Microsoft Desperate For Microsoft Edge Users

[Bensemus]

From my understanding, tabs, bookmarks, (and I guess extension when it will come), will be sync between your devices that runs Edge (so Windows 10 device and Windows 10 Mobile)

Ya then I'm never gonna switch to it if it doesn't support iOS and OS X. That cuts out 2/3rds of my devices.

[RazeG3SG1]

Edge is very good, albeit Chrome's ecosystem + Firefox's add ons and other functions made it an inferior browser, Microsoft needs change something to even compete with the two.

[GoodBytes]

So I would like to clarify something, because I forgot to mention it. The reason why I am interested about Edge (once it will have extension support), is because they introduced new features that didn't exists before, giving me hope for the future, and the development of the web browser is moving fast, and to me it is refreshing, and competition is good. Hopefully, it will continue, and Edge will refine itself and be better, and introduce new features, giving a kick to Mozilla and Google to wake up.

What I find the most interesting bit out of Edge is, like I previously mentioned but will complete myself:

-> Touch friendly. Touch screen devices is becoming coming ground. It is nice to have touch screen support. Devices like 2-in-1 like the Surface Pro, of the Lenovo Yoga, and such, are also gaining ground, so touch is a must.

-> High DPI aware. IE11 was high-DPI ready, and looked proper. high resolution screen is common on most med range to high end laptops, and Windows powered tablet. yet Chrome is lags behind for proper full support, and Firefox took ages to get it, despite already done on MacOS since ages (also note that Firefox uses GTK framework, and that is multi-platform, so the code is there, and there was no reason to bring it all these years)

-> Edge support Windows touch screen keyboard. Chrome and Firefox doesn't. That means it doesn't pop-up automatically when you hit with your pen or finger a text box in a page or form, and the keyboard layout doesn't change accordingly.

-> Edge has smooth scrolling and smooth zooming that works properly without breaking the page. We are in 2015, and both Chrome and Firefox can't master this for some reason. Sure they have 'smooth scrolling' option, but it isn't as smooth. Chrome does a better job on both scroll and zoom than Firefox

-> Edge web browser on Windows 10 Mobile, means a great web experience. No Flash, as Adobe pulled the plug for ARM based CPU support, but regardless, you know that all web pages will be displayed like they are on your desktop. So for those willing to risk getting a Windows Phone, this is interesting. Also, Microsoft said that once extension support is coming on the desktop, they'll start and see for the possibility in providing them, to some level, to mobile Edge. That means ad blocker on your phone, the most important place due to roaming charges. Page loading should be faster as well.

Edge has a strong first version engine. Not perfect, but strong. It is nice to see that there are 2 teams working on the web browser. One that does only the back end stuff, and the other working on the front end (interface, extensions support, etc.) A smart moved compared to IE, where 1 team did everything, reducing specialization (in my opinion).

[Str_Mape]

I'd consider giving edge a chance if I was able to see it in the volume mixer on any of my computers, no independent volume control is a major WTF from me.

[Nexxus]

if they just had addons I would use edge but...tit doesnt so...

[GoodBytes]

I'd consider giving edge a chance if I was able to see it in the volume mixer on any of my computers, no independent volume control is a major WTF from me.

I agree.

[Sharp_3yE]

A couple features but really just extensions are missing. It has some things that work really nicely in it. It's a nice browser but just needs extensions really. Sure a couple of other things but really if it had extensions I'd be using it more. There are actually certain things I want to use that edge offers that I can't get on Firefox that I use.

Also, if you have a touch screen windows 10 device, edge will be the best on that device.

[ChrisCross]

well i like it but sadly they didnt got the cloud sync and seemlessly integration with mobile that chrome offers. also browser extensions is a thing and ms doesnt know that.

[jaggysnake57]

people seam to forget that edge isnt finished yet  and so far it looks good

[LAwLz]

1) Support for widely used standards (like WebM).

1- Support is there

I am on Edge 20.10240.16384.0 (great name by the way Microsoft) and there is no support for WebM, VP8, VP9, Opus or Vorbis. Whenever I click on a link to any of those things it just downloads the file (without even asking me).

 

2) Syncing a variety of things.

2- Its there

I can't find any settings for it so I googled around and found lots of people asking how to do it and getting told it's not possible yet.

 

 

3) Run on other platforms (like Android, iOS, GNU/Linux, Windows 8.1 or earlier)

3- Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile.

