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Mozilla claims Apple, Google and Microsoft force users to use default browsers

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Re: Mozilla claims Apple, Google and Microsoft force users to use default browsers

#61

On Android all Google apps default to opening in Chrome with no option to change it, even if you change the default URL configuration that only seems to work outside of Gmail / News Feed. This also applies to their search widget, which you cannot remove at all. Incredibly frustrating end user experience when I have everything in FireFox, and Adblock too.

I have the default browser on my Pixel 5a set to Brave, and everything opens in Brave.

I have the Google news feed disabled, but links from gmail and the search window all open Brave as expected.

Re: Mozilla claims Apple, Google and Microsoft force users to use default browsers

#62
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe 1password will implement passkeys at some point in the future. However that doesn't take away from the concern that passkeys are designed from the ground up to ensure vendor lock-in (there almost certainly won't be a way to migrate passkeys from Apple's or Google's keychains to 1password). With passwords there is a clear, if insecure, fallback -- simply copy the password over. With passkeys, you're subject…

I agree - I think password managers will (soon enough) implement passkeys. As you say though, the current implementations deliver lock-in "by-design" (but with legitimate reason - you don't want to have an API that shares the AES-256 root key that decrypts passkey keyblobs!) This could all be mitigated with a little bit of tooling (allowing an existing passkey to enrol a new passkey from another device), which would…

I've flagged these concerns to several people involved in Webauthn, privately and publicly, and passkey portability is pretty clearly low-priority (i.e. never going to happen) for them.

Re: Mozilla claims Apple, Google and Microsoft force users to use default browsers

#63
post #3

They're right, recently I've installed some Windows update for my parents and I had to reject like 5 suggested changes - installing Office trial, switching default browser to Edge yet again, and more. But this goes way beyond the browsers - I've never explicitly installed Keychain on my iphone and yet it shows as an option next to 1password every time I fill in a password field. Google calendar asks me to install an…

Does the default browser matter that much? I mean how often do you click on a link outside of a browser?

Re: Mozilla claims Apple, Google and Microsoft force users to use default browsers

#64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Go to Settings (Win+I) -> System -> Notifications & actions [ ] Show me the Windows welcome experience after updates ... [ ] Suggest ways I can finish setting up my device ... [ ] Get tips, tricks, ...

just use Linux you get none of this nonsense

This.

Re: Mozilla claims Apple, Google and Microsoft force users to use default browsers

#65
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reskinned Chrome is the default on windows

And macOS (Safari uses WebKit, if that's the criteria)

Google swapped Chrome from WebKit to Blink (i.e. they forked WebKit) years ago. WebKit is essentially only used by Safari now; Edge does not use it.

Re: Mozilla claims Apple, Google and Microsoft force users to use default browsers

#67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This has existed for years. I use 1Password for all my passwords and it shows up as an option when entering or creating a password in any browser on iOS. Furthermore, all browser can access the keychain if the user authorizes it.

1Password doesn't perform WebAuthn logins, only password (and TOTP) based logins. The GP is talking about WebAuthn / FIDO2 logins.

1password is going to implement WebAuthn in the future: https://blog.1password.com/1password-is-joining-the-fido-all...

However, the lock-in concern remains: how can you export passkeys to another password manager the same way you can export passwords to it?

Re: Mozilla claims Apple, Google and Microsoft force users to use default browsers

#68
post #63
post #3

They're right, recently I've installed some Windows update for my parents and I had to reject like 5 suggested changes - installing Office trial, switching default browser to Edge yet again, and more. But this goes way beyond the browsers - I've never explicitly installed Keychain on my iphone and yet it shows as an option next to 1password every time I fill in a password field. Google calendar asks me to install an…

Does the default browser matter that much? I mean how often do you click on a link outside of a browser?

Every time I click a link in email, IRC, Slack, Discord... At least 100+ times a day, easily.

Re: Mozilla claims Apple, Google and Microsoft force users to use default browsers

#69
post #63
post #3

They're right, recently I've installed some Windows update for my parents and I had to reject like 5 suggested changes - installing Office trial, switching default browser to Edge yet again, and more. But this goes way beyond the browsers - I've never explicitly installed Keychain on my iphone and yet it shows as an option next to 1password every time I fill in a password field. Google calendar asks me to install an…

Does the default browser matter that much? I mean how often do you click on a link outside of a browser?

On desktop there's emails, chat apps, etc. On mobile the default browser is often used for the webview within apps, e.g. on Android I have Firefox doing the rendering for webpages inside other apps' UI, which means I can block ads thanks the uBlock Origin.

It happens all the time, for lots of people.

Re: Mozilla claims Apple, Google and Microsoft force users to use default browsers

#70
post #61

On Android all Google apps default to opening in Chrome with no option to change it, even if you change the default URL configuration that only seems to work outside of Gmail / News Feed. This also applies to their search widget, which you cannot remove at all. Incredibly frustrating end user experience when I have everything in FireFox, and Adblock too.

I have the default browser on my Pixel 5a set to Brave, and everything opens in Brave. I have the Google news feed disabled, but links from gmail and the search window all open Brave as expected.

My default browser on my phone is Firefox, and even when I open articles from the news feed in the Google App, they open from Firefox as well. I guess it's possible that this could vary by phone, but I've never had an issue with an Android phone using my non-default browser when opening a link from an app in years.
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