MX Linux Forum

Well they can try, but the Toronto Blue Jays have a better chance of winning the World Series this year than Microsoft does on selling their browser to the Linux community.

What's the point?

Edge is now just a Chrome clone in fancy dress, which is amusing.

My daughter uses an Edge for work, and likes it very much. I'm interested in seeing this happen, just because...

There currently are Linux Chrome based browsers. So why not.

Microsoft, Apple, G**gle, Adobe, Oracle, Mozzila(?), what's the difference?

handy wrote: Sat Jun 15, 2019 7:41 am Microsoft, Apple, G**gle, Adobe, Oracle, Mozzila(?), what's the difference?

Google is censored is the difference

Your right about that. I too have noticed how the results of search engines have been continuing to deteriorate over time.

My results these days are nowhere near as good as they were in times gone by.

This is a VERY sad situation that is being imposed on the internet, & most users (especially the young ones) don't know its happening to them.

Just like personal privacy disappearing. My government is not alone in operating policies that 25 years ago it would have jailed people for doing the same.

What do the young ones know about that? They think that the world always had mobile phones, computer & the internet!

My 6 year old grandson is always amazed that old films are in B&W... and that they no longer teach that type of writing no one can read.

Tell him to do a search & cross his fingers?

Or reading the time off a clock with hands...... :(

handy wrote: Sat Jun 15, 2019 9:02 am Tell him to do a search & cross his fingers?

He, also, marvels at all those old 'really good songs' on youtube where there are no videos (only still shots).

Microsoft keeps cozening up to Linux. I'm curious what their end game may be.

handy wrote: Sat Jun 15, 2019 7:52 amYour right about that. I too have noticed how the results of search engines have been continuing to deteriorate over time.

My results these days are nowhere near as good as they were in times gone by.

This is a VERY sad situation that is being imposed on the internet, & most users (especially the young ones) don't know its happening to them.

There used to be a huge abundance in search engines back in the day. You had AltaVista, Yahoo, Ask Jeeves, etc, even before Google was started. Now that Google has a monopoly (although there is StartPage.com and a handful of others, ultimately relying on Google's results) they can make the results as crappy ast they like.

Just like personal privacy disappearing. My government is not alone in operating policies that 25 years ago it would have jailed people for doing the same.

What do the young ones know about that? They think that the world always had mobile phones, computer & the internet!

Personal privacy has already disappeared to a large extent.

This makes me wonder about "third world countries" and makes me think they're better off without the technology and all that sometimes. But to the young ones' credit, this kind of thing is no longer new. Mobile phones became popular in the 90's (well, you can go back as the 50's/60's if you count the enormous ones that you'd carry a huge battery around), the Internet has been around since the 80's/90's (although you can go back as far as ARPANET and what have you).

Quite frankly, my enemy is not necessarily the government, it's private corporations snooping around and cloud computing. Although readily-available warrant-free access to such huge amounts of data without accountability is a problem, I have more of a problem with the Silicon Valley mafia than I have with the government.

Just a reminder: viewtopic.php?p=255061#p255061


No lines crossed yet imho, but just reminding

KBD wrote: Sat Jun 15, 2019 11:21 am Microsoft keeps cozening up to Linux. I'm curious what their end game may be.

I'm thinking that they might be considering getting out of the operating system business in favour of selling their other products as services. Consider that their recent track record hasn't been all that stellar:

- they missed the boat on phones and tablets and Chromebooks have become the de facto standard computer for use in schools
- Vista and Win 8 were abysmal
- they had to give away Win 10 (it was likely far cheaper to do so than trying to fix Vista and Win 8 )
- Surface equipped devices aren't exactly flying off the shelves

I can see them ceding that market to Linux as long as they can then leverage the user base to consume their services.

"Microsoft keeps cozening up to Linux. I'm curious what their end game may be."

Easy one; parasites require a host to survive!

