Current-era Microsoft continuing to push the boundaries of consent.
Microsoft Edge is a good browser but for some reason Microsoft keeps trying to shove it down everyone’s throat and make it more difficult to use rivals like Chrome or Firefox. Microsoft has now started notifying IT admins that it will force Outlook and Teams to ignore the default web browser on Windows and open links in Microsoft Edge instead.
If by "push the boundaries" you meant "completely ignore them", then yes. This kind of behavior from MS, or any vendor, should always be considered strictly unacceptable.
God I hate Windows and their dance with monopolistic behaviour. They’ll bring out a “feature” that changes how a program works so you have to change it back, in the hopes that most people don’t do it. They keep doing it with browsers because they siphon away enough users each time that it’s worth it for them.
Windows should have a default browser choice in settings, and any program you use should automatically use it no matter what, unless you physically change it yourself. It shouldn’t even be possible for them to do. I really need to learn how to use Linux. I’ve got a spare SSD. Fuck it
Linux is not even difficult to use and there is no telemetry slowing down the hardware you paid for and feeding some greedy org with your user data. Ubuntu desktop is perfectly fine as a daily driver as long as you don't use it for gaming or windows apps through Wine. Thats when it becomes more complicated and error prone.
It's not that hard to use and it's worth the transition. Gaming on Linux is pretty reasonable at this point, most stuff is in the browser or has a Linux app now too.
That is a terrible dark pattern. "Let me just change the defaults away from the option that literally is the default setting (default browser) to the thing I want users to use instead".
Straight up maliciously ignoring "default browser".
Good to see. And if there's a setting, there's probably a registry key behind it storing the value...it's about 30 seconds in group policy to set it back to "Default Browser" for everyone at my company once I know which one it is.
Had to do the same thing to uncheck the "Also set up outlook on mobile device" box when Outlook initially adds the mail account last year...
MS's main goal nowadays seems to be to find new ways to annoy users by advertising their own crap instead of producing a useful product that gets our of your way and just works.
It's fucking annoying, admittedly edge is good on its own merits, but you know what pushes me to not want to ever use your product? Anti-consumer practices.
I have been very happy in using FF for my main browsing. It has adblock, NoScript and SponsorBlock.
Since I use NoScript I jump on Edge when I want to use a trusted website for payments but I really want to use it less when it does this shit.
I can't wait for the excuse "OoOooh wooooops, that's a bug! Sowwy EU we did not mean to do anti consumer pwactices" as a way to dodge blame
Using Firefox is the only real way to circumvent much of the bloat of the modern web. UBlock only works 100% functionally on Firefox, Chromium-based browsers just don't give add-ons the functionality that they need to block 100% of nasties. Until that changes (which it likely won't) I see no reason to switch off Firefox.
you can use a secondary firefox profile. starting firefox with the --no-remote -p switches allows to load it alongside the main profile (-p loads the profile manager and --no-remote suppresses the "open new window in existing profile" behavior
Firefox is great! I have never been to a website where it doesn't work, and the future of the internet relies on people ditching chrome based browsers (don't kid yourself, chromium = supporting chrome and monopolistic companies)
Sadly haven’t had the same experience. There are some websites that are broken and Canvas particularly didn’t play videos well on Firefox. Also, it has been really laggy for me lately and watching videos has been laggy. There are also no tab sorting options. I love Firefox and still use it, but it’s not all great.
I’ve always rotated between edge and Firefox. Some things I like better about each. Firefox usually wins out for me when stuff like this keeps happening haha
Thanks for this. Turns out they also made it hard to make anything other than Edge your default browser (you have to set it separately for each file extension). How to fix that here:
Remember how bored everyone got of ignoring news about the massive issues in the 90s that still affect everyone? You still can't bring it up without people's eyes glazing over. Drives me nuts that people just don't give a shit.
I tried using outlook this year for the first time in 15 years, and immediately NOPED the fuck out when I noticed it displayed ads in-line with my inbox.
And then there are those rumors that they want to display ads in the settings panel. Fuck Microsoft, they have ZERO trustworthiness in my book
I unfortunatelly have to use outlook and teams at work. If this really becomes the case, I will both write to EU regulators and try to petition our IT to move away from microsoft teams and potentially outlook.
If you work for an EU company using Outlook might be illegal, as they now send all emails unencrypted via their own servers.
At our work place, which is mostly Linux, some people have been using outlook if they opt to use windows or Mac or android or iPhone. And when outlook started to send all emails via their own servers (not respecting your smtp settings and such), we instated a full ban on using all outlook clients on all platform.
