magically make audio devices that don’t have a W2 chip do this out-of-BT-band negotiation.

Re: Outlook now ignores Windows' Default Browser and opens links in Edge by default

#479

Post by kervantas »

n_sd wrote: post #462
acomjean wrote: post #89

Its getting worse everywhere: some things I've noticed: Mobil Safari seems to be using the search bar to hijack my google search (Particularly for locations which open in apple maps) Although I'm mostly linux these days I went to install an alternative browser on a windows machine (using edge to download). I mentioned this in another post, but edge seems to watch for "chrome" or "firefox" downloads and politely remin…

Just a side note. You might be meaning GNU/Linux instead of Linux.

GNU/systemd/Liux/x86/electricity, to be specific.

Re: Outlook now ignores Windows' Default Browser and opens links in Edge by default

#480

Post by kernal »

wongarsu wrote: post #27
frob wrote: post #4

Windows is just full of hostile, anti-user patterns these days. I've considered building a windows box just to have a gaming rig multiple times over the last few years, but every time an article like this or their crusade against Chrome reminds me that Bill Gates is still the same anti-trust monster he was in the 90s.

Google has an equally annoying crusade against anything that isn't Chrome. Visit google.com with Edge (on desktop) and you immediately get a popup on the top right "Google recommends using Chrome. Built for Windows. Easily search on Google with the fast, secure browser". As if there was any material difference between the browsers. We need a comeback of antitrust enforcement with teeth to get both Microsoft and Googl…

> Visit google.com with Edge (on desktop) and you immediately get a popup on the top right "Google recommends using Chrome. Built for Windows. Easily search on Google with the fast, secure browser".

You make it out as if this is only done by Google. The same company that tries everything it can to make you use Edge on Windows also tries to make you switch to Edge on their site. Google is perfectly entitled to do what they want on their site, Microsoft however takes it to a whole new level - which is par for the course with Microsoft.

"Experience AI-powered browsing with the new Bing built-in. Get comprehensive answers and summarized information side-by-side in Microsoft Edge"

Post reply on HN