Has anyone ever been unable to download and install xyz browser? C'mon now.
Ultimately, isn't this true for every OS provider that also makes a browser? Android comes with Chrome. iOS comes with Safari, MacOS comes with Safari, Windows comes with Edge. ChromeOS basically IS a browser. It's normal.
One thing they may have merit on is that MS has been baking features like Smartscreen in that other browsers don't have but those are primarily of value to Enterprise setups that leverage Defender for Endpoint and Purview.
As a current MSFT and former Apple employee (commercial rather than technical), I can only say that the corporate culture (comms, training, internal discussions) frequently, regularly, extensively and intensively emphasises the importance of security (and privacy). I joined via an acquisition and the extent of the remediation for my acquired company’s products to be brought up to MSFT security standards has been a huge challenge. My sense is that it’s just a very large attack surface across all the different suites. Who knows, maybe I’m kidding myself and it’s actually really shonky. But it doesn’t *feel* that way from the inside.
This I believe, not the 'throw them under the bus' default stance of government investigators.
"Well, social relevance is a schtick, like mysteries, social relevance, science fiction..." -- Art Spiegelman
