I can assure you that the vast majority of users in my footprint, about 600 of them, use Chrome because we set it as default. Many people have no idea the difference between Chrome and edge. I am currently sitting at a desk where the user has opened Chrome, but it is not default.
Comment on Microsoft doing shady Microsoft stuff again
PhilipTheBucket@quokk.au 3 weeks agohttps://radar.cloudflare.com/reports/browser-market-share-2025-q1
Check “Market Share by OS” and switch it to Windows. Every one of those 67.359% of people who is using Chrome had it downloaded to their computer on purpose instead of just clicking “Internet” and getting Edge. Obviously they feel strongly enough to do that, so I don’t see how they would be amenable to losing all their bookmarks and settings and just going with Edge when one day their OS tries to trick them into it.
SpikesOtherDog@ani.social 3 weeks ago
PhilipTheBucket@quokk.au 3 weeks ago
That’s why I used the specific phrasing “had it downloaded to their computer” instead of claiming that they were the ones to do it. You’ll notice that those users in your footprint also fall into a category of people which this won’t do a damn thing to influence.
SpikesOtherDog@ani.social 3 weeks ago
Yes, they will.
ThunderWhiskers@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I think you’re overestimating the degree to which the majority of users are willing to inconvenience themselves over a browser. If Microsoft announced tomorrow that Windows no longer supported any browser other than edge you wouldn’t see a mass migration to Linux. Instead you would see a healthy uptick in complaints about edge.
ivanafterall@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Maybe not mass migration, but that alone would probably add another percentage point or so to Linux’s market share, while others would just set about breaking the limitation/working around it within probably hours.
TachyonTele@piefed.social 3 weeks ago
Unless enterprise is part of the equation. All those people are simply stuck using whatever thier company uses. Which is usually Edge and Chrome. With no option to change.
JackbyDev@programming.dev 2 weeks ago
Most workplaces I’ve been at let me pick, but one did not let me use Firefox (only Chrome or Safari).
Weirdly one place didn’t block things but Brave wouldn’t install because the installer was actually a downloader and I couldn’t set it to use the corporate proxy. (Also don’t hate me, I don’t use Brave anymore and am not a fan, this was back in 2019.)
LongDog@feddit.uk 2 weeks ago
Genuine question. Why don’t you use Brave anymore? I’m not a fan of edge or Chrome and am happy with Brave. Always open to ideas through.
JackbyDev@programming.dev 2 weeks ago
Sure! Happy to talk about it. I was never a fan of the crypto but you can disable it so that’s not my problem. My problem is that a while back they added affiliate information to links you clicked so that they got money. To me, something a browser should do is go to links you click on as you click on them and not mess with them (apart from privacy/security things). It’s a huge loss of trust.
Apart from that, I view all Chromium based browsers negatively nowadays because I don’t want to give Google de facto control of web standards. Chromium has a monopoly on browsers, basically. Especially since even Microsoft Edge is Chromium based now. The ad blocking changes were part of this, but just in general. I don’t think one company should just be able to make a change and have everyone passively adopt it because they’re downstream consumers of it. And yes, Brave is Chromium based.
relativestranger@feddit.nl 3 weeks ago
many of those chrome ‘users’ got there after clicking on one of google’s many somewhat misleading ‘advertisements’ or ‘notices’ or ‘warnings’
PhilipTheBucket@quokk.au 3 weeks ago
Citation: It is known
How many of them? How do you know?
“Many. It is known.”
I also like how you put “users” in quotes for some reason. Anyway, good talk.
glimse@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
To be fair, the claim that every single user deliberately installed chrome has the same citation lol
PhilipTheBucket@quokk.au 3 weeks ago
Maybe so. But Chrome got there some way, their computer didn’t come with it. 100% of the computers in that sample came with Edge configured as the browser and nothing else installed, and 81.95% of them are currently accessing the internet using something else. That to me indicates some kind of decisive action to use something else, on somebody’s part, and also that Microsoft’s years-long endeavor to correct the “problem” by just continuing to ask like a drunk man at the bar in the hopes that the answer will change is not a winner for most people who use computers at this point.
Probably it’s only as low as 81.95% because they do stuff like this. Obviously those people do still exist in a big contingent. My feeling is though that it’s no longer 1998 and there’s no longer this supermajority of AOL users out there who are confused by the very concept of a browser. Those people are in old folks’ homes now, their kids who grew up programming are the middle-aged people of today who aren’t hip to apps and TikTok, but they do understand about browsers. That’s just my feeling and a narrative I produced out of my ass, sure, but it does seem to match the data.
fartographer@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Y’all have set up this false dichotomy in which you’ve ignored the real majority of chrome installs on windows: children, grandchildren, and neighbors who just want to move on with their life. So they install “the one that looks like a beach ball” and they install a bunch of risky extensions that’ll make reading and printing the internet easier.
Source: I used to work in computer repair and technological literacy. But, mostly my own ass.