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.
I'm okay with Safari on macOS, Web (Epiphany) on GNOME, or Konqueror. However, all three use the same WebKit engine, so there's really only three major engines: Blink, Gecko, and WebKit. I'll get behind either of the latter two (I use Firefox, I recommend both Firefox and Safari to coworkers on macOS).
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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