Mozilla CEO publishes open letter to Microsoft chief regarding Windows 10 upgrade process

[Shawn Knight]

Microsoft would have you believe that Windows 10 is the best thing since sliced bread. Not everyone is convinced, however, including Mozilla CEO Chris Beard.

In a recent open letter to Microsoft chief Satya Nadella, Beard takes aim at the Windows 10 upgrade process. Specifically, he claims it strips users of the Internet experience they want and replaces it with the experience that Microsoft wants them to have.

In a separate but very similar post, Beard said it is bewildering to see that after almost 15 years of progress bolstered by significant government intervention (ouch), that with Windows 10, user choice has been all but removed. Beard is of course referring to the 2001 antitrust case against Microsoft over its inclusion of Internet Explorer with every copy of Windows although curiously enough (perhaps by accident given his 15 year reference), he links to Microsoft's troubles in the European Union.

Beard adds that it’s still technically possible for people to preserve their previous settings and defaults but that the design of the interface doesn’t make it obvious or easy. The executive said Mozilla first noticed this behavior in development builds of Windows 10 and reached out to Microsoft to address the matter. Unfortunately, the action didn’t result in any meaningful change.

Mozilla is hoping the open letter will grab Microsoft’s attention.

In the meantime, Mozilla has published some support material as well as a tutorial video to help users restore their previous defaults.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/61587-mozilla-ceo-publishes-open-letter-microsoft-chief-regarding.html

 

[stewi0001]

"Specifically, he claims it strips users of the Internet experience they want and replaces it with the experience that Microsoft wants them to have."

Has Beard ever written an open letter to Apple?

 

[RustyTech]

/plays the world's smallest violin

 

[drjekelmrhyde]

Go cry some more. There are gifs being made of how easy it is to change the default to FF. I just downloaded FF for my mother's W7 PC and on the first run, the box was checked for it as default. Why is that box already checked? Why is Yahoo my default? I'm Joe 24 pack and is so stupid that I can't do anything without Flash. Why no Flash? Being a whiny biatch gets you nothing. I personally don't like Chrome, but every computer I touch will have Chrome instead Firefox.

 

[yRaz]

Maybe he's just mad that people like me are choosing to install chrome on windows 10. I honestly understand what he's talking about. I've been using windows 10 for 2 months now and have never been forced to use Microsoft's new browser. I did play with it, decided I didn't like it and then moved on with my life.

I'm using windows 10 the same way I was using windows 7 and I'm using the same software now that I was using in windows 7. The hell is he on about?

 

[WangDangDoodle]

I like Mozilla and I like Firefox. Why? They actually care about privacy, and their browser is open source. I have no problems with Mozilla giving Microsoft some **** for constantly forcing their will on the world, and I don't see why anyone should belittle them for it. They're fighting the good fight for all of us.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

I don't know what he's ranting on about. You're free to install the browser of your choice and doesn't FF save all your settings, bookmarks and extensions like Chrome does if you have to reinstall it from scratch?
If he wrote an open letter to Nadella and the whole world knows about them I'm sure Nadella has glanced at it.

 

[Sniped_Ash]

So basically he's whining because Win10 makes Edge the default browser. That and the whole controversy with bundling IE with Windows years ago is really dumb. The people who had something other than IE will change the default from Edge to what they want and the rest either don't care or don't even know what an internet browser is.

If he actually cares about user experience then he'd whine about having to go through a lock screen AND login when waking the computer which is so stupid. Both can be disabled, but I mean damn I don't need my computer to go on lockdown just because I went to take a piss.

 

[cldmstrsn]

Weird how Microsoft release an OS and they want people to use their browser. god damn tyrants.

 

[stewi0001]

Weird how Microsoft release an OS and they want people to use their browser. god damn tyrants.

I'm assuming sarcasm here.

 

[fps4ever]

Microsoft is slowly sucking you in...congrats! I like FF and use it as my main but there are more things MS is doing to take your choices and privacy away than just this. And this is coming from someone who likes Win 10.

 

[mrjgriffin]

I just can't bring myself to upgrade to windows 10 permanently just yet. I did try it a couple months back and was impressed compared to my experience when trying windows 8.1 but windows 10 just has too much integrated junk that I will never need and on top of that if I dont want these features I can't remove them with ease. the fact that I have to scour the net to figure out how to disable windows defender of all things is a joke and all of the other integrated stuff that also fall under that category makes it seem like microsoft is spying on me and I dont like that. that was a long sentence. sheesh

 

[risc32]

I like Mozilla and I like Firefox. Why? They actually care about privacy, and their browser is open source. I have no problems with Mozilla giving Microsoft some **** for constantly forcing their will on the world, and I don't see why anyone should belittle them for it. They're fighting the good fight for all of us.

Now this is comedy gold right here. Solid gold.
. I used to use waterfox but when they pushed out that dude for supporting something he believed in I was out. Nothing but a bunch of hypocritical,PC fairies. Let me guess, they too are outraged over Cecil the lion but don't care about the planned parenthood stuff.
as has already been mentioned, smallest violin in the world baby.

 

[risc32]

I just can't bring myself to upgrade to windows 10 permanently just yet. I did try it a couple months back and was impressed compared to my experience when trying windows 8.1 but windows 10 just has too much integrated junk that I will never need and on top of that if I dont want these features I can't remove them with ease. the fact that I have to scour the net to figure out how to disable windows defender of all things is a joke and all of the other integrated stuff that also fall under that category makes it seem like microsoft is spying on me and I dont like that. that was a long sentence. sheesh

so are we already at the point when win 8.1 users the world over are going to start telling us how great it is? Cause this seems to be the life cycle with windows. Hold outs, you're something.

 

[Mark E]

This is just a really good PR move for Mozilla - gets them some headlines. Last time most of the public heard about Mozilla was when the previous CEO resigned. New CEO writes an open letter to Microsoft CEO and the media runs with it. Easy publicity for a company most people haven't thought about in a while.

 

[Archean]

At least for upgraders, I don't see this as a issue at all, as soon as one opens their favorite non-MS browser, they should be good to go and set it as default.

 

[Darth Shiv]

"Specifically, he claims it strips users of the Internet experience they want and replaces it with the experience that Microsoft wants them to have."

Has Beard ever written an open letter to Apple?

Apple has relatively insignificant market share (desktop anyway)

 

[Fatangus]

I like Mozilla and I like Firefox. Why? They actually care about privacy, and their browser is open source. I have no problems with Mozilla giving Microsoft some **** for constantly forcing their will on the world, and I don't see why anyone should belittle them for it. They're fighting the good fight for all of us.

Now this is comedy gold right here. Solid gold.
. I used to use waterfox but when they pushed out that dude for supporting something he believed in I was out. Nothing but a bunch of hypocritical,PC fairies. Let me guess, they too are outraged over Cecil the lion but don't care about the planned parenthood stuff.
as has already been mentioned, smallest violin in the world baby.

Waterfox seems to be developed by a 3rd party and not Mozilla

 

[stewi0001]

"Specifically, he claims it strips users of the Internet experience they want and replaces it with the experience that Microsoft wants them to have."

Has Beard ever written an open letter to Apple?

Apple has relatively insignificant market share (desktop anyway)

You know what I mean though