This is not rolling back the clock. Here are some important points to the debate:
1. Windows 10 users are upgrading from 7 and 8.1, these versions were heavily shipped with bloatware. If it took away default browsing from Firefox, it also took away volume control from OEM Volumizer 2010.
2. Your browsers like IE, Mozilla and Chrome might have Malware toolbars installed. Nobody can deny that it is far too common on Windows PCs. If it opened the infected browser the first thing after update, how secure is your PC now?
3. Microsoft has taken deliberate steps to make Firefox the default browser easier. The is an entire section now in Settings that lists 8-10 typical apps like browsers and one can easily set Firefox to default from there. It is not like old days when you had to go fidget with individual settings of each browser.
4. If you were savvy enough to put FF as default on Win 7, you are savvy enough to change it on Win 10. People not as savvy need a robust unbreakable solution.
5. The XYZ browser you were using might not be fully Windows 10 compatible. It is absolutely weird to expect default apps to remain same after a major upgrade. The cannot give individual vendors like Mozilla or Google special treatment here, nor can they take responsibility for their development cycles.
6. It's not bad for users. They aren't defaulting on IE7. Edge is fantastic.
7. In 2015, browsing should be considered a core OS feature that cannot be broken for upgrading users.
8. Microsoft had a weird history of over preserving user settings. It didn't leave them any place good. They still remain the most backwards compliant in any aspect.
9. Windows 10 does preserve old settings for extensions it doesn't support out of the box.
But the biggest point left out in this debate is that Microsoft has made it as easy as mobile to change default apps. I fail to see how this will not help Mozilla.
> They aren't defaulting on IE7. Edge is fantastic.
I really don't know where to start. I tried out edge for a few days and although the browser itself is pretty and functional it completely falls flat compared to existing players, including IE.
I don't care what features they've announced for the future that may never happen. As the browser currently stands it's a toy and isn't the "browser for doing." I had hoped that that tagline would mean it would be a browser for power users but what we got was a gimped "mobile" browser.
No add-ons, no real settings, gimmicky features that you'll use twice and then never touch again, no customization, and designed with touch given priority over mouse and keyboard.
Any browser, as long as it has sane defaults, would be fine for causal users but it's like they don't understand what people who care about such things actually do with a browser.
I'd have to agree that having a minimalistic browser that prevents users from getting into too much trouble is a good thing.
If Microsoft decided to make Edge a purely minimal browser then expected you to get more sophisticated ones later if you needed more features, I'd actually be in favor of it.
They're not going to do that. I think we all know that.
Considering their "Universal Windows Apps" strategy, and the history of how Chrome went from a minimalistic browser to a bloated resource hog, keeping the browser with only the essential features makes more sense in the long term.
While I disagree with some of your sentiment, I can't help but scratch my head at some of their decisions. Extensions are coming later, but the OneNote drawing thing is shipped first? Huh? It just doesn't make sense (nor does it work all the time, but that's more of a bug issue and not a decisions issue).
Disagree on point 6 - Edge has a long way to go and this change would be easier to stomach if it was better. Having said that, point 4 convinced me that this change is probably good for most users.
I still disagree strongly on Microsoft's default privacy settings, which are god awful. But on the issue of browser choice, its not so bad.
Microsoft wants to gain some browser market share, that's the only reason they changed the functionality to make it more complicated to change the default browser.
1. Windows 10 users are upgrading from 7 and 8.1, these versions were heavily shipped with bloatware. If it took away default browsing from Firefox, it also took away volume control from OEM Volumizer 2010.
2. Your browsers like IE, Mozilla and Chrome might have Malware toolbars installed. Nobody can deny that it is far too common on Windows PCs. If it opened the infected browser the first thing after update, how secure is your PC now?
3. Microsoft has taken deliberate steps to make Firefox the default browser easier. The is an entire section now in Settings that lists 8-10 typical apps like browsers and one can easily set Firefox to default from there. It is not like old days when you had to go fidget with individual settings of each browser.
4. If you were savvy enough to put FF as default on Win 7, you are savvy enough to change it on Win 10. People not as savvy need a robust unbreakable solution.
5. The XYZ browser you were using might not be fully Windows 10 compatible. It is absolutely weird to expect default apps to remain same after a major upgrade. The cannot give individual vendors like Mozilla or Google special treatment here, nor can they take responsibility for their development cycles.
6. It's not bad for users. They aren't defaulting on IE7. Edge is fantastic.
7. In 2015, browsing should be considered a core OS feature that cannot be broken for upgrading users.
8. Microsoft had a weird history of over preserving user settings. It didn't leave them any place good. They still remain the most backwards compliant in any aspect.
9. Windows 10 does preserve old settings for extensions it doesn't support out of the box.
But the biggest point left out in this debate is that Microsoft has made it as easy as mobile to change default apps. I fail to see how this will not help Mozilla.