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Firefox The Internet

Microsoft Edge User Numbers Keep Growing As Firefox Falls (techspot.com) 126

Posted by BeauHD from the popularity-contest dept.
Last year, NetMarketShare showed that Edge's 7.59% desktop market share pushed it past Firefox in March last year. Now, StatCounter reports that Edge has been adding users over the last few months as Firefox's userbase shrinks. TechSpot reports: While the data doesn't prove Firefox users have been leaving for Edge, we see that Microsoft's browser has seen its market share jump from 7.81% to 8.03% this year, while Mozilla's product declined from 8.1% to 7.95%. That's an all-time high for Edge, according to StatCounter. Edge's gain in users hasn't secured it the second position. That honor goes to Safari, which now has a 10.11% share, though its numbers have been falling since December, so Edge could overtake it soon enough.

Like Windows 7, it seems some people are having trouble letting go of the now-discontinued Internet Explorer. It has a 1.7% share that is declining very slowly. The data is only for the desktop market. Looking at all platforms -- desktop, tablet, and mobile -- iPhones and iPads make Safari's second spot more secure with a 19.03% share, while Firefox moves ahead of Edge, albeit by just 0.23%.
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Microsoft Edge User Numbers Keep Growing As Firefox Falls More

Microsoft Edge User Numbers Keep Growing As Firefox Falls

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  • Because Firefox is Google's Agent Provocateur (Score:4, Insightful)

    by weilawei ( 897823 ) on Monday April 05, 2021 @06:43PM (#61240484)

    It's their paid way to appear competitive but actually face plant to make the Chrome engine look good.

    • Re:Because Firefox is Google's Agent Provocateur (Score:5, Informative)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Tuesday April 06, 2021 @09:16AM (#61242148) Homepage Journal

      So why exactly is Firefox not a good browser?

      It's fast, efficient on memory consumption. UI is decent, lots of powerful tools. Good selection of add-ons, better than any other browser on the market. It's cross platform, you can run a portable version of it, it doesn't phone home if you ask it not to.

      The mobile version has some showstopper bugs but is slowly improving. On desktop though I'm not seeing any better options, certainly not Edge.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Merk42 ( 1906718 )
        Another question for that crowd:
        "Why don't you make your own browser?"
      • I agree totally, there's no true alternative, and it works fine.
      • Firefox was a good browser, a long time, before they completely abandoned their original user-centered philosophy and became just another Chrome wannabe. They dumped their better extension support and have continually striven only to match Chrome's features with similar features, Chrome's bad UI with a similarly bad UI. If performance were the only issue--as browser makers often seem to think--then perhaps performance alone might count for more. However, Firefox has also had a long history of ignoring bugs

    • I bet a lot of Edge's gains were merely the old MS update that tricks regular folk into setting edge as the default browser. Multiple older people in my family have been crying that "Google" screwed up Chrome somehow becauae now it's called Edge and all their saved stuff is missing from the browser.
      I feel bad for them because they really have no clue how devious these companies really are.

    • It's their paid way to appear competitive but actually face plant to make the Chrome engine look good.

      The problem with firefox or any web browser is not the browser, it is boredom. You learn the ins and outs of the browser and it becomes a tool. I find Firefox to offer a great product. It has security, it has functionality via extensions and it is stable, thanks to rust code. It is also very fast to read html text and produce desired output. Firefox can churn pages faster than I can read them, and to do it without running out of memory, like other browsers do from time to time. FF can run 24/7 and just

  • It helps that they made it harder (Score:5, Insightful)

    by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Monday April 05, 2021 @06:45PM (#61240496)
    to make FF your default browser. When I click "Make default" now it doesn't make it my default, it opens the window to do it, and then after I do it I get a box that says words to the effect of "You don't *really* want to use a browser besides Edge, do you? Wouldn't you like to hear about how great Edge is instead?".

    Google has the marketing muscle to counteract that, but Mozilla's lost too much funding over the years.

