Microsoft Edge available officially for Linux today as a stable browser

WARNING: YOU ARE *ROOT* WHEN YOU INSTALL SOFTWARE.

Do you trust the scripts microsoft puts in the package to run post install?

Remember when they changed your shell? https://www.preining.info/blog/2018/06/microsofts-failed-attempt-on-debian-packaging/

It's actually more popular than Firefox overall, going by multiple stats websites.

Sure, since MS has all but crammed it down the throats of it's users. With literal ads sprinkled into Windows to use it instead of whatever else you're using.

I've not been on Windows for decades now, but I have a friend who got a new PC just last week with latest Windows version on. He's not too computer literate (to put it mildly) but had a go at installing the apps he was used to use from before.
He called me the other day to tell me that he was warned against installing Firefox on his computer and felt he had to ask me if he could or should still install it.

Let me say that again. He were fucking warned, by an app installed with the operating system (Edge, I presume - I don't know) to NOT install Firefox. I haven't seen the message, but the way he perceived the warning was that Firefox was an unsafe browser to use.

My jaw dropped. The nerve of that company... The nerve!

It's actually more popular than Firefox overall, going by multiple stats websites.

Sure, since MS has all but crammed it down the throats of it's users. With literal ads sprinkled into Windows to use it instead of whatever else you're using.

I've not been on Windows for decades now, but I have a friend who got a new PC just last week with latest Windows version on. He's not too computer literate (to put it mildly) but had a go at installing the apps he was used to use from before.
He called me the other day to tell me that he was warned against installing Firefox on his computer and felt he had to ask me if he could or should still install it.

Let me say that again. He were fucking warned, by an app installed with the operating system (Edge, I presume - I don't know) to NOT install Firefox. I haven't seen the message, but the way he perceived the warning was that Firefox was an unsafe browser to use.

My jaw dropped. The nerve of that company... The nerve!

As much as I hate the practice, your friend was probably only warned to not install an "unknown app" downloaded from the internet, which is a standard protection scheme on Windows. Warning him out and out about a competing product like Firefox is so illegal that in fact MS have already been legally condemned for this exact practice a few years back and forced via a Windows Update patch to offer their users the explicit choice to install third-party browsers.

That said, the incident is still very concerning (no less because this warning system very often ends up serving as a blatant if underhanded way to monopolize the market in MS's favor, and though the legislators know about it they choose to ignore it as long as it doesn't explicitly break the law) and it goes to show that we're in deep trouble as far as the browser wars are concerned. Just the other day I happened to check the browser market shares for the first time in years, and I was shocked to see that Firefox is down to ~3,5% on the desktop. Not 15%, not 10%, three and an effing half. Yup, we're in very deep sh-- trouble.

Quoted both of you, it's actually a thing, I've seen it myself.

What happened is that Mozilla was all proud that they finally 'cracked' the Windows API to make it properly change the browser default to Firefox. MS put in a little warning that Firefox was trying to change defaults and that's a no no. As it is, when Windows 10 originally launched, you had to do all sorts of shenanigans to get Firefox to be your default browser. If you look in the default apps for Windows 10, it's pretty stupid. Like who the hell wants or even asked for Groove Music? And you can't remove it. It's there permanently. Windows 10 removes a lot of freedoms.

Edge is just Chrome, just like Vivaldi and all the others. However I wouldn't be surprised if Edge has MS own telemetry tracking crap going on that follows you all over the webs recording your actions... no thanks!

Edge is just Chrome, just like Vivaldi and all the others. However I wouldn't be surprised if Edge has MS own telemetry tracking crap going on that follows you all over the webs recording your actions... no thanks!

Yeah, unless they are willing to put the entire source code on github and it compiles and binary matches, then I wouldn't touch it.
Same reason I don't use Chrome / Chromium, unless I absolutely have to. I prefer using Epiphany, Konqueror or Firefox. Browsers should be open source for sure. One closed source browser I do use is IBrowse on the Amiga, but then the choices there are fairly limited. 😜

Oh ffs. Do even windows users use that one? What does the browser stats say?

We do. Company policies. IE got phased out (and I really love that), we're not allowed to install anything, and Edge Chromium rolled out instead of IE as default browser.

If I had a choice I'd use Firefox, but I ain't got a choice, and Edge is better than living with the old IE at work.

Oh ffs. Do even windows users use that one? What does the browser stats say?

We do. Company policies. IE got phased out (and I really love that), we're not allowed to install anything, and Edge Chromium rolled out instead of IE as default browser.

If I had a choice I'd use Firefox, but I ain't got a choice, and Edge is better than living with the old IE at work.

Hopefully they pay well, I would have been looking elsewhere if tied down to that! Oof.

Hilarious. Anyways it makes me start to worry a lot about everything...

Who would use it in their right mind? I don't use Chrome because of the blasted telemetry, that fills the Internet wherever you go on it. Google have the monopoly there. Is there such a thing as privacy any more? I use Firefox and not the Snaps version either. Brave Browser for streaming Netflix, Disney+, BBC_iplayer, ITV HUB, Channel 4, MY5, UK-TV-Play. Although I cannot see the difference between using Firefox or Brave, as they both open to my own HTML homepage stored for Firefox /usr/lib/firefox/homepage Braves is in /opt/brave.com/brave-beta/homepage. This way it saves on reading the net when opening.
Use Edge on Linux and you're surely to run into user collections from Microsoft and Google? I'm fed up with all the telemetry that is the Internet these days. Take me back to Gnome 2 days please, where the model for Linux was perfect and faster than anything we have today. Get rid of Mobile Media Devices too and go back to where no one knew where anyone was. The world was happier then.

Who would use it in their right mind? I don't use Chrome because of the blasted telemetry, that fills the Internet wherever you go on it. Google have the monopoly there. Is there such a thing as privacy any more? I use Firefox and not the Snaps version either. Brave Browser for streaming Netflix, Disney+, BBC_iplayer, ITV HUB, Channel 4, MY5, UK-TV-Play. Although I cannot see the difference between using Firefox or Brave, as they both open to my own HTML homepage stored for Firefox /usr/lib/firefox/homepage Braves is in /opt/brave.com/brave-beta/homepage. This way it saves on reading the net when opening.
Use Edge on Linux and you're surely to run into user collections from Microsoft and Google? I'm fed up with all the telemetry that is the Internet these days. Take me back to Gnome 2 days please, where the model for Linux was perfect and faster than anything we have today. Get rid of Mobile Media Devices too and go back to where no one knew where anyone was. The world was happier then.

While I understand why it doesn't... if Epiphany supported the required DRM and extensions, I would switch to it in a heartbeat. Firefox has just gotten worse lately.