I'm not going to argue about who the real monopoly is, but I'll try to make the distinction between choice and market share explicit. I don't have an issue with a product having a big market share, I have an issue with my choice being restricted.

Haven't you run into the ""bug"" where certain Microsoft programs open links in Edge, completely disregarding default browser settings?

Assuming you haven't turned off web results in Win11 start menu, try searching for something and click on one of the Bing results. Those used to open Edge, and it certainly wasn't the only program that ignored user preferences.

Yeah I disabled web results because I don't like that it slows down search and I would never actually use start menu to search the web.

>I would never actually use start menu to search the web

You mean like every other person that has ever lived?

How do you install Firefox without using Edge? By default there is no other browser on Windows, and presumably you need a browser to visit firefox.com, no? Or you carry Firefox installer around on a USB with you?

Winkey+R and then

    powershell -Command "& {Invoke-WebRequest -Uri 'https://download.mozilla.org/?product=firefox-latest&os=win64&lang=en-US' -OutFile 'Firefox.exe'}"

Not saying it's ergonomic but since you asked ;-)

I mean ... I guess this works.

Edit: Actually now that I think about it I'm saving this to avoid using Edge myself in the future. Thank you!

-Command “& {thing}”

is the same as

-Command “thing”

Makes sense, sorry... I hate PowerShell tbh. I just googled/ChatGPT'd that!

Don't think they still have an FTP site, but I used the trick of opening ftp.mozilla.org in explorer to get an installer at least twice during the XP era. That said, I also used the MSN browser for fun sometimes, as well as web browsing in explorer.exe.

I guess I don’t mind using edge to install firefox or safari on os x. You got me.

Well, Safari doesn't have 10 dark-pattern popups it greets you with when you first use it, before you can even type an address into the address bar. Edge does.

Edge dark patterns can't do shit to me.

Not that Apple is a stranger to accosting you over browsers, though: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252412228

winget Mozilla.Firefox

Is Firefox not in the Windows package manager?

As a primarily FF user on windows - I don't recall any of the complaints here being an issue. Odd.