Just got a Windows 10 (down)grade delivered that woke my laptop while it was suspended.

Puts Firefox in a window and greets me with a full-screen ad for their latest attempt at a browser.

Gives me only one option - to install it!

Well at least I knew how to shut that down with a few keystrokes. What would the average mug punter do?

Yes I am angry! Pissed off!

If I didn't need Windows for some software I need to use it'd be GONE! I might have to pull this fairly new machine back to XP

Yes it’s no big surprise Ian
Microsoft have remade their “edge” browser with the google chrome engine.
They released the first betas in January but I never went near it.
Anything that uses the google chrome engine I’d never trust with my privacy, something many people my age don’t seem to understand.
I only use open source software like Firefox and Linux while resorting to windows when I need to.
Depending on the software you need windows for I’d recommend just using your old computer with windows for your software and using your new one with Linux!

Lance

Yes Lance I know. That's why I was pissed off! They must be getting desperate using tactics like this!

Unfortunately Altium Designer is available in Windows 64 bit only but it's the best schematic and PCB layout software there is for the complex designs I do.

Apart from that I use Open Office. I refuse to pay Micro$oft a yearly stipend for inferior software.

To be honest I got over the browser wars about twenty years ago. The debate over which is better and for what reason will never be concluded. What I do know, from a former web developer's point of view is that it is a complete nightmare building a website that works and displays exactly the same way in every web browser.

It doesn't matter what rendering engine each one uses either. Many, including Firefox and a few of the older browsers set up for Unix OSs like Chimera and Camino, use Gecko, which goes all the way back to the first version of Netscape. IE 11 uses Trident. Opera and some versions of Chrome use Blink and Safari uses Webkit. Edge and other versions of Chrome use Chromium. People like me have to keep all this in mind when setting up a site. It's a little easier now with HTML5 which is supposedly bog standard right across the board but there are still subtle differences such as how fonts are rendered.

I have all the commonly used browsers installed - I do not have a choice if I am to set a page up correctly. However I use Edge for my own personal use and find participating in a browser or OS debate a waste of time these days. Different people will have different reasons for using different browsers. They will continue to use what they use regardless of what transpires with a discussion on the subject.

Key things to remember:-

1. Yes, it is true that some browsers do include datamining features that are used by the vendor for commercial gain. When a product is free, the user is the product. That's just how it is.
2. There is no such thing as a 100% secure operating system. All of them can be hacked and anyone who declares their computer unhackable is waving a red rag at a bull - expect what you'll get from someone who knows what they are doing if you are foolish enough to make such a claim.
3. Software companies are legitimate businesses like any other business. They are entitled to sell software licences just as hardware vendors are entitled to make money from selling hardware.
4. There's lots of free software out there, for all operating systems. Some of it works better than others. It's a matter of choosing what one needs and going with it. If it is fit for purpose then there's little point in paying for an equivalent. If it doesn't do what you want then paying for something that does is the only alternative.
5. If one hangs on to old versions of any software, they risk being pwned. It's probably a small risk but it is still an elevated risk compared to using the latest version.

Perhaps what you could do is install windows 7 64 bit instead. You can get a product key off eBay for $12 and it’s much better than windows 10 although it is unsupported now.
Or you could use Linux in tandem with wine (not a drink) which is a tad more advanced and I’ve never really used it that much but it’s a free alternative.
There are good videos on YouTube if you decide to install Linux.
Lance

I find that every so often Windows 10 wants me to sign in with a Microsoft login, if the machine is plugged into the internet.

So, either I click the "skip for now" (how long will it let me), or turn the machine on with the network cable out.

I don't really care about which browser I use, but I prefer Firefox because it's the one I'm used to and it has a great ad blocker (ublock origin).

I dread Microsoft version updates. I hung onto XP as long as I could, and now want to stay with Win 7 64 bit as long as I can. I have never wanted to deal with the iSatan and I'd gladly dump all Microsoft bloatware/spyware, like some have done, but I don't want to become a Unix system manager.

Except for driver and memory management issues, life was so easy with DOS.

I absolutely hate it !  The amount of time wasted on computer issues and its getting worse.its stuff your eyes your mind your social life , Some programs and Menus are so complex and time-consuming the rest of your life comes to a standstill.For what I do a Mac was much better than windows ,Windows just has issue after issue. I often think of how much I accomplished before I had a computer in my house !!I think my wife had the right Idea , I bought a new Lap top once and about a week later I came home from work and my new Computer was in the fish pond !!!    I said why is my computer in the fish pond ???   She Replied Ive had enough Hun !

 pete

I use Win7 for most things, Win10 is more an experimental thing at this stage.

