In a blog post, Vivaldi founder Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner has asked Microsoft to respect users’ choice of selecting their default web browsers. The blog post mentions a report submitted by his 72-year old friend where her operating system Windows 8 was forcefully upgraded to Windows 10 without her consent. Furthermore, her Microsoft Edge was set as her default web browser after the automatic upgrade.
Says Jon,
“Every time Windows 10 upgrades, it changes the default browser to Edge. Same thing tends to happen when a new browser is installed – for some reason, it leads to restoring Edge as the default option. Not the new browser, and not even the browser that was there as a default one previously”.
Back in the month of December 2016, Vivaldi refuted Microsoft’s claim that only Edge supports Pin & Preview tabs. While Window 10 now is being used by millions and millions of users worldwide and indeed is considered to be a good free upgrade, some users still want to stick with Windows 7 or Windows 8.
Criticizing Microsoft’s forced upgrade Von Tetzchner further says that overruling users’ choice is not the right thing to do and Microsoft should let the users select their operating system and web browser.
I understand that Microsoft is concerned with the low usage of Edge, but instead of building a better browser, Microsoft is forcing its product onto people in the most unapologetic manner. What Microsoft is doing is simply imposing their own browser – Edge – on users.
This is not the first time when Microsoft is accused of forcing their upgrade and applications. The company has often been criticized for being pushy with its OS updates, Edge and resetting the default apps.
Jon suggests Microsoft to do the right thing now. He says. “It is time to do the right thing. Stop stealing the default browser, accept user choice and compete on the merits.”
Obviously, the weak adoption of Microsoft Edge is the reason behind this forced upgrade but then again it is not justified. Various metric sources clearly state that usage of Microsoft Edge is significantly lower than other popular web browsers like Google Chrome, Firefox, and Vivaldi browser.