    • Re:It helps that they made it harder (Score:5, Insightful)

      by what2123 ( 1116571 ) on Monday April 05, 2021 @07:20PM (#61240584)
      Nothing but Firefox's own stupidity. They decided to follow Chrome in all of the worst ways and after the complete fiasco with plug-ins a few years back they really never had a reason but to fail. Seems their vision is set on copy-catting and virtue signaling but never a good product that does better.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by caseih ( 160668 )

        What are you talking about? You do realize the OP was talking about how MS Windows 10 sets the default browser, right? Happens no matter what third party browser you choose. How does this have anything to do with Mozilla's politics?

        • Hmm. Sorry it appears that I managed to reply to the wrong thread. Pretty sure the preview lined up when I submitted it but I guess not.

        • Every other browser I have tried does not have this issue so it MUST be windows 10 and not firefox

          If you want to see a shit show go try to use a normal printer and a label printer with Firefox like oh to print a packing slip and a shipping label. Cant do it Firefox has its own printing system cause they know better, so now your 4x6 labels don't fit or your 8.5x11 all print out at 4x6

      • could it have something to do with Google's resources (financial and let's face it they own searching and online video)?

        I mean seriously, since when has the best software won? We don't live in a world where you make a good product and it wins out. Yeah, that can happen when your product is so much better than the competition that there is none, but tweaking the UI a little bit for the 40 somethings who remember when it was called Netscape isn't going to make FF a killer app.

    • Re:It helps that they made it harder (Score:5, Interesting)

      by caseih ( 160668 ) on Monday April 05, 2021 @07:50PM (#61240696)

      Why is this modded Troll? This post is exactly correct. MS Windows 10 forces Firefox to go through the settings page to change default browser. It does not allow Firefox to pre-select it. The user has to click on firefox (after already having told firefox that yes I want you to be the default browser). And yes MS Windows absolutely puts up a message asking you to reconsider. Very annoying and not a good user experience for any third-part browser. Not cool, MS.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Why is this modded Troll?

        Because there are paid shills in /., and some were paid by Microsoft.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by _merlin ( 160982 )

        They had to do this because of shitty software hijacking the defaults on launch. I think Apple actually made it difficult or impossible to change the default URI scheme handlers programmatically before Microsoft did.

      • Why is this modded Troll? This post is exactly correct. MS Windows 10 forces Firefox to go through the settings page to change default browser. It does not allow Firefox to pre-select it. The user has to click on firefox (after already having told firefox that yes I want you to be the default browser). And yes MS Windows absolutely puts up a message asking you to reconsider. Very annoying and not a good user experience for any third-part browser. Not cool, MS.

        That's true, but it's also the same for Chrome which had zero issue dominating the market share.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        "Google has the marketing muscle to counteract that"

        That bit is nonsense though. The same thing happens when you try to make Chrome default, and Google doesn't do any marketing on that issue.

      • How many other applications are going to ask YOU first before changing the defaults in the OS? Some will (and do) simply change it without asking you first. To prevent unwanted changes the OS then double checks that it is actually what you wanted. If a new malware came out that exploited this everyone would be whining that the operating system should prevent applications hijacking your defaults.
        Personally I find it annoying as well, but I DO understand why it had to be done.
        This is just proof of the ad

    • No one is double-clicking local HTML files to load a browser. Whatever the "default" is doesn't matter, it matters what shortcut you have on your desktop or pinned to your taskbar or however you load an application.

      • No one is double-clicking local HTML files to load a browser. Whatever the "default" is doesn't matter, it matters what shortcut you have on your desktop or pinned to your taskbar or however you load an application.

        Of course the default web browser matters.

        • I have html files on my desktop, mostly to check "Save bookmarks to HTML".
        • If I try to open a web link in a PDF file, it opens with my default browser.
        • If I save a Google Doc file using "Save to webpage, (.html, zipped)" so I can save/view comments from a Google Doc file, it opens with the default browser.
        • If you open a web link in a MS Word file, or MS Excel file, it opens with the default browser.
        • When you install or remove a software program that opens a web

    • Yeah, Windows 10 makes it as absolutely difficult and annoying as possible to "switch" from edge to... well, almost anything, but particularly Firefox.

