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from the it-ain't-what-you-do-its-the-way-that-you-do-it dept.
Microsoft is trying a new brute-force tactic to boost adoption of its Edge browser. In the latest preview version of Windows 10, Microsoft’s Mail app will automatically open web links in Edge, even for users who’ve set a different browser as their default. Doing so, Microsoft says, will ensure “the best, most secure and consistent experience on Windows 10 and across your devices.”
That’s not exactly true. Although Edge has gotten a lot better since it replaced Internet Explorer as the main Windows browser in 2015, and is now available on iOS and Android, it doesn’t yet sync tabs across devices like Chrome and Mozilla Firefox can. Also, the iPad version is still in beta, and the Android version isn’t compatible with tablets.
Besides, ignoring people’s default browser choice only makes the experience less consistent, because users end up with open web pages scattered across multiple browsers.
CNET has the following to say:
In a note to testers published on Microsoft's website Friday, the company seems to acknowledge it's a bit heavy-handed, and an unusual shift. But, the company believes it's worth doing anyway.
"We will begin testing a change where links clicked on within the Windows Mail app will open in Microsoft Edge, which provides the best, most secure and consistent experience on Windows 10 and across your devices," the company said in a note to "Windows Insider" testers.
The move struck some people as odd, particularly because of Microsoft's colorful history with web browsers. Two decades ago, the company chose to offer its Internet Explorer web browser for free with Windows, effectively beating its rival Netscape. But it also attracted the attention of regulators, kicking off one of the most high-profile antitrust suits in the industry's history.
Industry watchers and users raised concerns about Microsoft repeating similar mistakes with this move, noting that the company has touted diversity of apps by different developers as a selling point.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 18 2018, @08:12AM (1 child)
I am still on SeaMonkey and WIN7.
It was a real eye-opener for me of things to come when Microsoft sent the FTDI USB/RS232 chip nuker of how much power anyone had to come through the Microsoft Security Update System to wreak havoc in my machine.
At that time, I figured I still had an operable system, and it was still within my capability to turn all future updates OFF, and sufficient information was on the web to tell me exactly which processes to kill off and rename so as to confound the system trying to fix itself. ( GRC: "Never10" and similar ). And get CloneZilla images... just in case I do something really stupid which allows some script to undo what I did.
I know its just a stopgap measure though. Embrace, Extend, Extinguish.
Microsoft has already taken away our ability to deny them anything, as well as gotten powerful copyright legislation and laws passed making it illegal for anyone else to research what's going on in gigabytes of code to see how these self-claimed wish-lists ("rights") are enforced.
Its now a matter of time before Microsoft determines just what you will be allowed to do, as well as know about everything you do on "your" machine. They now have the mechanisms and law in place so anyone who went WIN10 has very little control over their machine anymore. If Microsoft decides tomorrow that IE is the ONLY browser that will work on WIN10, they can send out a "security update" to make it so, and there isn't a thing anyone can do about it. Same if they want to know everytime the Microsoft Media Player ( the only one that will work since the Update ), that if any unauthorized content is played, that will go onto a list of folks of interest to the RIAA.
Even though our older systems will work, and they can be replicated, ( physically, maybe not legally ), they will be rendered useless by changing web standards, as new image and page formats are released, and many businessmen will easily fall for "new, modern" web pages that won't work with old "deprecated" browsers. Same thing that happened when I had to drop my financial advisor handling my retirement, because his web system could no longer talk to me on my older WIN95 based browser. I note his business is no longer around, but while it was, the businessman got what he wanted more than a customer, he got a handshake and smile of approval from someone selling him new technology that would not talk to his customer. Once a businessman gets money in his hand, his customer often pays the price. The businessman did not see through the scheme that Microsoft was pushing, trying to use my relationship with a financial advisor, to force me into another browser compliant with his new protocols.
I see us all going to "digital captivity", either controlling the 'net, or being controlled by it, unless we all start going en masse to a much simpler and understandable system.
We will all have to stand together on this though... as its pretty obvious that things like tax preparation software will probably soon only run on WIN10, and we ALL may have to insist the Government again provide blank tax forms, for us to fill in again by hand, pen, and ink, if they cannot provide means of paying tax which does not involve a WIN10 system. Its gotta be ALL of us... if its just some of us, we will be seen as outlier rednecks, and we will go down under men using guns.
I see that as the main difference between the 1 percenters and the rest of us. The one percenters WILL organize, work with Congress, get law passed to "protect" their monopoly, while us 99 percenters stand around and bleat, and any of us who get out of line get our ass handed back to us on a platter.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 18 2018, @12:45PM
So you are saying in time they will become Apple.