It's really sad, as a Linux user I think outlook used to be the best email client period. Before this privacy hell and before adds in the program of course.
Same for me. My company talks a big game, but is bad at audits or detection for authorized devices / unauthorized access.
I wiped my work pc and ran linux daily for a year. Remina for remote management was far better than the native RDP client in Windows. Web based outlook got the job done. Teams app in Windows is just reskinned chrome anyhow. Works just as good in a browser. Had a remote box set up for any thing that absolutely required Windows.
Gmail does this too. I'm pretty sure my adblocker handles them on my PC but I see them on the mobile app all the time.
We use o365 for work so I'm seeped in that environment already. I tried using o365 for my personal email for about 3 months and finally gave up and went back to gmail.
I have never experienced this with Gmail, though I use ublock as you mentioned. I haven't seen any through the gmail app on mobile either.
Email is an open protocol, there's no reason to continue using an email client (web or otherwise) that displays ads. I highly recommend you use something like thunderbird if this is your experience.
Ads are pernicious no matter where they appear, but them being associated with any kind of personal communication is fucking nuts, I wish we wouldn't normalize it.
Something something antitrust. Something something browser choice. Microsoft is just asking to be fined €1 billion. Really, someone needs to make a big stink about it in Europe because they'll act before the US does.
Microsoft is just asking to be fined €1 billion. Really, someone needs to make a big stink about it in Europe
Good luck. Apple restricting iOS to only use Safari's engine is even worse, yet they haven't gotten in trouble for it. Every browser on iOS is Safari under-the-hood. At least Microsoft always let you install other browsers.
“This change is designed to create an easier way for Outlook and Microsoft Teams users to reduce task switching across windows and tabs to help stay focused,” says Katy Asher, senior director of communications at Microsoft, in a statement to The Verge. “By opening browser links in Microsoft Edge, the original message in Outlook or Teams can also be viewed alongside web content to easily access, read and respond to the message, using the matching authenticated profile. Customers have the option to disable this feature in settings.”
I don't know if this is a neurodivergent thing but I 500% could never see myself in a position I could say something I knew to be such BS and put my name to it.
They'd do better finally fixing teams. We're talking years after release, and there's still no option to change my status behaviour. It forces DnD when I get called, it puts me afk after only 5min, ...
Their software does not fundamentally work very well. So even if this bs would be talking about an actual feature, that's some stone age project management right there.
My job involves a fair amount of paperwork (I know, I know, what year is this?) and the fact that Teams marks me as inactive when my hands are off the mouse for a couple of minutes borderline offends me.
I stopped using Windows and converted to Linux. I'm not going to be "one of those people" and tell you that you should too, but I've been using Linux full-time for 3 years for gaming, work, and personal stuff and never felt the need to go on Windows except to use my VR headset, which I haven't used in months. I just built a new PC and haven't even bothered installing my Windows SSD into it in the last 4 weeks since I built it. I may never and just sell my VR headset.
I've been wanting to switch to Linux but it just looks like one of those things I'd dive head-first into and have no idea what I'm doing, not to mention I have years of random shit on hard drives formatted for Windows.
I'd love to do it, but it all just looks so overwhelming, maybe i'll think about it more seriously if/when I ever replace my current laptop. What flavor do you recommend? I mainly use my computer for gaming but sometimes school too, plus id like it to be as windows-like as possible just so I don't have to worry about a major shift in usability.
Is there a way to convert windows content to linux-compatible files? Can I just save the files I want to a USB drive and move them? Nothing I wanna save is specifically windows, mostly game files and/or photos
What kind of files are you concerned by? Pretty much all pictures, videos, docs, etc. will all open on Linux without issue. The only real thing you have to think about is the applications you use and whether they can be run on Linux or have acceptable alternatives.
Not op, but I've been using various flavors of Linux off and on for a couple of years.
First I'll note that in pretty much any flavor you pick should be able to retrieve data off those Windows drives. You'll probably need NTFS support if you want to read from the drives directly, but I'm not 100% certain about the details so do a little searching before taking the plunge. Files generally should work fine. Images saved in any common format (.jpg, .png, etc) will be fine. Game files could be trickier. If you mean the actual files for running the game, you'll either need a dedicated Linux version or run them through a compatibility layer like WINE or Proton (this may take a bit of luck to get working). If you mean things like save files then that all depends on the particular game... you'll need to research moving data across operating systems for each game. For regular computer files, though, it is usually as simple as throwing them on a USB drive and dragging and dropping them.