Which might be fine if you only use Windows and Windows Phone 10, but the vast majority of people do not. You are delusional if you do not think it is a disadvantage.

 

 

4) Open source

4- Chrome and Opera are not open source. It is also meaningless. Development of Firefox is slower than if a snail learning to code and working on it.

Chromium is. And it's not just about helping development personally. It's the entire environment with the bug tracker like Bugzilla. Plus the fact that Microsoft has time and time again shown that they are not to be trusted (helping the NSA with PRISM for example).

 

 

5) Proper customization support (Chrome is lacking this too compared to Firefox)

5- Doesn't mater.

Yes, it matters A LOT to some people.

 

 

6) Can "Save Link As..."

6- You have

Not in the version I got. When I right click on for example an .mkv link all I get is "Open in new tab", "Open in new Window", "Copy Link" and "inspect element". No "Save Link As" as option.

 

 

7) Can change the download location! Yes I am not kidding you. You can't change the location where files are downloaded in Edge, and since there is no "save link as..." feature either, there is no way to download a file to anything other than your standard downloads folder.

7- You can't either in Firefox, without digging for it. A real pain. Not to mention Chrome and Firefox horrible download manager

Yeah... What a bunch of "digging" you need to do. It is on the first page in the options window. It is right in the middle of the first page you see when you press the options button.

Also, I would rather have something and need to "dig" for it, than to not have it at all. It's an incredibly basic feature that Edge does not have for whatever reason.

 

 

8) A proper download manager (Not sure if I am doing something wrong but I can't even find a search function in it)

8- That is your opinion. I find it better, while still stucky.

How is the download manager in Chrome/Firefox worse than the one in Edge? In Edge you can't even search in it.

 

 

9) Not having a terrible settings menu (just a long list of stuff without any categories in Edge)

9- That is your opinion. I find it to be easy to access, and you have everything in front of you

By "everything" you mean the extremely limited options right? Edge has maybe 1/10 of the settings Firefox has, and a lot of it are basic stuff (like where files should be downloaded).

If Edge had as many options as Firefox when it would be a disaster.

 

 

10) Can see passwords stored in the password manager.

10- Security issue

Not a security issue if they make it possible to add a master password (like in Firefox). Proper password managers like the one in Firefox and for example KeePass has this feature.

 

 

11) Can change search engine. Not sure if I am doing something wrong but all the buttons related to changing it are grayed out for me.

11- You can

Not in my version, and I am not the only one according to plenty of forum posts and comments.

 

 

12) Supports plugins (which are usually terrible, but sometimes needed)

12- Firefox and Chrome are discontinuing support both did the announcement. Chrome already pull the plug for support for the plug-in system. So enjoy it while it lasts.

Yes I will enjoy it while it last. A lot of things I have to do sadly relies on it.

 

 

13) Supports drag-and-drop to open files (just drag a file from your desktop into a new tab)

13- While nice, it is something hyper extremely rarely done, so don't care.

Personally I use it all the time. Having to type out the entire file path every time I want to open a file in the browser is just stupid.

 

 

14) Can go back more than 1 page at a time (hold down left click and drag down in Firefox and Chrome and you get a list)

14- It's there

Maybe I am doing something wrong but it does not work in my version.

 

 

15) Can highlight -> right click -> search

15- It's called 'Ask Cortana'

What do you mean? I don't get any option for searching when I right click a high lighted word. Maybe it's because I don't have Cortana on? I would try it but Microsoft has disabled Cortana from being used in Sweden so I can't even try it. Even if I could try and it did work, why would such a basic feature be limited to only work when Cortana is on? Maybe I don't want to search for something on Bing. Maybe I want to use Google to search for the text I highlighted.

 

 

17) Can have a bookmark toolbar.

17- Don't care. I have more than 3 bookmarks or wtv, doesn't fit, takes room.

You don't care but I do. I got about 700 bookmarks in my bookmark toolbar and that works just fine because I have them organized in different folders. Surely you must understand that browsers are not "one-size fits all" so having the option is better than not having it?

 

 

18) Can easily close a bunch of tabs with the mouse. In Edge the tabs gets resized as soon as you press the X button, while in Chrome and Firefox they stay the same size until you move the mouse away. (I can post a video explaining if anyone doesn't understand).

18- I prefer that way actually, great if you want to close multiple tabs you don't need to move the mouse, when you have many tabs open. Great for touch screen too. Near impossible to close a window with touch with Firefox or Chrome, hit region is way too small.