      A recent VM install, I put FF on as always, but you can't set FF as the default browser via the normal "default apps" control panel, it's simply not listed.

      You have to open a web link via explorer; THEN windows will ask about the default browser AND include FF in the list.

      Anti-competition, as always.

  • Only because it's forced by MS (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 05, 2021 @06:50PM (#61240518)
    I imagine that people are largely "switching" to Edge solely based on Microsoft's hard sell, with nag windows built into windows 10 updates suggesting it's the only way to keep yourself secure on the internet. I believe they were found to be in violation of anti-trust laws when they previously tried forcing users to use Internet Explorer. I wonder if they simply didn't learn, or if they learned that the punishment was an allowable consequence for securing a greater share of the market.

    • nah, i get the feeling that maybe the legal environment has changed, or they got better precedent now/better lawyers. I mean, i get the feeling that big tech gets away with a shit-ton these days that wouldn't have flied in the past.

    • Edge is being pushed as the default browser and people just say yes at update time. Most people have no idea what a browser is, they just want 'The Internet'
      • To be honest, they are ALL pretty much the same, same tabs, same rendering engine under the hood, there is not really much that makes browser A different from browser B, when I want to keep my cookies / accounts separate I use Edge as my OTHER browser. I agree that Edge sucked the big one at the start, but now if you are not really paying attention you wouldn't notice what browser you were using.
        • I write automated tests for web apps so it's nice that we are finally getting to a point where a website renders the same across the major browsers! Choice of browser is mainly which one contains the extensions I need for my job but if I'm just surfing I don't notice a difference

  • Disappointing (Score:3)

    by Thyamine ( 531612 ) <thyamine.ofdragons@com> on Monday April 05, 2021 @06:55PM (#61240530) Homepage Journal
    I have alternated between Chrome and Firefox for years. It always seems like one starts to get extra bloated and slow, and switching to the other feels much snappier. I remember the Browser Wars (ugh I sound so old), and how great it was after those years that Firefox came out and gave us something refreshing after IE stomped on Netscape. Very sad to see that Firefox may now be on the way out slowly.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by rgbscan ( 321794 )

      My first tech job was with Netscape. This hits me in the feels.

    • I remember when everyone was super excited for the release of Firefox 3.0. Huge numbers of people waiting to download it on release day. Peak Firefox was 3.6. Wheels fell off with V4 as they stepped up the release schedule and copied Chrome more. Though it was always infinitely more extendable with add-ons. Until XUL was dropped, even if for valid technical reasons.

      I still use Firefox for two reasons though I do bounce around between browsers:
      -Ad-blocker for my phone
      -Give some unique competition to the cor

  • Firefox lost the power user market (Score:5, Informative)

    by xack ( 5304745 ) on Monday April 05, 2021 @06:59PM (#61240536)
    The kind of users that go out of their way to recommend browsers to every one they meet, and also who roll out browsers in IT departments. They lost this market because they kept removing features that made Firefox great, while also crippling extensions that try to undo the damage. Most power users I know have switched to browsers like Waterfox or even Mypal as it supports legacy systems, or even go and use Edge as the Edge team is more receptive to adding features like native vertical tabs. If Firefox wants its power users back then they need to start listening again.

    I’ve have had been using Firefox since before it was even Phoenix, and I have seen its rise and fall and it is very sad.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by MSG ( 12810 )

      ... which is weird to me, because I use Firefox on my personal system and Chrome for work (where I really don't have a choice). For me, the biggest difference between the two browsers is the location bar, and that one element makes Chrome almost unusable for me. When I Ctrl-L in Firefox, I can type keywords to navigate to bookmarks and history items with a very high hit rate for the correct items. When I do the same thing in Chrome, the hit rate is *extremely* low. I usually have to open the browser his

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      I still recommend Firefox. It's the most privacy respecting and has the best add-ons. Even add-ons which are available for Chrome as well tend to work better in Firefox due to better APIs, e.g. CookieAutoDelete and uBlock Origin.

