Microsoft seeks EU Digital Market Acts exemption for underdog apps like Edge | Vivaldi boss calls for browser choice and warns that Redmond might be deflating usage figures
Edge should be treated the same way as the browsers of Google and Apple.
They all including Microsoft have operating systems that try to make people to switch to their browsers with "recommendations".
Especially Microsoft is more aggressive today than Google or Apple on that. Because the majority of people refuse to switch to Edge.
If Edge isn't on the same "app position" of Safari and Chrome and is treated like Firefox, Vivaldi, Brave etc... that's a scandal.
So Windows has an option to select a default browser. And then Outlook has an option to open links, where the two options are the default browser that you selected in Windows, and Edge. And it defaults to Edge without ever asking you. Seems a bit suspicious after the United States made them offer a choice of browsers.
A Microsoft spokesperson told The Register: "We accept our designation as a gatekeeper under the Digital Markets Act and will continue to work with the European Commission to meet the obligations imposed on Windows and LinkedIn under the DMA.
"Microsoft is basically fighting it," said Vivaldi CEO Jon von Tetzchner in an interview with The Register.
Warming to his theme, Von Tetzchner noted other ways that users were nudged Edgewards at the expense of alternatives – such as his company's Vivaldi browser.
We should be clear that it is possible to change the default browser within Windows, although the process is perhaps not the easiest to follow, particularly considering the plaintive cries from Edge at nearly every step of the way.
"My impression is that Google wants to kind of follow the rules, on other hand, trying to find their best way to make them less effective," he said.
Unsurprisingly, Von Tetzchner also had harsh words about Apple, whose restrictions have meant that the iOS version of Vivaldi has had to be based on WebKit.
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