Given that you want to do some gaming I would be remiss to not mention that, even in the best cases, Linux gaming can still be a little hit-or-miss. This is greatly exaggerated if you have uncommon hardware. For instance, Linux gaming on Intel ARC video cards is pretty rough right now. Sooner or later you will find a game that doesn't work right, and you may not be able to fix it. Such is life.
As for picking a flavor (colloquially called a "distro") that can get a bit complicated. If you just want a jumping-off point without the full breakdown, then Pop!-OS is probably a good starting point. They aim at being a more newbie-friendly distro, and they have a big enough community that you should be able to find help if you get stuck on something.
You should know that when you're installing Linux, you will usually first boot the computer using a USB drive with the distro of your choice. This is called a live environment, and it gives you a chance to test out a distro without making any permanent changes to your computer. Of course, once you actually do install the new OS it will wipe all data from the computer's drive so make sure you're ready.
If you want to get a bit out in the weeds of picking a distro then read on, otherwise you can ignore the rest of the comment. If you choose to take the plunge then good luck, and I hope you enjoy it!
There are two major families of Linux that I think you should consider: Debian-based and Arch-based. There are a lot more than that, but IMO these are the most appropriate for your use case. Of the Debian-based distros, I'd recommend the aforementioned Pop!_OS, Ubuntu, and Mint. Some good Arch-based options are Manjaro, Endeavour, or possibly Garuda.
When in doubt, a Debian-based distro is probably the right choice. Any of the distros above should do the trick, but all are a little different. I already described Pop!, so I won't rehash it. Ubuntu is one of the most popular Linux distros ever. Probably the most popular for home computers. As a result, there is a wealth of forums and other users you can ask for help. If you run into a problem in Ubuntu, someone else has had to deal with the exact same thing and probably made a forum post about it. Linux Mint, in particular with their "Cinnamon" desktop was made to feel a bit like old Windows 7. It's not exactly like Windows (no distro is) but if you're a long-time Windows user then Mint feels strangely comfortable. Like Pop! its userbase is smaller than Ubuntu, but still more than substantial enough to help out with the most common hangups.
Anyone who knows about Arch Linux would probably raise an eyebrow at recommending any form of it to someone new to Linux, but in my defense, most of the development in Linux Gaming is being pushed by Valve right now, and their new SteamOS 3 (which is what the Steam Deck runs by default) is Arch-based. AFAIK SteamOS 3 is not yet available for non-steam deck systems. Valve has stated they intend on releasing it as a fully-fledged distro, and if that ever happens then it will likely become the de facto standard gaming Linux distro. Until then, I suspect that running another Arch-based distro might result in fewer issues while gaming. That said, while the distros I've named are much more user-friendly than vanilla Arch Linux, the Arch family is generally less beginner-friendly than their Debian counterparts. Some quick notes: Manjaro is fairly popular but a bit weird as far as Arch distros go, Endeavour is clean but I'm not super confident in their noob-friendliness, and Garuda has a gorgeous desktop and is probably the most feature complete for gaming but it includes some power-user tools (chaotic-AUR) out of the box that I wouldn't recommend for new users.
On a final note, if you want to learn a lot about how to use a Linux system, and in particular the command line, you could try installing vanilla Arch. This is almost certainly a terrible idea; you'd have to be more than a little masochistic to try it. If you want your computer to just work then steer well clear of this option. Arch has a reputation for being non-user friendly and borderline hostile to newbies for a reason. If you decide to try this don't expect anyone to hold your hand. And don't ask for help on the Arch forums unless you've done everything by the book, to the letter, and you've actually tried everything else first. But making vanilla Arch your first distro would be a pretty chad move.
What distro? Mentioning you love Linux but not saying what distro you use is like when someone posts a still frame of a brick wall pulled from their favorite movie, saying “I love this movie, everyone should see it” but doesn’t say the name of the damn movie. :) I’m curious!
I've been using both for a good while by now, Linux is good but damn I know that's a sacrilege but I still like Windows.
Granted, I heavily customized my Windows install, made all the adjustments I wanted and threw out most of the nagging garbage and my locked down work computer is definitely worse.
Windows just... works most of the time, and it's fluent and does what I want.
At the end of the day, most of the direct user interaction with an OS "directly" is task bar, start menu and file manager. And for all of these things, there's a lot that annoys me on Linux. In Windows, I'm very happy.