There's no way I want to mess around with Unix, that stuff is for the geeks. I'm not touching it.

Still got a couple of '386 DOS computers here, complete with Windows for Workgroups. I recently added networking capability to one of them, but all it could talk to was my Windows 98 machine.

Actually Unix is a lot faster & better for machines At the time I was working in the chemical factory & we were using it. Baring in mind the boards were changed every 3 years; At one point from a speed point of view the Unix based software could do the same thing as a 686, or Pentium faster on a 686.

I have an old Toshiba Satellite here that belongs to the Car Club & it is running Vista. Its on a shelf with its charger plugged in, but really needs MS wiping out and perhaps Linux put on it to play with: If I can find the time. Other Toshiba has developed an issue in the NVIDIA, or what ever it is PSU.

I still have old programs like an AutoCAD & a cranky 360 column dot matrix printer which are run on a 2000 vintage job running XP and a whole lot less totally unnecessary clutter & often moronic programs, like the phone, that the new computers come with which one totally does not need. But aids someone who hopes you may buy or they extract money from.

The News has got to the point of rubbish, fake & biased and an insult to ones intelligence to be expected to watch it. yet alone believe it.

World has finally gone mad.

On word processors, I used to find that anything Word could (or couldn't do) WordPerfect could do faster and with a whole lot less resources. Even now if you dare not send any Newsletter in " Word" to the printer, lest it corrupt. I received a list (columns) for this months Radio Club newsletter in Word; Cut & past to Word: Disaster as usual. Ended up scanning it to a jpg & putting it in as an image.

Think positive: Job's has apparently beaten Gates to heaven. By now he has probably updated their tablets & replaced the Apple Eve gave to Adam. As heaven has been reported as such an idyllic and safe place, they have no need there for Windows, or Gates

Yes Robert
I actually tracked down a 386 motherboard with a 386SX cup at 25 MHz!
I installed 8 mb or ram and all the rest and managed to squeeze in windows 95 so it can happily talk to my whole network.
Granted it’s not fast but what would be at 25 MHz!
I do find it quite impressive considering the backwards compatibility and just how universal PC architecture has become to allow such on old computer to happily talk to any device (except anything requiring modern drivers)

I do all my writing for magazine work on a "Pentium" W7 PC with Office 2000.
It is stand alone and has the usual suite of paid for applications to do photo work, page layout and so on.
All the scanners and printers are hooked to this machine.

Then I load whatever files are required to send to the outside world onto a usb drive and manually walk this to whatever PC, laptop is working on line.

Thus the W7 PC is about as stand alone as you can get, never needs updating and does exactley what it did today as it did in1999.
Mind you it has had replacement hard drives, even the mother board but it is still the same machine!
When I re-instal Windows I just re-install the aps/drivers and it is the same machine.

Fred.

Brad it's not a browser wars issue. What I object to is the way MS tried to FORCE me to install it!
They have overstepped the mark!

Fred, for what you do, you should really try Open Office. It has a built-in Save as PDF feature that creates clean, compact and compatible PDFs. And once you get a handle on the Draw functions you'll never do another hand-drawn circuit....

Edge automatically installed on my Lenovo W10 laptop also but I simply don't use it.
I use Firefox with ad block software running.
Frequently a website will say "You are using an ad blocker, to view content you must disable this".
Guess what I do with that website!
I've had no major issues with W10 which "touch wood" so far has worked quite well.
I have a paid version of Office 2019 which I purchased from Amazon for $35.00 (not office 365).
I had tried Libre Office for a while but found it's version of Excel (Calc) a bit flakey.
When running any PC these days you do, to a fair degree, have to play their game but there are ways to minimise the intrusions.

Microsoft has been doing that with Windows for a long time. All updates are mandatory as far as I know. I know some (including me) don't like it but they have explained it to users. My only issue with it is that if something goes wrong after an update then we have to wait for Microsoft to issue a patch and in the past that has taken anywhere between almost straight away to a matter of weeks.

The main reason I stick with Windows is because I use it at work, on dozens of systems. So it makes sense for me to use it at home too. Personally, I find trying to get used to multiple systems a chore so the $120 annual subscription on Office 365 (all apps included) isn't a biggie. A full Office suite upgrade used to come out every three years or so and cost more than $1,200 so the current regime is better value, probably because there is far less piracy now.