Microsoft doesn’t stop you from uninstalling Edge just to annoy you or take away your freedom. It’s because, in modern Windows, Edge is no longer just a browser but rather part of the operating system itself. A lot of Windows components now depend on Edge’s rendering engine (WebView2) to display content. Things like Settings pages, help screens, widgets, login flows, Microsoft Store content, and even some third-party apps use Edge in the background to render web-based interfaces. So if you completely remove Edge, you’re not just deleting a browser, you’re removing a shared system dependency. That can break core features or make parts of Windows unstable. Because of that, Microsoft treats it like a protected system component and restricts normal users from uninstalling it. Linux works differently because of its design philosophy. Nothing is “sacred” or protected at that level. The system assumes the user has full control and full responsibility. If you have root privileges, you can remove anything even critical parts like the bootloader, kernel, or libc. Linux won’t stop you, warn you much, or lock it down. If you delete the bootloader, the machine simply won’t boot. That’s not a bug; it’s intentional freedom.