What do you mean? The way Edge does it is worse when you want to close multiple tabs because you HAVE to move your mouse. The size of the hit region is not related to this by the way. One does not exclude the other so I don't understand why you are bringing that up as an argument at all.

 

 

20) Can drag links into a new tab. In fact, you can actually drag links between Firefox and Chrome and they will work just fine and open in new tabs, and yet Edge can't even do this within itself.

20- Ok 3 things... don't know why you want to do this, but ok.

Why wouldn't you? It is very useful when you want to open something in a tab. If you scroll click then the new tab gets sent all the way to the right which might not be where you want the new tab. Maybe you want the new tab on the left of the currently selected one. If you drag the link to the tab bar then you can choose exactly where the new tab should be placed. It is also very useful when you want to move tabs between browsers (something I do regularly since I use multiple browsers).

 

 

 

So ok. 3 minor things.

WOOOOOOW

Worthy of switching

/s

Are you for real? You can't just say "I don't use that so it doesn't matter" just to cross that drawback off the list. That's what you did with a lot of things listed. For you it might not matter but for other people it might.

A lot of the things you claim are factually wrong if we look at the current release version of the browser as well. You claim that it does support things such as WebM when it doesn't. You say it does have "Save Link As" when it doesn't. Maybe it has in the beta version, but not in the stable version.

[Flashport]

Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile.

lol'd.

[Albatross]

I use it to log into my Russian and IMBC/Korean gaming accounts, as none of that seems to work in any other browser, but I will never switch over to Edge or IE as my main. Never.

[deviant88]

if they dont fix the horrible font rendering and add 1000 more features while maintaining the performance which will quickly go down i couldnt care less about Edge

[bcredeur97]

It's not that great... Hence I don't use it.

Make it better than everything else and I might use it... It's that simple!

Or just give up and make a deal with Google or Firefox and have chrome/Firefox as the default browser lol (just don't mess with it!!)

[GoodBytes]

- snip-

Well I don't know. I am on the latest Insider Preview, and I have all what i said. I am on it, because Win10 official release is too buggy for daily usage on both my desktop, laptop, and work computer.

 

TH2 is coming in 2 weeks (expected/estimated)

[NumLock21]

I would have like Edge if

1. you can change your download destination

2. Clear out your temporary internet files, history, cookies

3. Have #2 run on automatically everytime I close it off.

Basically all the functions of what they have with IE.

[BuckGup]

Yeah no I used it when it came out and how I have to click bookmarks then go to it NO WAY. Chrome syncs all my stuff and has nice bookmarks and favorites where I want them. 

[HarmFull]

I just didn't like MS Edge. The icons were too fat for me as well as I'm more used to Chrome.

[MrDynamicMan]

I gave edge a week to win me over... I used it for two hours and jumped back to torch. Incompatibility with docs, no extensionsz and probably a few others pissed me off so much I cut my losses. It's a shame though, nice looking browser.

[Sauron]

I really see no reason to even consider it, it has nothing to offer that I care about. I use chrome/chromium mainly because of the superior youtube functionality (due to html5 and specifically h.264 that firefox chose not to support because it's not an open standard), and because it seems to have gotten its act together with ram usage recently.

[GoodBytes]

I really see no reason to even consider it, it has nothing to offer that I care about. I use chrome/chromium mainly because of the superior youtube functionality (due to html5 and specifically h.264 that firefox chose not to support because it's not an open standard), and because it seems to have gotten its act together with ram usage recently.

Firefox supports it.

YouTube also works great in HTML5 in Firefox.

[Slinkey]

When it gets more features, mostly extensions I would happily use it.

 

But to be honest, I would really wish Chrome would update their shit. It completely drains my battery life on the laptop, whereas Safari is much better.

[Sauron]

Firefox supports it.

YouTube also works great in HTML5 in Firefox.

 

even in 4k and 1080p 60fps? might give FF another try if that's the case

[GoodBytes]

even in 4k and 1080p 60fps? might give FF another try if that's the case

1080p 60fps, I forgot 4K 60fps if that is supported. I use Flash, because I want 30fps, and YouTube only offers it if you have Flash. I have monthly data gap, but Google thinks everyone is super rich can afford unlimited internet.

[Sauron]

1080p 60fps, I forgot 4K 60fps if that is supported. I use Flash, because I want 30fps, and YouTube only offers it if you have Flash. I have monthly data gap, but Google thinks everyone is super rich can afford unlimited internet.

 

lol ^^ thanks for the tip, I'll give it another look