Microsoft dangles $1 million prizes and Mercedes-AMG cars inside Edge as persistent pop-ups potentially spark fresh "bribery" backlash.
  • Katana314@lemmy.worldEnglish
    9 hours

    One of the last things I used to respect about Microsoft was when they kept up the development of their own rendering engine, even as Chrome ran away with its popularity. IE6 was a monster, but for a time MS was doing a good job as an underdog by pushing standards compliance. Even if it wasn’t as nice as Firefox, it was important to have more horses in the game of competing browsers rather than creating a monoculture around Chrome.

    Needless to say, the Edge appearing in this contest is nothing like what I ever had hope for.

  • cybernihongo@reddthat.comEnglish
    10 hours

    I used to use Edge at home, then ditched it. I used it recently at work and it is getting really enshittified. Now I’m between Cromite which works until suddenly the interface freezes, or Ungoogled Chromium which I haven’t got to work on the work laptop (it works now on my home Linux so whatever).

    Edge used to be so much better before today.

    • rmuk@feddit.ukEnglish
      3 hours

      Edge before it adopted Chromium was an excellent browser - fast, standards compliant, rock solid. Adopting Chromium is basically them doing the absolute minimum to ship a browser at all without showing someone else’s logo. We use Edge at work - Chrome and Firefox are also supported - and it shocking how many MDM policies we have to have to make Edge usable.

      • Kjell@lemmy.worldEnglish
        9 hours

        Or Librewolf, which is a fork from Firefox and removes the telemetry that Firefox collects.

        • Lumisal@lemmy.worldEnglish
          5 hours

          That’s too extreme for most people. A lot of people do want certain services to remember they logged in for example. Waterfox is typically the better recommendation - or, was. I’m less trusting of them after they chose to use Brave Browser code for an AdBlocker

  • lb_o@lemmy.worldEnglish
    14 hours

    Native persistent pop-up that doesn’t go away and stays on multiple tabs is truly the best way to advertisme your browser /s

  • gokayburuc@lemmy.worldEnglish
    16 hours

    This disease is simply testing AI systems on your browsing data. It’s trying to collect data from your services and analyze it with AI. That’s all. If something is offering you big rewards, free services, or discounts, it’s probably using you as material for its services.

  • Devolution@lemmy.worldEnglish
    11 hours

    I’m ok with being broke but still using Opera.

    Yes I know it’s Chinese compromised. Yes I know all tech company bent the knee to Trump. I just prefer Opera because edge is crap, Chrome is bloated, and I’ve never liked Firefox.

  • floofloof@lemmy.caEnglish
    2 days

    They’re just making themselves look trashy and desperate.

    What might work is making their software better than everyone else’s. But that requires effort and skill and managerial competence.

      • floofloof@lemmy.caEnglish
        1 day

        I bet they still have some good devs who are continually thwarted by management.

          • 42firehawk@fedinsfw.appEnglish
            10 hours

            I mean they’re exclusively writing tools for power users for eventual implementation to mainline as they develop and test simplification that doesn’t alienate the power user… So managers can’t really say they’re doing anything bad or dumb ever because it’s power user features then porting.

    • pdxfed@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1 day

      Just imagining Clippy in front of a cracked mirror, “jessss a little more rouge and you can’t have too much mascara…”

    • terabyterex@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1 day

      But if we are being honest, if you don’t care about privacy, it is a good browser. Its better than chrome. You can check the performance of of both on the same machine. It also has better pdf rendering.

      • Zephorah@discuss.onlineEnglish
        2 days

        It’s trash. It front pages clickbait and bullshit, has no privacy, and with so many other options why bother?

        • terabyterex@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1 day

          I am not saying you should use it, i was addressing app quality. The original commenter wasn’t talking about business practices but app quality. Which is why isaid “privacy aside”. Privavcy is very important and i would never have someone use chrome or edge but that wasnt the topic.

      • Quazatron@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2 days

        You could paint it gold with premium genuine alpaca leather interiors, and I would still not use it.

        It’s only function is to download a better browser.

    • Saprophyte@lemmy.worldEnglish
      15 hours

      I have edge installed on my steam deck, I used it to play bf6 on game pass before they jacked up the price last year.

    • kungfuratte@feddit.orgEnglish
      23 hours

      Should you ever feel the urge to do something wild and stupid: yes, actually Microsoft offers an official Linux version of Edge.

      • Randelung@lemmy.worldEnglish
        23 hours

        Currently, for some inexplicable reason, Teams calls are broken on my Debian Trixie in all browsers except edge. I suspect foul play.

      • Joelk111@lemmy.worldEnglish
        22 hours

        That’s crazy. It must just be super easy considering it’s chromium now.