This article from awhile back was interesting speculation:
'https://www.zdnet.com/article/ms-linux- ... top-linux/

For awhile I thought MS might buy Ubuntu, but the more I think about it, the less likely it seems. They would be wiser to do what Google did, dump Ubuntu and use free Debian as a base for servers. I thought perhaps they would use ChromiumOS as a base for Windows Lite. But they would want offline use for Office which would not be likely with ChromiumOS. I expect they will make further moves into Linux as time goes on. I don't want them to do it, but if they were smart they would build their Lite OS on a Debian core.
As for their Chromium based browser, I expect Chrome and new Edge are going to end up ruling the browser market because too many devs and web sites will only be building for Chrome, and not Firefox, which is not good. Microsoft has the developers to make a decent browser if they use good sense and because they aren't as interested in ads, they could keep Ublock Origin and other add-ons working fine.

Eadwine Rose wrote: Sat Jun 15, 2019 9:02 am Or reading the time off a clock with hands...... :(

I still prefer clocks and watches with the 12 hours and hands :)

KBD wrote: Sat Jun 15, 2019 3:14 pm

Eadwine Rose wrote: Sat Jun 15, 2019 9:02 am Or reading the time off a clock with hands...... :(

I still prefer clocks and watches with the 12 hours and hands :)

I have a cuckoo clock.. that thing would look ridiculous with a digital display lol

Eadwine Rose wrote: Sat Jun 15, 2019 3:17 pm

I have a cuckoo clock.. that thing would look ridiculous with a digital display lol

I suppose it could have an lcd screen with a video of a cuckoo bird :)

I think they're going to make us an offer...

Jerry3904 wrote: Sat Jun 15, 2019 3:45 pm I think they're going to make us an offer...

Say it isn't so!!!!
:)
Edit: please don't give them any ideas.

Thinking of buying an island...

Eadwine Rose wrote: Sat Jun 15, 2019 3:17 pmI have a cuckoo clock.. that thing would look ridiculous with a digital display lol

Was it cheap?

It was 90DM back in the other century.

I would consider installing it for one thing: Netflix

Currently, if you want HD Netflix on Linux, as far as I'm aware the only route is to use a plugin for Chrome. If it worked out of the box for Edge, I might try it. FWIW, Edge currently is the only browser that does Netflix in 4K.

No other good reasons.

In the words of Kon the Fruiterer, "Gooda luck to you family"

j2mcgreg wrote: Sat Jun 15, 2019 12:40 pm

KBD wrote: Sat Jun 15, 2019 11:21 am Microsoft keeps cozening up to Linux. I'm curious what their end game may be.

I'm thinking that they might be considering getting out of the operating system business in favour of selling their other products as services. Consider that their recent track record hasn't been all that stellar:

- they missed the boat on phones and tablets and Chromebooks have become the de facto standard computer for use in schools
- Vista and Win 8 were abysmal
- they had to give away Win 10 (it was likely far cheaper to do so than trying to fix Vista and Win 8 )
- Surface equipped devices aren't exactly flying off the shelves

I can see them ceding that market to Linux as long as they can then leverage the user base to consume their services.

I'm sure I heard that MS doesn't have a Windows division any more, so they have recognised that the world has changed. Not all schools have though. Some schools in the UK request that students have a windows laptop, which most ignore. Really all they need is something that runs a browser that support Flash, so it can run the hugely dated education web resources.

That damned cloud is behind so many things that are a happening... :(

manyroads wrote: Sat Jun 15, 2019 8:39 am My 6 year old grandson is always amazed that old films are in B&W... and that they no longer teach that type of writing no one can read.

Virginia stopped teaching cursive writing for a year or two. The state recently announced that the teaching of cursive would resume in the next school year.

My daughter-in-law was a little bummed when that announcement came out - now she'll no longer have a "secret" means of communication!

AK-47 wrote: Sat Jun 15, 2019 11:48 am There used to be a huge abundance in search engines back in the day. You had AltaVista, Yahoo, Ask Jeeves, etc, even before Google was started. Now that Google has a monopoly (although there is StartPage.com and a handful of others, ultimately relying on Google's results) they can make the results as crappy ast they like.

