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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

#501

Post by PraetorianGourd »

ivraatiems wrote: post #102
danjc wrote: post #76

Ok I’ll take the contrarian view. Why is it a big deal that a specialized url scheme is specifically intended to launch a Microsoft browser? Only apps built by Microsoft will use that scheme.

Because Microsoft makes Windows, and therefore can force anything Windows tries to open to use that scheme. This means you can never view search results, weather, news, etc. that Windows provides to you integrated into its experience in any browser other than edge.

But they don’t. Microsoft could do this. Apple could do that. Google could do this and that. I don’t give much of a shit what someone could do. Biden could order a nuclear attack on Finland. China could order all references to their president baseball be replaced by the word baseball. Linus could merge in whatever the fuck to the kernel. But if he did, everyone would panic, so let’s wait until they do the thing

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

#502

Post by neop1x »

seqizz wrote: post #136

What the hell is a "microsoft-edge:// link"? Pardon my ignorance since I didn't use Windows for years, but who even link something like that?

They use this scheme throughout the system, for example after clicking on a search result from the Cortana search. That basically skips your default browser settings and opens sites in Edge.

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

#503

Post by jokteur »

gmadsen wrote: post #480
sockaddr wrote: post #478

Anyone on the fence about ditching Windows for Linux should just do it. If you pick a popular distro and hardware you'll likely run into only minimal issues, if any. My sound and wifi worked right out of the box even though I built my own system. Why anyone still puts up with this garbage, abusive, disrespectful OS is beyond me.

ive had to break down and at least have a windows vm. ive picked up making music as a hobby and all the various production and plugin-in software is a no go with linux. Same with VR related things. I would love to get a mac, but unfortunately arm isn't really supported for my other use cases (ros middleware robotics)

Same in my case. I am a music hobbyist, and invested some money in tools that work only on Windows and MacOs. Of course, I could start from scratch, learn a new tool, pick up some compatible vsts, but really it is not the same.

When the day comes when I have no longer the choice (i.e. I am forced to upgrade to windows 11), I may reconsider everything: should I make the switch to MacOs and their closed OS ? Should relearn everything on linux, and loose some of the professional tools that I am using ?

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

#504

Post by npteljes »

mihaic wrote: post #399

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 se…

They have plenty of time and moat to get away with it. The success of Windows is not because people like it, but because it's the de facto standard PC OS. Drivers are built for Windows, computers come preinstalled with Windows, schools teach Windows and Office, businesses are already invested in Windows. This is not going to change just because Windows is somewhat annoying.

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

#505

Post by npteljes »

Decabytes wrote: post #486

I wonder how many people will actually switch away from Windows this time. It’s interesting to see people saying they will stick with Windows 10, when the same thing was said about the Windows 7-10 transition. Will people eventually just get worn down like last time, my guess is probably. But maybe that is too pessimistic

I don't think many would change, because that's a lot of effort. What would make a difference is, for example, a flavor Linux to become default. If someone would buy a notebook preinstalled with Kubuntu and it would be usable enough so that the buyer won't need to install Windows. This is why I think that, for example, Valve's work in the Linux space is so important.

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

#506

Post by npteljes »

phreack wrote: post #320

What would you people suggest is the most Windows-like Linux distro to switch over? I'm thinking in terms of visual similarity, UX, key bindings, and such for everyday usage.

Kubuntu fits this bill in my opinion. If you take a look at their feature tour[0], it uses similar paradigms as Windows. And Ubuntu is widely supported, and their package directory is quite good.

[0] https://kubuntu.org/feature-tour/

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

#508

Post by FourthProtocol »

ranguna wrote: post #499
FourthProtocol wrote: post #490

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Always with the Linux. I can't use Linux, I work in a Microsoft world. I can turn off the keylogger, and virtually anything else I don't want/like. I cannot (assuming I used their products) stop Google from storing my (MY!!) data on their infrastructure and having their way with it.

Have you tried libre office? And if you really need offline editing, you can still have all the pros of Linux + office if you install a Windows VM escape hatch just for Word.

Yes I've tried Libre. ODT files don't play well with MS Office. Pivot tables in Calc are... frustrating. No OneNote, no Outlook, no Visio. Linux doesn't work on my hardware, and Visual Studio doesn't work on Linux.

The distribution fragmentation... I'm expected to install flavour X or Y of Linux not actually knowing before I start that my hardware even supports it? Brain = explode.

Joining a community (Linux) that stomps all over people that have a dissenting view (I actually like Windows - have done since I started using it in 1990) is philosophically not a community I want part of (Stallman is an exception I have a lot of time and respect for).

A VM adds complexity - why would I do that when native Windows is pain-free and just works?

And no, I don't "need" offline editing, I just want it. After all the cloud is a computer just like mine - that happens to belong to someone else. The cloud introduces a risk of data theft and complete data loss. And yes, probability is low, but impact and exposure are both very VERY high. I don't run that risk at all using my own hardware.

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

#509

Post by ghusbands »

tombert wrote: post #160
BrandoElFollito wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 dri…

One problem here is that you always get posts like this. I've seen discussions about Linux on desktop going back twenty years, now, and there are always people saying it was problematic a few years ago and is so much better now. But then always plenty of people still having trouble and plenty of listed in-thread issues with sleep, trackpads, multi-monitor, configuration, compatibility, etc. It seems like you have to get lucky or do a lot of research. Or both.

Windows is always getting worse, too, but still basically works on all hardware. I've been thinking of switching away, given how bad Windows 11 looks to be and how irritating Windows 10 has been. But then, Windows XP, Vista and others were also known to be terrible but still mostly worked.

On balance, I'd say that Windows is likely to continue a user-hostile decline but still mostly work and Linux on Desktop is likely to always have a lot of effort involved if you want everything to work well. But there's probably no point at which Linux will work well on all hardware or Windows will be less usable by default.

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

#510

Post by greggman3 »

collin128 wrote: post #494
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.…

When I first switched to Mac I absolutely hated the way the OS handle the alt tab function. Now I'm a big fan and find it disorienting to go back to Windows but I've been here for 10 years. CMD + ~ all the way.

I've been on a Mac since 2008 so ~13 years. I still hate it, not the mac, just this one poorly designed feature ... and a few others. I don't want to have to stop-pause-think "was the last thing I used in the same app or a different app?" so that I can press the right key. Further, I only want the last window to move to the front, not all windows of the same app. Quite often (50-70% of the time?) I have say 3 VSCode windows, 4 terminals, and 3 browser windows. I need to switch between say a terminal window and a VScode window. ideally when I moved the VSCode window to the front and mostly on the right side of the screen the last terminal would stay visible but instead Cmd-Tab brings all the VScode windows to the front, covering the terminal. It's useless. Cmd+~ doesn't help, that only switches within the same app.
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