Microsoft Edge is safer than Firefox ...

GlennB

Loggerheaded, earth-vexing fustilarian
GlennB
Joined
Sep 8, 2006
Messages
33,186
Location
Wales
Or so MS has been telling me, off and on for a few months, as I start up a FF session :rolleyes:

But there's a little 'x' in the pop-up that carries this handy advice, so I click it and it goes away. Until tonight, when I clicked the 'x' and it started up an Edge session.

Is this even legal? Is it OK to intrude on someone's obvious choice just because it's your o/s that's handling the whole business?

You walk into Tesco and buy some branded pasta. The packet speaks to you: "Tesco 'own brand' pasta is just as good and cheaper!"

Are we doomed?
 
fagin said:
Maybe you are drunk and missed the X.
Click to expand...

I'll be very careful next time and maybe even take screen shots, but I certainly didn't click anything that said "Demonstrate to me now the joys of Edge", just as I didn't opt to upgrade to Win10 - the damn thing was sprung upon me through MS subterfuge.

And no, not drunk ;)
 
Yup, they pulled off the same stunt with the "Upgrade to Win 10" harassment, so it's not difficult to believe. For me such crap only exists in reports, though. You don't need Windows, Glenn.

www.mageia.org

In other words: "Mit Linux wär' das nicht passiert" (insider for Germans with any IT background). ;)
 
Hmm ... weren't you the one who wasn't "adventurous" enough to buy a refurbished quality PC? Is that happening on the new one? How is it?

edit: Oops... no, that wasn't GlennB, it was MikeG. You folks and your usernames. At least you two have avatars. :p
 
Last edited:
At the risk of derailing this thread altogether, is there anything you do on your computer that can't be done in Linux?

I confess I get a bit upset when I hear people complaining about Windows and Microsoft's incessant games with its users when there's a perfectly viable and much less user-hostile alternative out there. Yes, there's a learning curve, but so there was also with Windows 3.1 --> XP, then XP --> Vista/7, then 7 --> 8/8.1, and finally 8.1 --> 10. And with every release Microsoft is making it more their computer instead of your computer.
 
Blue Mountain said:
At the risk of derailing this thread altogether, is there anything you do on your computer that can't be done in Linux?
Click to expand...

Probably not, though I haven't looked into it much. In fact a Unix variant doesn't scare me as I spent about 10 years deeply involved with Unix (mostly Solaris running Oracle dbs) and it could be fun to renew that acquaintance. But I imagine the interface would be geared towards ex-Windows users and pointy-clicky, and Unix knowledge wouldn't be much use?

Enough stupid questions from me ... is Linux enough like Windows that the many pages of instructions I've typed up so MrsB can manipulate her photos and manage her documents etc, without my endless intervention to help her, will still be valid?

I'm happy to learn the new tweaks for Linux, but I'm not the only person on these PCs.
 
GlennB said:
Or so MS has been telling me, off and on for a few months, as I start up a FF session :rolleyes:

But there's a little 'x' in the pop-up that carries this handy advice, so I click it and it goes away. Until tonight, when I clicked the 'x' and it started up an Edge session.

Is this even legal? Is it OK to intrude on someone's obvious choice just because it's your o/s that's handling the whole business?
Click to expand...

It's well known that IT companies know more than you what you want to do with your computer.
 
I wonder if there has ever been any more pointless advice in a thread about a Windows issue than "Don't use Windows."

I doubt it.
 
Babbylonian said:
I wonder if there has ever been any more pointless advice in a thread about a Windows issue than "Don't use Windows."

I doubt it.
Click to expand...

Happens all the time when someone in a thread, anywhere, asks for advice about a problem with a particular piece of software. Some smartass always comes in to suggest not using said software, as if the person asking for advice would never have thought of it. The very act of asking presumes that this isn't the option they've chosen yet.
 
paulhutch said:
This article will guide you through disabling almost all of it.
https://www.howtogeek.com/269331/how-to-disable-all-of-windows-10s-built-in-advertising/
Click to expand...

Good one.

Right now, knock on wood, this build (15063.540) of Win10 (Prox64) is giving me no headaches, and an unbelievably clean Event Viewer (after light fixing). Motherboard is overclocking well when asked, as is the video card, and I finally have a stable and excellent working 3D setup for media and games. GOG and Steam keep me busy when not working (OMG, Full Throttle Remastered).

Which is why I now live in fear of the next big OS update, which will be sure to need fixing.

ETA: I'm on FF. I use Edge for viewing pdfs.
 
Last edited:
GlennB said:
But I imagine the interface would be geared towards ex-Windows users and pointy-clicky, and Unix knowledge wouldn't be much use?
Click to expand...
Most popular Linux distros are very GUI-friendly, but they've all retained the unix style terminal, with piping, regexp, etc.

Enough stupid questions from me ... is Linux enough like Windows that the many pages of instructions I've typed up so MrsB can manipulate her photos and manage her documents etc, without my endless intervention to help her, will still be valid?
Click to expand...