      My question is what do these "power users" recommend instead of Firefox? Everything else is either a Chrome skin or Safari. Well, there is Waterfox, Pale Moon and all the rest, but I wouldn't put an ordinary user on those if I didn't want endless tech support calls to clean up malwa

  • Can't be true (Score:5, Funny)

    by TheNameOfNick ( 7286618 ) on Monday April 05, 2021 @07:02PM (#61240542)

    Microsoft isn't nearly as woke as the Mozilla Foundation/Corporation.

  • Unfortunately (Score:4, Informative)

    by EirikFinlay ( 6179140 ) on Monday April 05, 2021 @07:13PM (#61240570)

    Mozilla became a nest of SJWs in the last few years.

    Now they are incapable to innovate (or even just keep the pace of the industry) because they are too busy complaining and crying about irrelevant stuff (example: https://m.slashdot.org/story/3... [slashdot.org] ).

    This is what happens when you let inside your organization this kind of cancer.

    Suddenly competence and merit are not important anymore and competent people get bullied until they move elsewhere leaving the company without enough smart and competent people to actually perform the job they are supposed to do and giving away key positions to people who doesn't deserve them and who, honestly, couldn't care less about the job and the company itself.

    Once the company burns down from inside, SJWs will just move to the next company leaving just hashes behind them and the cicle repeats itself.

    • Re: (Score:1, Informative)

      by Chewbacon ( 797801 )

      But they do try to innovate, it's just more and more users think it's shit innovation. What would be really innovative is going back to the roots and giving us a browser that works.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by schwit1 ( 797399 )

        This is so true of the mobile version's last major update(69?). What a POS.

        The Brave folks have to be thankful for the timing since Brave seems to have gained lots of their former users.

        • They were gaining me, but then they started really pushing "Brave rewards" and I jumped again to Vivaldi mobile. Frankly, the interface is better and the adblock works great. No regrets.

          I do keep mobile Firefox around to open sites that still give you a shitty tablet version when you request "desktop mode..." somehow they don't detect that Firefox is on a mobile device or something?

          Sam

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by BlackBilly ( 7624958 )

      Mozilla became a nest of SJWs in the last few years.

      Wokeness is a cancer because it specifically requires a victim hierarchy and this can never lead to success. One day we'll look back and wonder how the fuck this all happened...

    • Exactly right. Under the misguidance of Mitchell Baker, Mozilla transformed itself from a trusted, respected technology project to a Political Action Committee. That, along with the unfortunate fact that many people who went to work for Mozilla were really just padding their resumes hoping to move on to Apple, Google, or Facebook and that ilk, is a sad indication of its' demise.

  • Firefox: A Tragedy In Three Acts (Score:4, Insightful)

    by mrsam ( 12205 ) on Monday April 05, 2021 @07:17PM (#61240576) Homepage

    Act 1: The Birth Of Mozilla

    Act 2: Getting Woke

    Act 3: The Finale

    • Act 4: ???

      Act 5: Profit

      • Act 4: IP gets bought up by Corp in some unrelated industry

        Act 5: Firefox gets embedded in products in that industry, cheaper than developing their own browser... Profit...

    • So you want all tech to be controlled by organizations that literally don't care about people, and by implication, you.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      How specifically does "getting woke" make Firefox, as a browser, worse?

      As far as I can tell it's made it better. It respects your privacy more than any other, gives you powerful tools to block corporate surveillance on the web, and Mozilla constantly advocates for privacy and respect to be the default in web standards.

  • Corporate push (for why I don't know)... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    The company I work for last year decided that Firefox was no longer an approved browser and anointed Chrome as the de-facto standard browser. And I have heard of others doing it too. So it's not all by choice (at least by individuals) that these numbers are they way they are.
    • Standardization to "simplify" tech support. I was victimized in the same way a year or two ago, when the company IT decided to take away the Firefox option and also go with Chrome. Sad day, it was!
    • Chrome and Edge are easier to support and have better Group Policy management. Users also tend to pressure an organization to support what they use and like it or not most use Chrome. Most orgs also don't want to support multiple browsers as it is just extra cost and support issues.

