Microsoft Edge rant
I am frequently asked by my friends and colleagues which web browser I use. Innevitably, my answers to this question always seem to result in a furious rant of some sort. Reflecting upon this, I concluded that Web Browsers are the perfect microcosm for terrible interface design choices and user interface pitfalls- such as feature creep (Zawinski's Law), bloatware, refinement culture, and the innovation paradox, to name a few. Of all the major web browsers, the biggest fall from grace is undoubtedly Microsoft Edge: a browser I vigorously shilled around 2018, but nowadays avoid like the plague.
Though I enjoyed a few happy years with Edge, I eventually found myself waking up every few days to a new 'feature', that either took up space in the context menu, in the toolbar, or a new space entirely, like that awful 'AI' sidebar - a HORRIFIC misgiving of user interface design in my eyes, and the last straw forcing me to finally jump ship. When they weren't dumping an unnecessary new feature, updates would frequently and completely arbitrarily alter CRITICAL functions, like the location of copy/paste within the context menu, or revamping the spellcheck to require five more clicks and a mouse over into a submenu.
And before you ask: No, constantly disabling wave after wave of unwanted feature is not tenable for me, since I work for a living, and don't have time to undo the kindergarten spitball scrabblings of Microsoft's UI / feature team. In addition to Microsoft deliberately making it harder to disable new features as time went on, maintaining a group policy-like registry of all the tweaks I needed to make Edge palletable was simply not feasable. All of these items are design sins, and reminded me of how little Microsoft cared about the usability of their product, over how "clever" it appeared. Edge was once the fastest, cleanest and best looking browser, but now it is none of those. Back to firefox for me.