Just to give one example. I like the individual entries in the taskbar to fill the entire width dynamically. If there's one entry, it fills the entire taskbar, you get what I mean. On Windows, that's a registry tweak. On KDE, that's basically impossible. Like, I'm sure somewhere in the source code for the panel there's a way to rewrite that, but frankly, that's close enough to "basically impossible" for me.
That sounds illegal, especially since they already lost an anti-trust lawsuit for Internet Explorer browser two decades ago. I guess they have enough power now that they don't have to worry about silly things like laws.
That whole antitrust thing was just the US gov't gaining leverage over MS. Once they got that, MS was forced to enable surveillance on their customers by the gov't. Now that they've "played ball" for all this time, they are being allowed to resume their previous activities.
So true. You’d think they’d have learned a lesson for their BS with Internet Explorer. I’m sure we’re all aware, but here’s the Wikipedia link from that case for those that need a refresher.
There was a lawsuit and in Windows 7 Microsoft was forced to offer a browser choice program that allowed users to pick different ones.
Nowadays everyone just forgot about that?
Browser lock in is worse than it ever has been since the 2000s and is approaching levels of monopolistic behavior we haven't seen since the internet explorer vs Netscape debacle, if not already worse than that.
Every ecosystem forces their own browser and the only way to circumvent it is with hacks.
To access certain one drive elements on android in the browser with Firefox, it tells you to open the page in chrome to proceed. If you do that, the Microsoft login page then asks specifically for using edge to sign in.
It's insane that nobody cares. I went back to Firefox as soon as manifest v3 was announced, but nobody cares.
It's alarming and once people realize what happened it's too late.
It's like it's thier white whale. The sole reason the entire company exists. Every department. Every acquisition. Every decision they've ever made as a whole is to eventually get you to use thier web browser.
Bill gates makes the call every Tuesday that everyone at Microsoft fears: IS IT COMPLETED? GET IT DONE.
The internet needs an independent browser like Firefox.
The big issue with Firefox is that most of Mozilla's funding still comes from Google, via an agreement that makes Google the default search engine in Firefox. Google essentially have the power to shut down Mozilla if they want to.
I'm personally a Firefox user since it has developed to be so much better imo. However I do have to give credit to Microsoft for having imo a better browser than Chrome despite the fact they are both Chromium based.
In the beginning it was a lot better, because ot was basically just Chromium reskinned to look nicer. Now it's much much worse than chrome. It's filled to the brim with popups you can't click away, tracking software, generally slower than firefox in my experienc, and is just all around ugly with microsoft icons everywhere.
I was it-supporter, so I had to click it all away every time I had set up a pc, so I've experienced it a lot.
Edge is an OK browser that's rapidly being bogged down with bloatware, just like Chrome which it sought to destroy. I'll keep using Firefox and hope the same thing never happens to it. At least they finally killed off IE.
I use it on my gaming machine because it's there and it isn't chrome. But it keeps harassing me with browser shopping notifications, recommendations that are always about AI, and you have to visit a pasted-in flags page to disable them. It's shit
Not that I like the current Chrome, but with all this forcing down your throat Edge from Microsoft, I hate Edge 10 times more. I guess Firefox is the only good alternative even if its is not Chromium
I switched to thunderbird a little while back when they started adding advertisements that look like actual email into my paid for windows application. Nope.
I work for a break/fix shop supporting users in many different environments and I say I have never seen ads disguised as emails in Outlook. I see a lot of other very frustrating things from them but never that.
This is the web owa version, but it looks similar in the windows client as well. I don't have an example from my own inbox because I uninstalled outlook, but this is the same thing.
"Suddenly"? This has been happening for a long time. If you click on outbound links from built-in Windows apps, they used to always open in Edge unless you used a tool named EdgeDeflector to redirect them to your preferred browser. In 2021, they killed EdgeDeflector by making it impossible to redirect links with the microsoft-edge:// protocol baked in, even if you go deep into the registry settings to change this. They will eventually do this to Outlook and Teams too and get away with it, just like they got away with restricting EdgeDeflector.
This kind of horseshit is CONSTANT with Windows updates. I see customer PCs where I know I've set the default browser to Firefox or Chrome, and lo and behold, suddenly everything is opening in fucking Edge.
This happened to me this morning. And because the link was from a work email but I was logged in on my personal account, Edge wanted me to sign in to view it, requiring time-wasted on a 2FA process for no good reason whatsoever (obv I just closed Edge and copied the link over to Firefox).