Depends. There ARE differences, ranging from the minor: renaming files requires right clicking and going to "Rename..." rather than clicking on the name and pausing; to the major: lack of a good drop-in replacement for MS Paint. There are a number of excellent, more professional options for various tasks, like Gimp and Inkscape, but a simple "I want to draw a dick on GlennB's face for making me use this thing" is much more complicated than it needs to be, for whatever reason.
 
Beelzebuddy said:
lack of a good drop-in replacement for MS Paint. There are a number of excellent, more professional options for various tasks, like Gimp and Inkscape, but a simple "I want to draw a dick on GlennB's face for making me use this thing" is much more complicated than it needs to be, for whatever reason.
Click to expand...


My mageia came with KolourPaint. Looks pretty straight forward.
 
Beelzebuddy said:
Most popular Linux distros are very GUI-friendly, but they've all retained the unix style terminal, with piping, regexp, etc.
Click to expand...

OK, but as a PC Linux user I won't be expected to dip into grep and sed and chmod and (heaven forbid) awk on a routine basis? I'm guessing not.

Beelzebuddy said:
Depends. There ARE differences, ranging from the minor: renaming files requires right clicking and going to "Rename..." rather than clicking on the name and pausing; to the major: lack of a good drop-in replacement for MS Paint. There are a number of excellent, more professional options for various tasks, like Gimp and Inkscape, but a simple "I want to draw a dick on GlennB's face for making me use this thing" is much more complicated than it needs to be, for whatever reason.
Click to expand...

MrsB does this kind of thing in MS Paint already and posts the results on FB, so maybe a switch to Linux could be a good thing.
 
GlennB said:
Probably not, though I haven't looked into it much. In fact a Unix variant doesn't scare me as I spent about 10 years deeply involved with Unix (mostly Solaris running Oracle dbs) and it could be fun to renew that acquaintance. But I imagine the interface would be geared towards ex-Windows users and pointy-clicky, and Unix knowledge wouldn't be much use?

Enough stupid questions from me ... is Linux enough like Windows that the many pages of instructions I've typed up so MrsB can manipulate her photos and manage her documents etc, without my endless intervention to help her, will still be valid?

I'm happy to learn the new tweaks for Linux, but I'm not the only person on these PCs.
Click to expand...

I think Ubuntu and variants (my current favorite being Xubuntu) are fairly close to be suitable replacements for Windows for most everyday usage (surfing the web, watching videos, email, word processing, photo collection and manipulation etc.).

That being said, there is no 1-to-1 replacement Linux distro I am aware of that behaves exactly like Windows. There's always a bit of a learning curve – though most Linux distros I have tried have a MUCH more streamlined and logical user interface behavior than Win, in particular Win 10.

You can always try. One easy way I like to use for that is virtualization through the free Virtualbox. Works pretty well with Win 10 as host. (Theoretically, it should also be possible to use Linux as host, and run Win as guest with VirtualBox, but I think the current driver signing BS Microsoft has introduced throws some major obstacles in the way for Win 10.)
 
Since the OP is riding along the Linux drift I don't feel guilty for adding to the 'derail' ...

I've been using a Win7 / Mint 18 dual boot on a desktop and a Win10 / Mint 18 dual boot on a laptop for quite a while, and in many ways I don't see Linux Mint as being more divergent from Win7 as Win10. IOW, jumping from one to the other will bring change, but if you start on Win7 then going to either Win10 or Mint would take roughly the same amount of relearning. Edit to clarify : since you're already on 10 my main point is trying to speak to how much relearning you'd do moving away from 10. Think of what was relearned going from 7->10, and that's about the amount (IMHO) you'd do going from 10->Mint 18.

All the standard patching and updating for Mint I've been able to do within the GUI - it's only when I'm trying to tweak something (like the dual boot options) that I have to go command line.

If it weren't for gaming I'd not be bothering with the Win10 install.
 
Last edited:
Babbylonian said:
I wonder if there has ever been any more pointless advice in a thread about a Windows issue than "Don't use Windows."

I doubt it.
Click to expand...

I see it more along the lines of:

Patient. Doctor, every time I drink coffee I get horrible heartburn and a nasty rash all over my back.

Doctor. Have you considered not drinking coffee?


Argumemnon said:
Happens all the time when someone in a thread, anywhere, asks for advice about a problem with a particular piece of software. Some smartass always comes in to suggest not using said software, as if the person asking for advice would never have thought of it. The very act of asking presumes that this isn't the option they've chosen yet.
Click to expand...

When it comes to Windows and all the attendant crap Microsoft is doing to peoples' computers, yes, I highly suspect a lot of them don't know there's a viable alternative to it. Microsoft has done a superb job of getting people to think that "PC" == "Windows." It's not. A PC is a computer, and Windows is one of the operating systems you can run on it.
 
Windows has been a thorn in my side since they took the folder.jpg flat thumbnail view out. I have actual terabytes of graphics files and that is the only sane way to find what I'm hunting, but apparently my choices are moving to Apple architecture, which I really can't afford, or getting someone to set up a virtual XP environment just to view my files (at least according to my daughter). And no, XP compatibility mode doesn't help.

I need to be able to use certain applications for my job, too, like Photoshop. Gimp can't substitute when I need to use actual Photoshop plugins for parts of it. So I'm basically stuck with a rock or a hard place for an OS.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom