Posted on 07/22/2015 8:30:07 PM PDT by dayglored
Mozilla plans a campaign to stop or slow desertions from Firefox to Windows 10's new Edge browser because the OS's express setup changes previous defaults to Edge during an upgrade, according to published documents.
Edge, introduced in Windows 10, will be the default browser out of the box. In fact, according to Mozilla -- supported by a video that showed what happened when Windows 7 was upgraded to Windows 10's build 10162 of July 2 -- those who upgrade by selecting "Express Settings," as most do, will find Edge the default even if they had previously specified a competitor like Firefox or Google's Chrome.The open-source developer has also revealed its design for the Windows 10 version of Firefox, and has targeted an August or perhaps September release for the browser.
Earlier this month, Mozilla said it would deliver Firefox for Microsoft's new OS "soon" as it revealed it had resumed work on a touch-centric browser that it abandoned in early 2014.
Microsoft will launch Windows 10 in just over a week, with preview testers getting the final build on July 29. Others, including those running Windows 7 or 8.1 who have "reserved" a copy of the free upgrade, will be able to migrate to Windows 10 later, as Microsoft will notify users in waves on a not-yet-specified timetable.
"We don't know exactly what the [Windows 10] update trajectory will look like," Mozilla said in one document. "Our goal is that when Windows 10 releases start to go out, Firefox will work well on Windows 10."
(Excerpt) Read more at computerworld.com ...
Granted, Microsoft wants people to try Edge. That's fine. Advertise it. Make a nice big banner. Encourage people to try it.
But to intentionally stomp on existing customer choices with the new browser is just re-starting the damned browser wars of the mid-1990's all over again. Has Microsoft learned nothing in 20 years??
Okay, there's my take on this. What's yours? Sound off!
*sigh* Here we go again with the browser wars....
I just don't like having my existing preferences stepped on by stupid Marketing drones.
Perhaps, but at least there will be more players in the game this time. Thanks for the ping ;’)
Mojira is kryptonite to me ever since the Eich flap.
Did Microsoft rename IE to Edge?
My take on it is that Firefox has gotten bloated and the excessive updating causes more problems than it solves. If Edge is easy to use and does what I want (blocks flash, spy cookies, popups, etc) then it may be what I need in a browser. If not, I’ll figure out how to get back to Firefox. Or Chrome. Or Seamonkey. Or IE, all of which I currently have on my Machine for various purposes.
No.
Stay away from microsoft.
No, Edge is a very different, re-written browser, much more standards-compliant and frankly, one hell of a lot better than IE. It looks like it's going to be a great browser.
I predict it will do well, because it's good. IE has had its death warrant signed -- the only holdouts will be businesses that were silly enough to write big applications that require IE.
You're certainly on the mark on both of those accounts.
I was a diehard Firefox fan for many years, but the past year or so I've been pretty disappointed in how they're handling things.
True, the more competition the better. Long since time for IE to die, and Edge is a very worthy replacement for Windows systems.
Dayglored's Wish List
1. Back-port Edge to Windows 7. Win8 optional.
2. Make Edge run on RedHat/CentOS Linux, and Mac OS-X.
If Marketing wants to have Edge take off, don't step on user preferences -- make it available to everyone, especially those like yours truly who requires a cross-platform browser.
Stop the stupid rapid release of Firefox updates. They have done significant damage to the browser.
Many extension authors gave up on updates a long time ago. Newer Firefox releases broke extensions.
==
Yep, me too. I uninstalled Firefox from all of my machines and VM's after Mojira went the full homo. The lone holdout was a machine with a nice little plug-in to read and examine SQLite databases. Finally broke down and rewrote that one in C# and now all Firefox is gone, never to return.
Asses...
“blocks flash, spy cookies, popups, etc”
fagidaboutit
edge doesn’t take addons of any kind.
Free clue for the author: EVERY WINDOWS UPGRADE DOES THIS! HELLOOOO!!!!!! Did you do any RESEARCH prior to writing this crap?
You do know (author, not you dayglored..) that the default settings can be easily changed back by the end user don't you?
Stupid articles written by uninformed, uneducated tech writers just really piss me off. WHINE WHINE WHINE my default settings changed when I installd an OS Upgrade!!! What to do, what to do!!!
Dumbasses.
Like the fact that Microsoft chose to implement HTML 5 and dumped any integration (that I could find...) that enabled Flash.
That right there is going to be the end of Flash (which deserves to die by death of a thousand cuts!) and all the insecurity/vulnerabilities it introduces.
I've been on Windows 10 since the Developer Preview and really like it now. It's much faster, the CPU and Memory processing requirements to support the OS are actually quite low as Microsoft seems to have optimized the OS Code throughout the development cycle of Windows 10.
Still don't like how they re-implemented the Start button and I choose to use Classic Shell as a replacement but overall I'd say Microsoft has a winner on their hands.
I've been updating and patching the 12 desktops, laptops and servers in my house since Monday getting them prepped and ready. They all now have the Windows 10 Upgrade icon in the status bar, which was the goal of getting everything patched up. :-)
If classic shell is available I feel better about 10.
I have a cpmputer savvy young man that helps me and can guide me...He LOVES 10.
IMO, the whole point of doing an “in place” upgrade is to retain all the user settings, applications, licenses, keys, passwords, etc. from the existing installation. Of course you can reset changed settings, but why should you have to?
Personally I rarely upgrade in place, since I use the occasion of a new version to do a clean up and fresh install. Windows goes stale after a year or so.
But when I do an in place upgrade I want everything that can be carried forward to be carried forward. Stepping on the user’s browser preference is totally unnecessary and arrogant. Just because they’ve done it before doesn’t excuse it in 2015.
I’ll probably upgrade in place to get the free ride, on one of my machines, but most are staying at Win7 until 2020.
I dropped Firefox after the purge.
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