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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
When you try to install the Firefox pr Chrome web browser on a recent Windows 10 version 1809 Insider build, you may notice that the installation gets interrupted by the operating system.
The intermediary screen that interrupts the installation states that Edge is installed on the device and that it is safer and faster than the browser that the user was about to install on the device.
Options provided are to open Microsoft Edge or install the other browser anyway. There is also an option to disable the warning type in the future but that leads to the Apps listing of the Settings application and no option to do anything about that.
[...] Companies like Google or Microsoft have used their market position in the past to push their own products. Google pushes Chrome on all of its properties when users use different browsers to connect to them, and Microsoft too displayed notifications on the Windows 10 platform to users who used other browsers that Edge was more secure or power friendly.
The intercepting of installers on Windows is a new low, however. A user who initiates the installation of a browser does so on purpose. The prompt that Microsoft displays claims that Edge is safer and faster, and it puts the Open Microsoft Edge button on focus and not the "install anyway" button.
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 13 2018, @03:00PM (14 children)
They are under no obligation to support competition in their own product. Don't like what they are doing, choose another product. Its called free market.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 13 2018, @04:04PM (10 children)
modded flame bait? Really? For just speaking the truth?
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday September 13 2018, @04:45PM (6 children)
It is arguable whether it is the truth. It is arguably still a monopoly platform. Everyone and all businesses use it with few exceptions.
Harming competition is what got Microsoft in trouble with the US DoJ and with the EU.
When trying to solve a problem don't ask who suffers from the problem, ask who profits from the problem.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 13 2018, @08:53PM (1 child)
Governments should not even be allowed to use proprietary software at all in the first place; it's a threat to freedom, education, and independence, which are all things that governments should be promoting.
I'd also like to see MS forced to release their operating system as Free Software one day.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Friday September 14 2018, @08:44AM
Personally, I would love to see copyright law clearly state that any unsupported software is legally considered abandonware, and has no further copyright status under the law.
If someone is continuing to support their 25 year old CAD system, as far as I am concerned, that's their bread and butter, and they are still milking that cow. Its still a productive cow. Why shouldn't they keep the fruit of their labor?
But if they don't support it anymore, its like the neighbor putting a washing machine out by the curb. People around where I live do this all the time. In a day or so, someone else drives by in a pickup truck, sees it, takes it. Now, what he does with it is his business, but as far as I am concerned, it was not theft. It was an abandoned washing machine.
But if the guy comes into the neighbor's property and takes it, THEN its theft.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Thursday September 13 2018, @11:51PM (3 children)
Yeah. Just millions and millions and millions of exceptions. But other than that, yeah!
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday September 14 2018, @03:43PM (2 children)
While Linux is invisibly in many things around us, including business applications, it does not negate the fact that most businesses use Windows PCs.
I have no love for Microsoft and I wish they would disappear.
A lot of businesses use vertical market applications, eg, special purpose applications. Like a doctor's office. Or eye doctor. Or your oil change place. Your local library. Etc. these vertical market applications are invisible, yet everywhere. And most of them run on Windows. New ones are browser based, even if running from a local server in the office. But most offices would just order a Dell (eg, Windows) and run their application on it.
That inertia is a sad fact of life. But it is real.
When trying to solve a problem don't ask who suffers from the problem, ask who profits from the problem.
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Friday September 14 2018, @06:52PM (1 child)
Linux is mostly servers and phones and the like, but on business desktops, there are literally millions of macs, and they work very well for many common business desktop use cases. Windows is not all there is by any means. I own several businesses; there's not a native Windows PC among them. Linux and OS X, no more. I personally have an XP VM myself for cross development, not wanting to leave Windows users bereft of my software products. But other than doing cross-compiles on it, it gets no use at all.
Meh. I don't like them myself very much, but I have no problem with the choice being available. I am amused by people who think it's always, or even often, the only choice, though. It most certainly isn't. Hell, Microsoft even makes Office available for OS X, and that's a fairly common business use case right there.
Plenty of vertical market stuff runs under OSX. Including a good number that are habitually thought of as "linux apps." I've written several such applications / systems myself. Including one very large one for Linux. Top to bottom e-commerce; web, pos, backend, tech support tool suite, sales analysis tool suite — the whole 9 yards, no 3rd party web or e-commerce frameworks, etc. Underlying tech for that one is c, Python, Perl, PostgreSQL, Apache. The entire business runs on it, again, not a Windows machine in the building or the warehouses. There's simply no need.
My SDR stuff is built for OS X, then cross-compiled for windows. My image manipulation / editing stuff is OS X only so far, but I'll probably make it available under Windows at some point.
Then there are people like the Omni group, who make apps only for OSX, like Omni Outliner. That is a truly application program and it's only available for OS X. The reverse of what you're talking about.
Etc.
The inertia is real enough, but it is often enough a matter of outright incorrect assumption by people, some of whom, at least, should know better.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday September 14 2018, @08:21PM
You make good points. It's been a long time since I was a card carrying Mac fanboy. But I was one once, and a Mac (classic) developer.
Where I think Windows strength is in business:
1. small business. Inertia. Apathy. Go with the flow. PCs sold everywhere. So buy a PC and get the PC software.
2. large enterprise. If you have 1,000 or more PCs to maintain you probably run mostly Windows. Microsoft has built a great enterprise story for running very large fleets of PCs. If you know of a serious alternative I would be glad to be informed about it.
Again, I have no love for Microsoft and wish they would just disappear. I almost feel that way about Apple too, but not quite as strongly.
When trying to solve a problem don't ask who suffers from the problem, ask who profits from the problem.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 13 2018, @04:58PM
Your truth is someone else's monopolistic anti-competitive behavior. They don't sell enough clue bats to give you a sufficient beat down. If we had a time machine I'd drop you off back in an old coal mining company town.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Thursday September 13 2018, @06:52PM
They got sued [wikipedia.org] over this sort of thing [wikipedia.org] before.
So, no, not "truth." Personally I would've gone with Troll over Flamebait, but hey.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday September 13 2018, @11:08PM
I concur with DannyB's response. However, I do believe in "freedom of speech", and feel that you probably shouldn't have been modded down troll or flamebait. A simple "disagree" would have sufficed to express disagreement.
To be clear, I disagree with you, but I won't mod you down for it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 13 2018, @07:16PM
Man, these corporate serfs would be funny if they weren't actually able to fuck it up for other people.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 13 2018, @07:41PM (1 child)
And you, the end-victim, have the freedom to move to a better OS. For people who visit this site, that is a no-brainer that is preached on daily - move to Linux. But for Joe Public, he is buying a toaster, a commodity device and simply accepts what the salesman said about Cortana being so cool and has no clue but to enter his/her/its credit card when Office365 says it is time to pay up, again. Doofus, in charge of city/county/state administration, not only is NOT a qualified IT person, but has been wined and dined to ensure the contract is signed for Windows workstations and nothing else.
Next: Win10 borks if you try to install LibreOffice, "our Office 365 is better and more secure." And then even Irfanview, "our MS Paint is better and more secure."
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Thursday September 13 2018, @11:56PM
FTFY :)
...most (nearly all) the benefits of linux, plus the ability to make money and polished desktop apps.
[runs away, ducking madly]