News How to Change the Default Browser in Windows 11, Even for Widgets and Search

[Admin]

Microsoft makes it difficult to switch away from Edge, but with a few simple steps you can make Chrome, Firefox or any other browser your new default.

How to Change the Default Browser in Windows 11, Even for Widgets and Search : Read more

 

[Alvar "Miles" Udell]

To be fair though you have to admit Edge is a lot better than it used to be since it switched to Chromium and allowed Chrome Store extensions to be added. It got me to switch from Firefox for the first time ever since version 4 way back when, and between MS and Google having my data, I'd pick MS any day.

We can only hope Mozilla turns Firefox around back into a real contender again before the web basically starts requiring Chromium if it's to load properly...

 

[Krotow]

To be fair though you have to admit Edge is a lot better than it used to be since it switched to Chromium and allowed Chrome Store extensions to be added. It got me to switch from Firefox for the first time ever since version 4 way back when, and between MS and Google having my data, I'd pick MS any day.

We can only hope Mozilla turns Firefox around back into a real contender again before the web basically starts requiring Chromium if it's to load properly...

Edge still make syncing between computers with Chrome and Android phones difficult.

 

[Alvar "Miles" Udell]

Use Edge for Android?

 

[ezst036]

I really hope Valve is successful with its new handheld. We need more Linux users to counter balance Microsoft's tactics.

To be clear, setting the default browser is not the worst offense. It's just yet another in a long series of offenses going back decades from Microsoft. They still act like they don't have competition and to some extent, they don't. They would stop this if Windows were not still the largest by a wide margin.

 

[Krotow]

Use Edge for Android?

Why?

 

[Alvar "Miles" Udell]

Why?

Because it's a great browser that integrates things like an adblocker without the need to extensions, syncs to desktop, and it's not Google?

Best Android browsers in 2021 | Tom's Guide (tomsguide.com)

 

[randomizer]

To be fair though you have to admit Edge is a lot better than it used to be since it switched to Chromium and allowed Chrome Store extensions to be added.

Only problem is that it further entrenched Chromium as the dominant browser.

 

[Alvar "Miles" Udell]

Only problem is that it further entrenched Chromium as the dominant browser.

Sadly true, Mozilla needs some heavy financial backing to bring Quantum, or a new engine, up to par with Chromium, in terms of speed, lightness, and features, and they need to quit fiddling with the UI trying to emulate Chrome and keep it distinct.

 

[Alvar "Miles" Udell]

Thing is though that since Chromium is open sourced, there's not really a downside to using it as a base since it effectually sets the standards now, unlike the 90s when proprietary IE set them. If Mozilla swapped Firefox it it they could sack the morons who continually make the UI worse, focus on security, privacy, speed, and efficiency, and make the mobile version a true competitor.

They and volunteers, or maybe a merge with Canonical, could keep a non-Chromium Firefox version up as a fork for use on Linux (though Chromium works better, at least on Linux Mint on VBox) and for privacy minded Windows users, as an alternative. where speed and absolute efficiency are not the priority.

 

[randomizer]

Thing is though that since Chromium is open sourced, there's not really a downside to using it as a base since it effectually sets the standards now, unlike the 90s when proprietary IE set them.

It is technically open source, but in practice it's just a Google product. It's not a whole lot different to Android, except that the code isn't developed internally and then dumped on the internet once a year. Having Google set the standards (even if they're only de facto standards, like with IE) isn't a good thing because that means the standards are just what's best for Google. That may or may not align with what's best for everyone else. A lack of good competition hurts everyone except the dominant player.

 

[Alvar "Miles" Udell]

It is technically open source, but in practice it's just a Google product. It's not a whole lot different to Android, except that the code isn't developed internally and then dumped on the internet once a year. Having Google set the standards (even if they're only de facto standards, like with IE) isn't a good thing because that means the standards are just what's best for Google. That may or may not align with what's best for everyone else. A lack of good competition hurts everyone except the dominant player.

Which is true, BUT if Firefox continues to lose users at the current pace then there won't BE any competitor capable of putting user's best interests first, because websites will start breaking because webmasters and developers won't see the need to waste time ensuring a vastly minority browser works, they'll just slap a "Please use a non-Firefox browser on this page" label on it.

I really think a split focus, the main with a Chromium based Firefox and the second with a Quantum, or other engine, Firefox, is the best approach. They have to stop the hemorrhaging if they're going to start being taken seriously again, and that starts by having a base that "just works" and having something that differentiates them from Edge and Chrome that makes the average person want to use it again. Being slower, consuming more memory, and being harder on a battery (important!!!) is not how they retain much less gain users.