Beep boop - this is a robot. A new show has been posted to TWiT…
What are your thoughts about today’s show? We’d love to hear from you!
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SO frustrated with Edge. When they announced the “Collections” feature I saw the writing on the wall. Why on earth are these things being built into the browser? The bloat will always creep back in. Reminds me of the IE days where you had users sitting there with over half their screen dominated by extra toolbars.
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I happen to like the Collections feature. It’s a far better way (in my opinion) to organize links than Bookmarks - at least for me it is.
With that said - I am in Paul’s camp on the bloatware and that the BNPL stuff should properly be in an extension instead of built in directly to the browser. However, I also happen to like it when I’m on Amazon or Newegg and Edge prompts me on price changes or discounts.
Ultimately, all of these things should either be extensions or toggle-able in the settings (and easy to find as well).
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The irony is that all of the above toolbars are not things Microsoft installed, but tons of other companies. I can’t blame Microsoft for what other companies have done.
I like it too, it’s a useful tool. But it should have been an extension that Microsoft published, not something built into the browser.
My point was to illustrate where this bloating can lead us. The loan company behind the latest controversy isn’t Microsoft either.
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And that’s a good point. For me - the difference is that Microsoft had control over whether they built in the feature that used the loan company into Edge. Microsoft did not have control over other companies creating tool bar addins for IE.
On the whole - I see what you are trying to say here. As bloat goes - Collections is a far different animal (to me) than BNPL. But I see where others could have a different point of view,
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I’ve also seen BNPE which I believe is a “slag” on BNPL that means Buy Now Pay Eventually, implying that these “loans” are offered to those who can least afford them and who will most struggle to get out from under them.
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Might as well change the show title to “BWW” Bash Windows Weekly. Yet it still draws eyeballs with ad revenue. Wondering what advertisers think when they hear Leo say “that’s why I left Windows and run Linux”. Paul really has been downgrading Microsoft for sometime now. Yet he relies on that name for income. If folks dislike something - just stop using it like Leo claims to have done.
What about the folks like me, who have a 1000+ game collection on Steam that only work on Windows? To me that’s about akin to saying “if you dislike calories and being fat so much just stop eating.” It’s just not that simple.
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@thurrott is less of a Windows basher and more of a journalist. The same with @MaryJo . While I would wish for more positivity regularly, I absolutely do not want them to change how they cover Microsoft because their kind of adversarial journalism is sadly lacking in much of today’s technology reporting.
It isn’t about the money that Windows brings it - it’s about what’s best for consumers. And Paul has that ability to separate what he wants and needs from what a typical user wants or needs, and I very much value that perspective - even when I disagree with it on occasion. Mary Jo is wonderful as an everyman (or everywoman in this case) user. She’s covered one of the largest technology companies for decades, but has avoided succumbing to any desire to become a devotee the way so many others have with other companies (like Apple or Google).
I will happily take Paul’s and Mary Jo’s (and @Leo’s) perspective even in those times when I may completely disagree or wish for a more charitable outlook because they always make me think and reconsider my point of view. Which is what I want from a tech podcast - something that gives me a perspective I don’t have so I can broaden my own.
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