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.”

  • vithigar@lemmy.caEnglish
    453·
    13 hours ago

    As Edge comes pre-installed by default on Windows machines, users must navigate the Microsoft offering in order to download their browser of choice.

    What’s the actual alternative they want here? That users look up download URLs on other devices and download their browser of choice via command line using cURL Invoke-WebRequest? That ISPs provide browser installers on USB sticks?

    Also, it’s not like MS is cornering the market on browser share here. Even with this “unfair advantage” they’ve only scraped together a 5% slice of browser usage.

    • WhoIsRich@lemmy.worldEnglish
      38·
      12 hours ago

      For a while when you installed Windows, the first time user setup gave you a choice of popular browsers and it handled the download and install.

      Now Microsoft is actively trying to sabotage other browsers with popups and office apps bypassing the default browser setting.

    • CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      11·
      10 hours ago

      Basically either offer users a dialog box asking which browser they’d like to use or offer the browsers in the Microsoft Store.

      And stop telling me that “The Internet is better using Edge”, Microsoft.

    • Crashumbc@lemmy.worldEnglish
      61·
      9 hours ago

      I’d settle for them being force to offer links to alternatives when you first install Windows.

      AND being forced to stop the bullshit every few updates where they force you through choosing options. One of which is “update to recommended browser settings for security?”… Which just defaults the system to use edge.

      • JWBananas@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        7 minutes ago

        AND being forced to stop the bullshit every few updates where they force you through choosing options

        Just turn it off. Settings → Notifications → Windows Welcome Experience or some such.

    • WolfLink@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      14·
      12 hours ago

      IMO edge coming pre-installed isn’t a big deal. But I’d like to be able to uninstall edge and not have Windows periodically try to trick me into setting edge as my default browser again.

    • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      2·
      8 hours ago

      Require Microsoft to distribute competing browsers in the Microsoft store.

      I can install Firefox, Chromium etc. from my distro’s package manager. I don’t open a web browser to install software. You still do that on Windows because Microsoft has a financial incentive to keep competitors out of their store, so their store sucks.