I have no skin in the game, but even I am starting to think the obvious thing here:

Apple and Google own the entire mobile OS market. They could literally destroy Microsoft if they started to hugely degrade the experience of Microsoft products on iOS and Android with dark patterns a la Microsoft. But they don't. So far they were competing by making their own products better. Microsoft needs to think hard how hostile they want to be to its competitors and users, because two people can play this game. I don't get Microsoft, have they no pride or desire to become a great company? Have they just become content to be an old corporate software house who only manages to keep users through dark patterns and anti-competitive behaviour because they have given up on making products which people enjoy to use?

>They could literally destroy Microsoft if they started to hugely degrade the experience of Microsoft products on iOS and Android with dark patterns a la Microsoft.

Sorry, but Google really isn't a saint regarding degraded experience. The shenanigans around UX for example using Google services in Firefox have a long, well documented tradition. They just aren't as overt and clumsy with it as MS.

I use a Firefox addon that spoofs the user agent for Google-owned sites so it delivers the Chrome version of things.

Works without any issues and it's a much nicer product experience.

What is the name of this addon?

tagging myself in here as well

You can favourite HN comments if you just want to come back to them.

To clarify, since it's not obvious in the UI, you have to click the timestamp of the comment, and then you can favorite it.