Microsoft is trying a new way to stop users from downloading Google Chrome. If you open the Chrome download page in Microsoft Edge, you may see a new banner at the top. This version looks different from the usual prompts that ask users to stay with Edge.
I’m curious, what if I download Firefox from Edge? 🤔
sure, when Microsoft manages to modify their competitors website it’s “marketing”, but when I do it it’s a crime and I go to prison.
Lmao that gave me a really good laugh. Its so real man, they just need your data so badly.
Just a reminder that you dont need to touch Edge to download a browser on w11.
With cmd:
Librewolf:
winget install -e --id LibreWolf.LibreWolfor
Firefox:
winget install -e --id Mozilla.FirefoxBut why touch win11 in the first place??
Not everyone is as far along in their journey to freedom.
Also some of us are stuck with necessary stupid software that has no Linux releases and doesn’t run in proton/wine yet.
It’s been years since I’ve used Windows at home, but I still have a Firefox installer exe hanging around on my server on the offchance I ever need to use it again. Thanks for showing me it’s no longer necessary.
Did
wingetreplacechocolatey?Not replace, but it’s an official alternative from M$.
Noted, thanks!
wingetships with Windows by default, so it is a particularly good option for folks who don’t want to modify their Windows computer much, or have limited permissions.I understand that Winget is based on
chocolateyto some degree.I guess it’s cool that Windows finally has an official package manager.
Yes. It is very little, very late.
But it was a huge quality of life relief to me, when I still had a Windows install to deal with.
But there has to be a twist!
Literally malware tactics from the year 2000.
Why can’t they stop users from downloading Chrome by suggesting Firefox 😔
Because Mozilla is going to push AI in its browser, too
I country with a working legislative would prevent a market leader from attempting to prevent consumers from exercising their freedom to choose. Oh well.
Tech regulation is such a joke that I struggle to take any of it seriously anymore. Google was found monopoly and they didnt issue a punishment because “it was long time ago and now there are AI browsers”. Australia banning teenagers from social media instead of, you know, fixing social media for all people. It’s like punching air yet if you personally break ToS or IP law you are criminally charged.
They DESPERATELY want you to use Edge because they DESPERATELY want to watch what websites you visit, for how long, and what you click on. They want to know EVERYTHING about you:
What you buy, what you masturbate to, what you like and don’t like, how you vote, what you watch, what music you like, the clothes you wear, what you children are like, what movies you watch, who you know… THEY WANT TO KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT YOU SO THEY CAN USE IT AGAINST YOU: ADS. PROPAGANDA. VOTES. CONTROL.
WE ARE BEING FARMED
We are the product
They can do a lot of that now with Recall even if you use Chrome.
They also want you to use their browser because they want to direct you to bing/copilot and get ad revenue from all of your clicks.
Always have been… but Google is just as bad, so installing Chrome isn’t going to help you there. Honestly, even FF or anything else on Windows wont even get you out of that fate. They’ve proven they take screen shots, likely log keypresses, etc.
This isn’t new or even newsworthy anymore. Being okay with these sorts of things is like, literally part of EULA’s and such for decades. And people willingly give up privacy in trade for whatever service or product they’re choosing.
How long before windows is literally an edge browser with permanent copilot ?
I give it a year.
So ChromeOS?
Your computer won’t even be a computer, just a display with an Internet connection to a data centre.
As much as I would personally hate that, it honestly wouldn’t be a bad choice for my aging parents and my IT load when I visit them.
Linux is likely in their future, but thin clients for them would greatly reduce and centralize their compute considering what they actually need.
Have you used any of the Microsoft cloud products?
It’s completely ridiculous how bad they are, especially for admins.
Microsoft could even push its AI summaries as a RAM-friendly version of visiting website pages.
I think I just puked
They wanted to do that with internet explorer but regulators weren’t monopoly-friendly back then.
Didn’t they get sued multiple times for pulling shit like this before?
Regulators were less friendly back then
Apart from being chromium, Edge was pretty good until it released, then it had all the Microsoft bullshit added.
Microsoft was probably the only firm with the resources to keep a Chromium fork current while uneinding Google’s enshittifications. But their incentives are too similar for that.
As much as I dislike Microsoft, I see no reason for Windows users to download Chrome when Edge is right there.
There’s plenty:
- Not supporting monopolistic practices.
- User preferences.
- Diversifying your software so you don’t get trapped in an ecosystem.
- Not having Copilot stuffed down your throat.
- User preferences.
- Making it possible to rip Edge out of Windows for the purpose of debloating.
why did this even get upvoted. the only valid point is not having copilot and maybe removing edge if thats even possible.
- Not supporting monopolistic practices.
The rest of the points are fair but you seriously saying that getting Chrome of all things is not supporting monopolistic practices?
Oh, no. I’m saying Microsoft owning your operating system and using it to push their data-harvesting software as a default browser is a monopolistic practice, whereas using Chrome by itself is just reinforcing an existing monopoly. The same goes for Mac and Safari or Android and Chrome.
Neither option is good, but it’s a step in the right direction to punish a corporation for their active attempts to subvert competition in a bid to establish their own monopoly in place of the current one.
Sure we should always have choice but if you’re hopping out of Microsoft’s monopoly into Google’s is there even any point?
If you have to pick between two monopolistic corporations, using both of them but giving each a little less of your data and attention is a way to mitigate the risks and damage.
If Microsoft can harvest data on how I use my computer, I can at least make it a bit harder for them to harvest my browsing habits too by not voluntarily giving them browser telemetry on top of that.
