I have a hard time getting upset about this to be honest. All our desktop frameworks and libraries include rendering components nowadays, it's not unusual for system components to use these in their UI. Microsoft already has several significant products like VS Code and Teams build around the chromium rendering engine and the next version of Outlook will likely be an Electron app as well apparently.

Beyond that, a desktop OS without a browser installed is largely a dead duck. Most people install browsers using a browser. The first thing I do on a new Mac or PC is launch the default browser to download Chrome or Firefox.

Browser technology is a core OS function at this point and being able to launch a browser has become an essential capability users just expect to be there. Platform components, support processes and some applications might rely on it being there. Imagine a user installing Firefox then deleting Edge, then forgetting about it and deleting Firefox, or Firefox becoming unusable due to an extension or malware. Suddenly the user is functionally locked out of the internet. I think Microsoft has a legitimate interest in making sure users can't easily get themselves into that sort of situation.

You don't need a fully featured browser to download another. All you need is a minimal one without tabs, without extension support, without bookmarks, history or any comfort features – just one web page and the url bar.

Sure, but as soon a we accept we need a browser it becomes a pretty weird argument to say it has to be kept minimal and can't have convenience features.

Most of the comments seem to revolve around pre-installed browser or not, but doesn't the article revolve around inability to uninstall?

If I can uninstall then I do not especially care if it is pre-installed.

If the OS 1. has to include a browser for the aforementioned reasons and at the same time 2. must not include a browser because that would harm competition between browsers, what else can we do?

So, just some basic: HTTP implementation, TLS, Render engine; JS API, V8, ... ??

I'd say that is a big piece of software already.

Mobile separates a WebView component from a standalone browser app.

As I pointed out pretty much all modern desktop development frameworks include web view components, it's not particular to mobile.

I use Chocolately to install browsers on new OS instances.

I can confirm Android users can't uninstall the Chrome browser. I can also confirm iOS users can't uninstall the Safari browser.

Android users can't uninstall Chrome, therefore it's fine if Windows users can't uninstall Edge.

Windows users can't uninstall Edge, therefore it's fine if Android users can't uninstall Chrome.

As a teenager, I remember getting a distinct sense of accomplishment for wiping every trace of Internet Explorer from my computer.

Anything can be uninstalled with a live linux distro I tell u whut.

again? why does this shit keep happening?