General Discussions

[kingfish]

After several years spent trying to build their own ecosystem around EdgeHTML, Microsoft called it quits and decided to switch to Chromium. The new version of their browser, also called Edge (sometimes Chromium Edge, to differentiate it from the older version) has rolled out to general applause. There have been some discussions of how it’s arguably better than Chrome itself and some worry about what it means for the internet to have a single company (Google) in such a position of browser dominance. Firefox is the only significant alternative, and Firefox’s overall market share has been falling.

In all that conversation, not much attention has been paid to a different point. You aren’t able to uninstall Chromium Edge — once it’s on your system, it’s on there for good (according to Microsoft), though those of you who are a little more familiar with digging around in the guts of Windows already have a gleam in your collective eye(s).

Article: Microsoft's New Chromium Edge Can't Be Uninstalled - ExtremeTech 

[pokester]

Whats amazing is that this was all battled out in the EU well over a decade ago with them having to offer the OS without browser. Somehow (and my bet is big payoffs) all of that has been reversed. 

The big reason according to them as to why you could not was that explorer was actually tied into the OS.

Any claim that this Chromium base browser is part of the kernel code is complete hogwash and if it is un-installable it is because Microsoft simply doesn't want to let you. It isn't part of the OS or its kernel. The fact that you are allowed to set another browser as default means right there they recognize it isn't necessary. It is such a shame we live in a day and age that nobody represents the end user. I for one think it is a good browser. That is however irrelevant. It should come down to choice of the end user. 

[fyrel]

I have the new Edge browser on my system for when they break the daily builds of Chrome Canary.

I wish windows wouldn't ignore my default browser choice and default search engine choice when searching from the task bar.

[pokester]

I honestly don't search from the task bar as I actually disable that feature. It makes it faster for finding local files and apps. I agree that it should honor your default choice. What doe MS think the definition of default is? Thanks for pointing that out.