The loss of productivity is large regardless of which method you choose to view the link. May this be the beginning of the end for Microsoft. I am fuming.
Much like Chrome before it. Remember when Google's whole push was about how fast Chrome was compared to other browser? Now it's a world full of bloated Chromium wrappers and Firefox.
Idk, performance wise is as good as chrome, and chrome is the standard. I use brave with extra privacy plugins, but saying that edge is a bad browser because of the tracking is weird when so is chrome and virtually everyone uses it.
You can install ublock origin and any other chromium based addons.
Ah, you're probably right. I mostly hate Edge because I never chose it, downloaded it, or installed it, and of course it can't be deleted. It triggers all my "intruder alerts".
I have used it some at work, and hate it, but that's mostly because work wouldn't let me install adblockers.
The only good thing about Edge is that it can play x265/hevc natively… I use Firefox for everything, but when watching x265 I have to use edge, unless I want to transcode.
hello, i tried changing from Outlook to Thunderbird some months ago, but i found the UI very confusing and complex.
does any of you feel the same?
is there some way to simplify the UI to make it look more like Outlook with no ad crap?
i tried looking for UI addons, but aside of dark mode, i didn't find one.
would you guys recomend a FOSS email client that you feel comfortable with?
Edge/IE doing what they do make me want to swap to Linux. Edge is a resource hog and also tries to run in the background during startup. I thought I paid for a computer. Why can't I uninstall this bloatwear easily?
Today is a good day to start dual booting or at least look at it via a live usb boot. I would recommend Linux Mint for starter, If you don't like how it looks, no problem you will be able to install another Desktop later, just start getting familiar with it. https://linuxmint.com/
If it wasn't for nVidias drivers still being shite I would've moved over permanently a long time ago. Either AMD catch up in performance / features or nVidia / nouveau drivers become comparable to Windows counterparts. The day I am forced off of W10 LTS IOT I will be leaving windows instantly, I am never going to use an OS that forces me to log in using their account system.
Is it a hog or an opportunist? My understanding is browsers will take all the resources they can to make you 40 tabs flow smoothly as possible, but they should also release those resources when other programs demand it. How those priorities are ranked, I don't know. You don't check your Task Manager until everything is already slow, right? That's when browsers look like the culprits with the biggest RAM usage. But are they really? If you start changing tabs and finding they're blank and need to releaod, that's an indicator the browser gave up some resources
You did pay for a computer. But not just with your money, you pay by being forced into using the services of the company that subsidized the price of your product. Be it Android bloatware that you can't get rid of, a free version that keeps reminding you about the premium features or simply ads.
Back in the day, the products you bought didn't keep trying to sell you other products. However, we tend to take for granted the amount and quality and value of services that companies just give for free. Back when free mailbox used to be limited to 6MB, encyclopedias and map services used to cost a lot of money. The sheer amount of things we can do today online without giving a payment method is astonishing. And it is not just because of the advancement in technology. Personally I prefer this model of giving a product for free and using it to promote the paid product as long as it "polite". Those who would like to get a premium experience will pay.
You could use Linux to avoid paying for software while avoiding the bloatware. Linux had massively improved over the recent years in being noob-friendly. However, you still pay for it with your time as still there are things that are not supported and you have to come up with workarounds. Personally I use Linux, but it took me a while to get comfortable with it. Unlike Windows, I can configure it nearly any way I like. But I can't recommend this to everyone.
I think this is the main point: they saw how the latest anti trust lawsuits went (especially mergers), and decided it was the right time to push it again. If this goes to court, prepare to be anal blasted by Microsoft. The only hope is that this turns into a battle of companies, so that Google and others can finance the opposite side to get the anti trust resolution to pass.
Doesn't surprise me at all, the company I work for has gone all in with AzureAD SSO and that will only work on Edge (edge supplies info for the MS asset verification software that constantly eats my CPU) so now we can't use anything other than Edge for any internal service and need to develop for Edge if we are writing an internal tool.
It also works just fine with Chrome, there's an extension you need to install. It's a Chromium feature they're leveraging. I know this because we're in the same boat as you. Unfortunately it doesn't work with Firefox.
Ugh noticed this earlier today and thought it was something on my end (setting messed up or reverted), but nah just Microsoft making it hard to love windows as usual
Microsoft always pushing things way too much, unnecessarily.
But I actually like the feature. I use Outlook for corporate email and Edge for work related stuff. Firefox is my default browser. It was always confusing to open a link on an email message on the "wrong" browser.
Now this doesn't happen. Links on emails open correctly on the work browser.
