Microsoft has been blamed by Mozilla CEO Chris Beard for limiting user’s options for browsers. Beard wrote an open letter to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella criticizing the tech firm for making Edge the default browser in its recently launched Windows 10 OS.
Is Microsoft being unfair?
After noticing the changes in Windows 10, Beard said his company tried to have a talk with Microsoft, but made “meaningful progress, hence this letter.”
In the open letter, Beard termed the decision from Microsoft to make Edge the default browser an “aggressive move to override user choice.” The CEO noted that technically it is still feasible to preserve users’ browser settings, but argues the changes in the default setting makes it harder.
“The upgrade process now appears to be purposefully designed to throw away the choices its customers have made about the Internet experience they want, and replace it with the Internet experience Microsoft wants them to have,” Beard wrote in the letter.
Makes it hard to change default browser
Responding to the situation, Microsoft said they are willing make the changes based on feedback from users. The tech firm said users have the choice to make default settings including “web browsing” while upgrading. And even after the upgrade, users can choose another default browser, Microsoft said.
With the changes in the default settings, it has become harder and more time consuming to revert to the browser settings that were seen in the earlier version of Windows, Beard said, adding “It’s confusing, hard to navigate and easy to get lost.”
Upgrading to the Windows 10 doesn’t uninstall rival browsers such as Chrome or Firefox. But if a user wishes to make Chrome or Firefox as the default browser, they need to follow a few steps. Mozilla released a video to help its users restore their browser preference in Windows 10.
The letter highlights the battle being waged by Mozilla to acquire more users for its browser Firefox. In June, Mozilla’s Firefox captured 12% of web traffic in comparison to IE’s 58.1% and Google Chrome’s 27.2%, according to the data from Web tracker Net Applications.
Edge, the new Windows 10 default browser, is expected to provide users with a simpler, sleeker and faster browsing experience. Microsoft is hoping that Edge will present users with an attractive option to compete against Google’s Chrome browser.