Mozilla CEO Chris Beard has just blasted Microsoft in a pair of posts to the organization’s blog, stating that Windows 10’s default browser settings are a “dramatic step backwards” for respecting people’s choice.
When the user updates his devices to Microsoft’s new operating system, their default browsers are changed automatically to Microsoft Edge, the successor to Internet Explorer that’s included with Windows 10. People who have a different default browser then need to go into Windows 10’s settings menu to change the default there.
In an open letter to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Beard said that’s no good, since doing so from Firefox requires three or four mouse clicks (roughly twice as many as before) and scrolling down to the bottom of a seven-item list. In a blog post accompanying the letter, the Mozilla CEO said it was “bewildering” that Microsoft made that choice, especially after the company’s antitrust troubles.
“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,” he wrote.
Microsoft’s action to change the default browser in Windows 10 makes sense for people who still have IE set as their default browser, since Edge is its successor and IE 11 gets still pre-installed with the new OS. The new browser is one of the marquee features of Windows 10, and it makes sense that Microsoft would try to put it in front of as many people as they can – even if that equals ignoring their previously expressed preferences.
