Technology

59415 readers

2808 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

Follow the lemmy.world rules.
Only tech related content.
Be excellent to each another!
Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
Politics threads may be removed.
No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

563

Microsoft Edge gets "unfair advantage", browser makers claim (www.techradar.com)

submitted 1 month ago by lemmee_in@lemm.ee to c/technology@lemmy.world

153 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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.”

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] 2pt_perversion@lemmy.world 25 points 1 month ago (8 children)

I agree with going after the Edge Lords and making things more fair...but I'm guessing Chrome is the most used we browser by a long shot even on windows so the “No platform independent browser can aspire to match Edge's unparalleled distribution advantage on Windows." part feels like users are comfortable stepping over Edge's corpse to download chrome anyway.

[–] myliltoehurts@lemm.ee 8 points 1 month ago (3 children)

It's true, although chrome has gotten a significant boost from Google promoting it in search and every Google app (which I don't know if they still do).

So chrome beats edge on users, but it's also likely largely because of the unfair advantage it receives/received from that promotion. Those options are not really available to other browser developers (unless Amazon or meta also decided they want a browser for some reason).

[–] qevlarr@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Chrome got popular at introduction because it was much faster at loading and displaying websites. Sure, there was a marketing push by Google, but it succeeded on the products merits and not some unfair business advantage. It still is a great browser.

We do need antitrust protections but not always because consumers are getting a bad product. It's more about the balance of power. Maybe their products are good now, or their business practices are fair now to other market actors, but you never know when that will change and then it's too late. It's like you need safeguards against autocracy also when they're genuinely doing good job of running the country, because it's never worth it in the long run when they inevitably start doing nasty shit

[–] myliltoehurts@lemm.ee 1 points 1 month ago

Yes, chrome certainly had other merits too. Neither of us can say with certainty why it succeeded. Personally, I don't think a crap browser pushed by Google would have but also an amazing browser pushed by an unknown independent developer would have either.

Certainly agree with your 2nd point though.

load more comments (1 replies)

load more comments (5 replies)