  • I'll never use a proprietary browser (Score:5, Insightful)

    by erp_consultant ( 2614861 ) on Monday April 05, 2021 @07:29PM (#61240616)

    So right off the top that excludes Edge, Chrome, Safari and Internet Explorer. To me the most important thing in a browser is privacy and none of those browsers offer it. They are closed source, therefore I have no idea what they do with my data once I start using it. I don't trust Microsoft or Google as they have shown over and over that they will take your data and sell it to the highest bidder. I trust Apple a bit more but not entirely.

    I need an open source browser and for me Firefox is still the best one. But I'm wary of them cozying up to Google. Brave would probably be my second choice but I find that it crashes quite a bit when I use it, although I do like their privacy policies.

    Any recommendations from Linux users out there for privacy focused browsers?

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by smash ( 1351 )

      This argument is only really valid if you're on an open source OS (which sounds like you are).

      But IMHO if you're on a proprietary OS (and many are for various reasons) - if the included browser is good enough, that company already has access to all your data anyway so you may as well run it rather than add another third party to the mix.

      • Yes you are correct - I'm running Manjaro Linux and have been using various flavors of Linux over the years. And you are also correct about the company (i.e. Microsoft and/or Apple) having access your data already. Both of those reasons are a good part of why I run Linux at home.

        At the office I have to use Windows for some things, a Mac for others. I'm fine with that. But at home I will always use Linux. I am a privacy advocate. Some might suggest that I go a bit overboard with it. Maybe so but I sleep bett

    • I use Brave (updated now to Version 1.23.58 Chromium: 89.0.4389.114 (Official Build) beta (64-bit) on Mint), and it hasn't crashed yet on Linux. Perhaps I'm lucky, or not pushing it enough.

      Vivaldi works pretty well for me, too, and I like what /they claim/ about their privacy policies.

      • Thanks I think I'll give Brave another try. The version I have is 1.20.103 so it's a bit out of date. Does Vivaldi support all of the Firefox extensions?

        • Thanks I think I'll give Brave another try. The version I have is 1.20.103 so it's a bit out of date. Does Vivaldi support all of the Firefox extensions?

          I'm not sure about the extensions. Vivaldi claims to work with "any extension from the Chrome Web Store". All the ones I've tried (LastPass, MyKi, uBlock, Trocker) so far work well.

          • One thing I'm impressed with so far with Vivaldi is the amount of customization you can do to it. Very impressive. I'll have to find time to play with it a bit more but so far I like what I see.

  • because.... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by smash ( 1351 )

    ... it is installed by default and "good enough". Just like IE was back in the 4.x days, it became "good enough" for most people's requirements and was included by default.

    Chromium Edge isn't actually terrible either. It's essentially chrome anyway with less of the google malware behaviour; if you're on Windows you're already subject to whatever Microsoft does with your data anyhow so Edge is no additional disclosure really.

    Personally I use Brave, but if its a box I don't spend a heap of time on, I d

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Whibla ( 210729 )

      The only problem I have with Edge is that it has an annoying habit of crashing when I click the preview button on /.. There's nothing quite so infuriating as losing that perfectly crafted rejoinder and realising that I forgot to press Ctrl+C before attempting to post.

      Ah well, here goes nothing... ;-)

  • Huh? (Score:3)

    by rossdee ( 243626 ) on Monday April 05, 2021 @08:06PM (#61240724)

    The latest poll has FF at 50%, and Edge only at 5%
    even Brave beats Edge
    But since Seamonkey wasn't one of the options I voted for Other (specify in comments)

    • Re:Huh? (Score:4, Informative)

      by mutantSushi ( 950662 ) on Monday April 05, 2021 @09:35PM (#61240944)

      Yeah, I don't get it. Nobody else even comments on that basic piece of obvious info, at least relevant to this site community. I think the stats are also dubious considering people inclined to use FF are also inclined to block Javascript and/or tracking elements which are counted for browser stats, FF now including native blocking by default. I read all this stuff implying FF is bad or horrible, and don't know what they are talking about as I have no problem using it for 99.9% of my browsing, it works great and I recommend it to anybody as far as I'm concerned. The remainder only when some site doesn't work with FF, i.e. not by my choice. Nothing about FF experience is pushing me to switch, although I have effectively suffered harassment from MS pushing Edge on me.

