> Why are they so heavy handed on the windows side of things, I don't get.

It smells of desperation on the product management side of things. They can't show growth anymore.

I'm not saying they should just give up, but folks, be a bit more dignified over there. Your company's doing great and Windows still does a pretty decent job in many places, cut the crap... At some point you have to accept that Windows is the mature partner, not the hot 20-year old :-D

> put it in a pinned taskbar position with a new icon and a notification bubble [...] less annoying

I have to disagree here. Messing with people's pinned taskbar icons is much more intrusive than a suggestion (which anyone sane has already disabled)

> why are they so heavy handed on the windows side of things

I'm sorry but that's pretty funny right before suggesting to literally change users settings without their consent.

Perhaps the grandparent was referring to doing all that, by default out of the box? Sounds like a nice compromise all around.

That would be true if the ad/"suggestion" was just positively touting Edge without negatively mentioning Firefox. Is it even legal to use a competitor's trademark like that?

You are allowed to criticize trademarked products by name, as long as you're not saying demonstrably false things or misusing / misattributing the trademark.

I'm not suggesting changing the default browser... only that given some of their past actions, simply putting the icon, or updating the version of Edge on the taskbar, and having a notification above that icon would be a better approach. Compared to the suggestion that disparages Firefox or Chrome, or the full browser window opening after the update.

-- edit

It's easier to unpin a taskbar icon, than disable suggestions.

> Just auto-update edge and put it in a pinned taskbar position with a new icon and a notification bubble...

Ah, but some users don’t even use the taskbar. They want this ad to be visible to their tablet market, too. And for screen-reader users, presumably. Microsoft seems like the kind of company to be concerned about the accessibility of their ads.

Great people don't work at crappy companies.

That's a pretty silly idea. So anyone working for Walmart is a monster? Can't be a good person and just taking the best job you can find for yourself and your family?

One data point, I don't believe I'm a monster, but I do enjoy my Walmart job.

The grocery store employment market is pretty different from the sw engineer market. I'd be far more comfortable judging someone's choices when they.. have a realistic alternative.

You cannot effectively influence change in a community you aren't a part of.

I have heard second hand that the devtools group is practically a separate company.

What does their paycheck say?

And what are the alternatives? Seriously, you cannot name any company with over a hundred employees that has never done something you would disagree with. Google, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, Cisco all have baggage... Not to mention the financial institutions... if you take away all the largest employers that would effectively flood the rest of the market and cut your pay in roughly half because of the competition.

The comment, and sentiment are imho very ignorant and childish. Beyond this, rarely can someone make effective change to a community you are not a part of, let alone disdain.