    • Wispy2891@lemmy.worldEnglish
      17 hours

      Yes but they do zero tests on the build, if it compiles, it ships. For example it crashes if you try to open a file dialog and the copilot button is not working and can’t be hidden

  • partial_accumen@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1 day

    Hey Microsoft, how about innovating instead? Edge is a Chrome engine browser like dozens of others out there. Why not write a new browser engine to give customers a choice? Or at worst, how about contract with Apple to license Webkit bringing a third solid choice for a browser engine to Windows. You’re not going to out-Chrome Google Chrome browser, so stop trying.

    • Uairhahs@lemmy.worldEnglish
      18 hours

      I’m gonna go out on a limb and play the devil’s advocate. Edge actually makes a lot of optimisations and improvements that are merged into upstream chrome. While Microsoft is the shady corp that is forcing the ai garbage and data collection, the Devs are actually very competent.

      Edge has one huge benefit which causes me to use it across Windows, Linux and even android and that is extension support on all even mobile. No other chrome based android browser has mobile extensions and a competent or seamless sync both figured out. I like being able to check something on my phone and seamlessly pick it up on any other device.

      I like Vivaldi’s workflow but they have yet to add mobile extensions.

      • Katana314@lemmy.worldEnglish
        9 hours

        Right now, Chrome is basically IE6. It rushes in standards with little compliance, bloats your memory, and everyone is forced to use it. All browsers are just skins, and if Google’s recent Android moves are any indication, they’ll likely close off source at some point so they can load it through with spyware.

        In terms of making a bad situation slightly better, I’d be in favor of MS re-vamping their browser division. It has little to do with AI or murdering Palestinians though, so I doubt they will.

      • partial_accumen@lemmy.worldEnglish
        22 hours

        I’d need a reason to use Edge. If it used a different browser engine, that would be a compelling reason.

        • KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
          22 hours

          Did you use IE when it was still around? Edge is their “new” offering, because of how terrible their own engine was. Moving back to their own engine would be a step backwards.

      • partial_accumen@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1 day

        Thats the description of both Vivaldi and Brave browsers, which also haven’t out-Chromed Chrome. Both are Chrome engine with built in ad blockers.

        • Psythik@lemmy.worldEnglish
          23 hours

          Exactly, the average person using installing browser add-ons. They want a lightweight, simple browser from a familiar brand that just works. Adblocking alone isn’t enough to convince Average Joe to switch, when they don’t even know that adblockers exist.

    • Hanrahan@slrpnk.netEnglish
      1 day

      Edge is a Chrome engine browser like dozens of others out there. Why not write a new browser engine to give customers a choice?

      they tried that with Edge 1.0

    • baatliwala@lemmy.worldEnglish
      19 hours

      Bro yapping about something he knows fuck all about. MS has contributed a ton to upstream Chromium, from page rendering improvements to improved efficiency for battery consumption.

  • new_guy@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2 days

    We started to use ad blockers in the early 2000s because no one could trust they were the 999,999 visitor to the website.

    It sounded (and stills sounds) scammy.

    • RedRibbonArmy@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      17 hours

      It started with pop-up blockers.

      Opera was the first major browser to incorporate tools to block pop-up ads; the Mozilla browser later improved on this by blocking only pop-ups generated as the page loads.[citation needed] In the early 2000s, all major web browsers except Internet Explorer let users block unwanted pop-ups almost completely. In 2004, Microsoft released Windows XP SP2, which added pop-up blocking to Internet Explorer. -Wikipedia

  • crandlecan@mander.xyzEnglish
    2 days

    Let me guess… Existing users are excluded from participating? Cause I ain’t got no pop up banner anywhere. Or is cause I’m European?

  • Veedem@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1 day

    Microsoft is a very large lumbering giant that seems to lack a cohesive vision forward, especially on the consumer front. Every single piece of consumer facing software lacks a cohesive design language, and seems to be regressing in usability. No one is truly primed to replace them yet in either the corporate or consumer businesses however, something like the MacBook Neo can certainly take a few points of market share away from the standard consumer

    • frongt@lemmy.zipEnglish
      1 day

      This is what happens when they get MBAs in charge. Same thing happened at Apple. The original guy with a vision in charge (Gates, Jobs) goes away and the company suffers for it.

        • 4am@lemmy.zipEnglish
          1 day

          At the time of Gates, they wanted to monopolize the operating system market because that was the way to lock people in. People owned hardware and in order to make the most money your needs your OS to be their platform so they had no choice but to pay you.

          Now in 2026 everyone’s OS is Chrome. So the goal is to make everyone depend on your cloud storage, on your productivity suite, on your chatbot, your automation platform, your cloud database. Then you give them just a state and then rent it to them in perpetuity.

          This is why they don’t mind making RAM too expensive. Drives people to inexpensive devices and subscriptions for services for the hardware they can no longer afford and don’t have the skills to maintain.

        • frongt@lemmy.zipEnglish
          1 day

          Steal the best parts of every other system, make Windows easy to develop for, and corner the business market.