    • really that just shows how disconnected from the average user the /. audience is. Is that really a surprise?
  • In another step of the ongoing commercialization of Slashdot, the number of sponsored propoganda posts continues to rise in spite the ever decreasing level of user trust and return visits. Slashdot executives stated "We're in this for the money. Sure some users will stop visiting as often, but most don't have an alternative, so we can abuse them as much as we want." Microsoft added - "We find the level of trust in our products and their quality is so low that we have to resort to propoganda items and exec

  • I am one of the people who left Firefox for Edge on my android phone.

    I have been a diehard Firefox fan since the Mozilla days. I remember having arguments about Mozilla 5.0 (which was slow as hell but I still supported it) vs. IE 6 in my dorm in 1998. But an update a few months ago (where the tabs suddenly moved to the bottom of the screen) made Firefox a crashing mess. I reinstalled, cleared my cache, but nothing helped. So I made the switch.

    Mozilla is just a cautionary tale at this point. It had all the g

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by mr5oh ( 1050964 )
      You are talking about Android too though. I've stuck with version 68 on Android, as it was the last version that was usable and capable of using add-ons that I need. Not to mention still has about:config to make the browser do things I need it to do. It's worth mentioning The changes to Firefox on Android, aren't isolated to Android. It seems every so many versions, PC, Android, etc, Firefox decides they need to aggravate the community, completely change and break everything. Even better if they make sure a

    • But an update a few months ago (where the tabs suddenly moved to the bottom of the screen)

      Oe noes!!11oneONEoneleven!1

      If only you could go to settings->customize->toolbar top

      Why is it that nerds are now unable to navigate a simple configuration menu?

      Though it's better at the bottom, really.

      • The problem is not the bottom url bar, which is fine and configurable. The problem is that the version which introduced it sucks hard.

        Broken add-ons support, slower rendering, choppier scrolling, broken rendering.

        That version is objectively worse technically and performance wise than their previous version.

        • They did reduce the add-ons support that's true, and pretty annoying, though it's still leagues ahead of all other mobile browsers for addons. So, worse than it was, but better than the rest.

          I didn't observe any of the other three problems. If you did, then i can see why that'd be a showstopper.

  • Microsoft was evil before with all of the telemetry and other data they were collecting.

    Why would anyone think they are any less evil now just because their browser is based off of chromium?

    • Microsoft was evil before with all of the telemetry and other data they were collecting.

      Why would anyone think they are any less evil now just because their browser is based off of chromium?

      They are relatively less evil because other Tech companies like Google and Facebook went full evil retard on us, making MS looking quite benign by comparison.

      • Microsoft was evil before with all of the telemetry and other data they were collecting.

        Why would anyone think they are any less evil now just because their browser is based off of chromium?

        They are relatively less evil because other Tech companies like Google and Facebook went full evil retard on us, making MS looking quite benign by comparison.

        Man our species is hopeless, the last 23+ years the entire game industry and the whole of silicon valley tech companies have been over the moon at how stupid and computer illiterate most people are beginning with mmo's in the late 90's with ulima online and everquest.

        The entire business press was roaring at how stupid and ignorant the masses were, Microsoft, Adobe, Corel were jealous of what Richard garriot and the game industry got away with, they literally got hardware dongle enabled software by way of dr

        • Man our species is hopeless, the last 23+ years the entire game industry and the whole of silicon valley tech companies have been over the moon at how stupid and computer illiterate most people are beginning with mmo's in the late 90's with ulima online and everquest.

