I’m interested in W10 for my teen daughter’s first computer/tablet. Will this Bing thing affect alternate browsers, too?
No, you will still be able to use Firefox or Chrome and do searches with Google. MS would not dare tread across that litigious minefield.
I don't believe it will. It appears to me that while Bing is the default -- and the OEM cannot change that -- the end user CAN change it to anything they want.
I'm not sure if this is the absolute worst thing to do, but it certainly is somewhere close. Teens want a tablet that is small, light, and runs on a charge for a long time. A Win10 based tablet will be none of these things. I cannot even say who a Win10 tablet is good for - perhaps for some industrial environments that are dependent on compatible WinRT/PC Modern applications? Everyone else should use either an Android or an iOS tablet. They have all the software, they work, and every friend has them.
Verdict is out on Microsoft’s new browser, Spartan. Long gone are the days where Internet Explorer carries the weight of insecurity. From what I’ve seen, Spartan is a fast browser and works on par with Firefox for usability. Microsoft is doing a lot of things right with Win10.