But we should definitely have an option to choose which browser we would like the links to open on.
However I cannot comment on Office since I use FOSS office software (OnlyOffice).
Please try it and let us know how it works out. It redirects everything I do to OperaGX (my preference) including those "START" searches.
With their new upcoming UI that breaks existing Outlook addins (and sucks too btw) and this one. I can't wait for people to do away with Outlook. I'm the only one at work that even uses Thunderbird (with Owl for exchange addon). Was laughing my ass last time that Outlook had a zero day and our IT was telling us to not use the Outlook app until the zero day is fixed.
Btw this is what the new Outlook looks like
It looks like the web version, breaks addons and alot of features that the current one has are missing.
My wife company went even further and blacklisted any email websites in order to force them into using the Outlook app at work. Heck, they cannot even access the Microsoft outlook webpage.
Valve's Proton software has made game compatibility on Linux pretty incredible. Games with kernel anti cheat don't work, but the vast majority of games do work.
Have you tried them recently? Except for competitive games with intrusive anti-cheat measures like Valorant, I have yet to find something that just won't run.
Steam's Proton is an absolute game changer. Unless you cannot live without a few very specific competitive titles, chances are Proton has you covered. Does not require any technical know-how (for the most part). I cannot stress enough how much of a technical and UX achievement Proton is.
My computer did that for the first time today but it was accompanied by a popup which said something like "do you want me to keep opening links in Edge or use the default (Chrome)?" I clicked Chrome and that was the end of that.
Are the people who are being forced to use Edge the same people who don't or can't read popups and who choose the most obvious "get out of the way" button?
As long as people continue using MS products they'll be victims to this BS. Switching my family to Linux (Currently Fedora, will later try Debian again) has been a blessing for everyone here.
Gaming is keeping me off Linux. Most of the most popular Twitch games like Fortnite and CoD Warzone either don’t run at all or run poorly with difficult workarounds. I don’t have time to tinker anymore. I want to click one button and have my games run first time, flawlessly. Ironically, it’s why I like my Steam Deck. Valve figured out how to make handheld gaming on Linux work without effort. I know it’s the fault of developers but that doesn’t resolve the problem. I hope the Deck encourages more developers to make their games compatible with Proton.
Hit this 2 weeks ago at my job and it cheesed me off. Also at the same time? Microsoft began requiring you to label your teams comment with a Subject Line. Like.... what?
Microsoft, do you even understand what chat is for?? It's supposed to be quick and informal!
Google Chat desktop app does the same thing but opens all links in chrome. I need to use both teams and chat for my company and client's teams so I'm constantly getting one or the other browser opened on me. Infuriating
I didn't expect it, but the thing I hate most about my latest job is being forced to use outlook mail/calendar. It's brutally untenable when you've already seen a better way of doing every involved task.
It's possible to uninstall it (and many other things like Cortana) through the AppX package manager built into Windows 10, but most people wouldn't know how to do that. There's no option on the apps management panel to uninstall it.
I don't know if it's still the case with Windows 11, but I would assume it's still possible.
I removed Edge and IE on my work computer and the only time I had trouble was when I tried to open the built-in manual in some non-Microsoft software and it failed.
I think it used some embedded browser component that Edge or IE provides
I was thinking since edge is just the new internet explorer the answer might be even dumber- forcing it continues justifying its existence and development.
What keeps me from moving to Firefox is the Translation option. Edge and Chrome are so good at quickly making the page available to read in my language. Firefox is not so good at this and requires adding which don’t seem to deliver the same functionality. At least from what I have found. So if someone has tips there, please share.
So much of my job is email and I was forced to use Outlook instead of Thunderbird a few years back. It feels like every day it is actually fighting me over every small task. Moments at work where I'd formally clear 2-3 messages, I'm now lucky to get through one. I've seriously considered finding a new job over it, but I know Office365 dominates my field these days.
At this point, you will either try to mitigate the harm caused by proprieatry software by adding as many Open source programs to your MS system, or treat the underlying cause and install a FOSS OS.
Stuff like this is why I went to Mac in 2020 and I only begrudgingly look back the few times a year I absolutely need something windows exclusive. They really have a lovely way with software and UI that Microsoft does not.
I feel like this is common practice. Synergy between company's product is very common. There are alternatives you can use instead of outlook (ex. thunderbird, mailbird, etc). If you don't like Microsoft practices then you can opt out and find an alternative. But speaking on behalf of the less techy savvy consumer i would be pissed off about this.