          Um... maybe lay off of the drugs a bit before posting. You response has a jumble of keywords in sentences that make no coherent point or thought. Reminds me of this... https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

          • Um... maybe lay off of the drugs a bit before posting.

            Makes total sense for someone who understands how computers work, why would ANY application need a second computer hundreds of miles away from it in order to function unless the program had been cut into two pieces and you weren't given a whole program?

            So no. All a computer program is a list of binary numbers packaged into files, so if you don't have the complete files for a program you've bought you're being defrauded. That simple. It's 1+1=2 kind of thing. Only someone computer illiterate would post

            • Makes total sense for someone who understands how computers work, why would ANY application need a second computer hundreds of miles away from it in order to function .

              I understand how computers work, and your post seemed like gibberish to me too. It's quite ironic that this very conversation is occurring via platform independent application yet you are screaming that it doesn't work like that?
              Back to my original point, the MS evil index is reduced simply because you have choice not to use it. Plenty of Internet users get by without a single MS product in their life. But try doing the same without Google.

              • I understand how computers work, and your post seemed like gibberish to me too. It's quite ironic that this very conversation is occurring via platform independent application yet you are screaming that it doesn't work like that?

                It mean's you are both pretty dense as slashdotters, the original slashdotter feared client-server apps as in the kind of software you run locally on your PC. Since they are just drm by other means. Since Microsoft/Valve have basically won the drm war by way of convincing people to buy their client-server crap, selling you an OS with missing files or code sitting on some remote server and calling it a service is kinda a big no no for those of us who would have liked to maintain our basic privacy and human

                • people who were aware of silicon valleys agenda to take over our pc's.

                  The silicon valley conspiracy! Do they also use 5G to spread Covid?

                  • people who were aware of silicon valleys agenda to take over our pc's.

                    The silicon valley conspiracy! Do they also use 5G to spread Covid?

                    It's common knowledge that microsoft and big media companies have always wanted to control what we do with our pc's. For anyone who's been paying attention to the industry since it's founding.

                    This goes all the way back before even 2002.

                    https://www.epic.org/privacy/c... [epic.org]

  • Google will be the eventual loser (Score:4, Interesting)

    by dicobalt ( 1536225 ) on Monday April 05, 2021 @09:45PM (#61240964)
    Microsoft will pull people out of the Google ecosystem with the better browser. That will be devastating to Google since they're now more of an advertising company than a tech company.

    • since they're now more of an advertising company than a tech company.

      100% of Google Advertising is the direct result of their tech efforts. Always has been. Nothing has changed.

    • Microsoft has switched to Google's browser engine, and Google pretty much dictates the standards of the Internet these days. Also, Chromebooks are rapidly increasing in popularity with an eye to being the desktop PC of the future, while MS has no position in the mobile phone market at all.

      You really think that Google is under Microsoft's umbrella? You've got it backwards.

    • Google has ALWAYS been about advertising, all the "tech" they get from buying out other companies and sell on as their own is just another way to shove more advertising at you or to acquire more data about you so they can shove more targeted adverts at you. I avoid google stuffs now, the only thing I can't find a decent replacement for is Google Maps, especially with street view.

  • Because compared to global trends, the US is usually weird.

    E.g. IE used to be dominant way longer and way more in the US, back then.
    (Japan is another weird country bg global standards. but I think everybody assumes that already. ;)

  • vs Lightly advertised and not pushed browser ...

    In other news Chrome is still easily the most used

  • Yeah, add me to the count. No matter what I do in win 10, windows insists on opening Edge. I've tried to kill it, but each time I murder it, it rises again to haunt me.

    Meanwhile I have yet to install Firefox, because i don't have time to deal with endless UI changes, and bricking of extensions I use.

  • It seems having a browser marketshare of less than 10% is still relevant.

    Little did IBM understand how much marketing money Microsoft was willing to spend to keep people thinking their products are relevant.
    LoB
  • Anecdote time - been using Azure DevOps and one other MS site for years with no issues. Months after Edge takes off, sites not loading properly in Chrome. Surely MS are not trying dirty tricks with other browsers again?

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