Edge is stifling competition among browsers, rivals say

Some of the top browser makers around have issued a letter to the European Commission (EC) alleging that Microsoft gives the Edge browser an unfair advantage and should be subject to EU tech rules.

A letter seen by Reuters, sent by Vivaldi, Waterfox, and Wavebox, and supported by a group of web developers, also supports Opera’s move to take the EC to court over its decision to exclude Microsoft Edge from being subject to the Digital Markets Act (DMA).

As Edge comes pre-installed by default on Windows machines, users must navigate the Microsoft offering in order to download their browser of choice. The letter states that, “No platform independent browser can aspire to match Edge’s unparalleled distribution advantage on Windows. Edge is, moreover, the most important gateway for consumers to download an independent browser on Windows PCs.”

  • scutiger@lemmy.worldEnglish
    18·
    3 months ago

    Home versions, which most home users have, force the use of MS accounts. They’ve patched the bypass tricks that people used before.

    • one_knight_scripting@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      3 months ago

      Ah. Did not realize this was an issue with home. I can not say I experienced that. Hell, I still use Windows 7 pro keys to activate Windows 11.

      Do you know if you could use audit mode to bypass OOBE and get around it? Simply curious.

      • scutiger@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        3 months ago

        Apparently they disabled that bypass recently.

        I don’t know if installing Windows 10 and then upgrading can get around this though.

    • horrorslice@lemmy.zipEnglish
      1·
      3 months ago

      I do a workaround when installing/setting up Windows on others PCs. Use my dummy MS account -> create local user -> change to admin -> delete out the MS account. Boom, then only the local account is on the PC.

      • bizarroland@fedia.io
        9·
        3 months ago

        I’m willing to bet you’re still ending up in their database. Unless you are using some sort of VPN to first obfuscate your location and then a brand new account that has not been used before, then there’s going to be some record of similarity.

        When I’m installing Windows 10 or 11, I use the Rufus installer to create a pre-built admin account that I can sign in with.

        • horrorslice@lemmy.zipEnglish
          2·
          3 months ago

          That’s a good point, and a good idea about modifying the installer. I will give this a shot next time I have to do a reinstall. Thanks!