I'm also greatly concerned by the Chromium engine supremacy on the Internet.
There are interesting privacy-focused Chromium-based browsers but I still refuse to use them. Google shouldn't have a near-monopoly on web rendering engines and on web "standards". Firefox is the only proper competition I can get behind.
LibreWolf. I don't need to see "sponsored shortcuts", recommended bullshit, abd Mozilla VPN ads when I open my browser. Firefox is by far superior to Chromium based alternatives but let's not pretend Mozilla are saints when it comes to annoying bullshit in their browser.
Being slightly forceful might work, but being too forceful has the opposite effect. I've seen a lot of people avoiding Edge not because of its technical demerits, or due to lack of knowledge, but because MS forces it so much down your throat that something "feels" off.
I've used it at work since it often is the only installed browser and it feels like it's already infected by toolbars and other malware out of the box.
The new tab page reminds me of the weird ads you see at the bottom of tabloid websites.
On our company PCs we have both Edge and Chrome, after the latest Windows update a few days ago, every time I try to set Chrome as default browser, a window pops up saying something on the lines of "are you sure? please try out the fabulous Edge first, you might change your mind".
That annoys me to no end, first we are in EU, where Microsoft has been fined in the past for not allowing a browser choice, second, we're talking about Windows ENTERPRISE !!, keep that shit out of it, policies on PCs are decided at enterprise level, you can't spam users about it.
And not only that, but the stupid front page with stupid irrelevant news, some of which are literal, blatant attempts at fraud - "[random B-celeb from your country] has a money making tip They don't want you to know!" and that sort of shit - in the browser they relentlessly push, nag about or just "accidentally" reset as default every cunting week.
Dozens of popups, random notifications - like... why? What person with, I assume, at least half a brain stem in their head could possibly think these were good ideas?
"I don't give a shit, show me the web page and shut the fuck up!" has turned into a mantra when I have to use Edge. That's not good.
I develop software that runs on Windows, so I have to use it to some degree. I would pay so much money for an officially-supported version that lets me cut out all the shit I don’t need and not deal with stupid thirst tricks. For the longest, I just ran Windows Server in a VM.
My custom Windows 11 installer doesn't even have Edge - not even the WebView component. It might have trace files in the system, but they can't be opened or scheduled to run even with elevated privileges.
I am awaiting my new SSD (already got 2 in there lmao) to dual boot into Linux Mint (though I suspect I won't remain dual booted for long at current trajectory.
I have to use Windows for work, and every single day, I open Outlook and I'm greeted with "WE RESPECT YOUR PRIVACY, please share your data with us." And every day I say "Don't share optional data." Clearly there's a fucking problem here.
Also the 2 people per month downloading Firefox probably do it for privacy reasons, harder to convince them than a user using a Big Tech browser to use a different Big Tech browser.
Yeah, using Firefox is a real hassle compared to Edge or Chrome. It's really only worth it if you're hardcorde into privacy but barely usable for your average Joe /s
Using marketshare as a metric to see how good something is, is a delusional idea. By your logic, iPhones would be the best phones and Macbooks would be best laptops, none of which are true. Both are bought majorly by people who want to throw money for social status, and FCP or FL Studio users are somewhere below 3%.
I swear Microsoft, particularly the Windows and Edge divisions, have consultants on retainer directly from Hell - specialists in making things absolutely infuriating for no particularly good reason.
Ungoogled Chromium is infinitely superior to Edge, for a second opinion web browser. Using Edge, or any of these infinite Chromium forks, is just stupid and lazy.
i don't trust chrome OR whatever browser microsoft wants me to use.
also to say i 'trust' firefox would also be an overstatement, but you could fairly describe it as, "I distrust firefox less" than either google or microsoft.
I never had this problem to put Vivaldi or any other browser instead of EDGE. Maybe i'm still with W10, maybe the last Windows which can be tamed. The only thing is that in Windows it isn't enough to declare the browser as default in the browser settings, you must do it also in the Windows default app settings too, but after this you'll never seen EDGE again, at least in W10.
I dont really use windows often outside of my work devices these days, but even if I did I wouldnt use edge as a primary browser based on how things rolled with IE6 and active X.
Yeah yeah youre a new friendlier Microsoft, webstandards and html5 are more locked in, and your browser is a chrome fork, and you "<3 Linux". I remember what you are and how you locked down the web when you had a chance. Personally I dont use chrome for the same reason given the direction google has been heading.
But to answer "why not Edge?": because you spent the better part of the last few decades sucking and amoral companies dont deserve the benefit of good faith.
What does Microsoft gain out of pushing Edge so hard. It's running on Chromium now, they're not going to break people's Google habits, they don't even charge for it.
Not even that, it's like you ask for a number of someone you're attracted to from their friend and they give you this survey asking why don't you want their number instead
Ungoogled Chromium requires so much work to be usable, on top of having no built-in updater. That's a really bad recommendation. Have you looked at the steps to even install widevine? You even have to open up chrome flags to manually install an addon that lets you install add-ons.
Chrome flags and developer addon option sounds like 5-10 minutes of work to me, and for updates zero work on Linux since it exists as Flatpak, and you update your Flatpaks with flatpak update command. On Windows and MacOS, likewise, you just download the newest binary setup or use one of those new fancy package managers.
Ungoogled Chromium is the only clean, non-spyware version of Chromium, which makes it the only correct Chromium recommendation. You want to recommend adware/spyware/cryptomalware for 1% more convenience?