Just being the best at what you do and/or the most popular vs. your competition doesn't constitute being a monopoly. The fact that Google's search engine does have competing search engines that people are free to choose to use means by definition that they aren't a monopoly.

manyroads wrote: Sat Jun 15, 2019 8:39 am My 6 year old grandson is always amazed that old films are in B&W... and that they no longer teach that type of writing no one can read.

Oh, go on, tell him the truth: the world was black and white back when those films were made.


If there's a chapter of the Telephone Pioneers of America near you and if they have a museum of some sort, take him there and watch him learn about rotary-dial phones, crossbar and stepping switches, and all things wonderful back in the days before the Internet and the cell phone network.

And if you can find any ham radio operators near you, especially those who still operate on HF (high frequency, 3MHz to 30MHz), contact them and arrange to have them demonstrate to your grandson how they can talk to people on the other side of the world. Just keep an eye out for great big antenna towers in peoples' back yards then knock on their door: hams are a friendly bunch in my experience, and always happy to show off their shacks and rigs.

srq2625 wrote: Mon Jun 17, 2019 6:32 am
Virginia stopped teaching cursive writing for a year or two. The state recently announced that the teaching of cursive would resume in the next school year.

My daughter-in-law was a little bummed when that announcement came out - now she'll no longer have a "secret" means of communication!

I switched schools in grade school. The one I had been going to taught cursive writing in 3rd grade, but the one I moved to had taught it in 2nd grade. I remember taking a book with cursive writing in it up to my teacher and asking her what it was. I hated cursive writing and almost never use it now beyond signing my name. I can see why they want to drop it.
But back to the topic--I hope MS makes a browser that is as good or better than Chrome if for no other reason than we need more serious competition. And it might not be a bad idea if they make an awesome browser that works well on Linux. Right now Chrome is flawless on Linux, but I have occasional issues and uneven experiences on Firefox across Linux distros. More competition could be a good thing.

JayM wrote:

Just being the best at what you do and/or the most popular vs. your competition doesn't constitute being a monopoly. The fact that Google's search engine does have competing search engines that people are free to choose to use means by definition that they aren't a monopoly.

You can say the same thing about Microsoft, but for all other intents and purposes they are. The higher courts in most free countries tend to consider the intent of a law over it's exact legal wording.

More info about the Chromium-based Edge browser
https://www.zenesys.com/blog/microsoft- ... s-answered

Microsoft needs to do something in the browser world. Edge is just awful and a degradation from IE IMO. IE is the choice of my employer due to OS versions installed on the computers. Although we are in the process of upgrading to Win 10!

FF had been my go to for a number of years has it seemed to do everything I needed it to do. But lately, I been forced to use Chrome do to the platforms that use it for their webinars. I'm still not a fan of Chrome, don't like the way they deal with bookmarks or menus. I only have it installed to deal with the webinars, basically. Recently I installed Opera and feel in love with it. The speed dial and bookmarks is much better than what Chrome offers. Opera appears to have its limitations, webinars don't like it even with some of the extensions.

Open to a good browser.

richb wrote: Sat Jun 15, 2019 7:37 am There currently are Linux Chrome based browsers. So why not.

That is true and it is a good question but from what I hear Edge has not been a good web browser. I wouldn't know because I quit using windows before it came out. Most likely having a Linux version of Edge could only improve it.

just tried to install the DEV channel of Edge... no luck

I use Google Chrome. So, I'll use anything if it's better. Firefox became too slow for me. I also wasn't impressed with their going from version 5 to 87 in the same timespan they went from 4 to 5. At some point version numbers are meaningless, aren't they? The real kicker was that they blamed it on Google Chrome's faster versioning. Ok. Apparently Google does it better. So, I'm doing that. :)

The browser choices aren't good. Edge isn't IE. So, there's that. I'd give it a whirl. The old saying: "even a stopped clock is right twice a day."

Edge Chromium works best for me... didn't expect the DEV channel to fail on MX Linux though... my Fedora handled it without issue