back to article The Reg takes a trip over the New Edge. Mmmm... New Coke with extra fizz

Having gripped our claws on Microsoft's shiny new Edge browser we have... thoughts. And they aren't all good ones. The reaction to Microsoft's surprising announcement last year that it was abandoning the EdgeHTML rendering engine of its browser in favour of Chromium was generally well received (unless you were Mozilla). In …

  1. imanidiot Silver badge

    Thanks

    I'll stick with Firefox for now.

    1. SVV

      Re: Thanks

      As will I, being one of those stubbornly old fashioned people who see web browsers as a means of accessing information I want, rather than a means of supplying giant tech companies with information about myself that they want.

      Firefox may have been testing its users patience with certain behaviour in recent years, but it does at least remain the easiest to customise in order to stop all the crap that goes on on the web that you don't want.

    2. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

      Re: Thanks

      I've mostly switched to Pale Moon, though I'm considering trying out some other Firefox forks to see if I like any of them better.

      When I absolutely need a Chromium-based browser, e.g. to test something that someone claims "will work in Chrome", I've been using Comodo Dragon. It's not that I trust Comodo any more than I have to (they are a prominent CA, after all), but it does have some privacy features and, hey, it's neither Google nor Microsoft.

  2. crayon

    MS or Google, or both

    gets to slurp your data?

    1. sabroni Silver badge
      Unhappy

      Re: MS or Google, or both

      Unless you run firefox, noScript and UBlock (or similar) Google are slurping your data. They poison sites as well as their browser.

      At least with Edge you have to download it before it starts spying on you....

      1. bombastic bob Silver badge
        Meh

        Re: MS or Google, or both

        the big problem here comes from the text surrounding this quote from the article:

        "if you're using a Microsoft account"

        Guaranteed that everything you do will, in some way, be tracked for marketing purposes. Because they CAN.

        I already assumed "the 2D FLATTY FLATSO McFLATFACE" because, Chrome _AND_ Micro-shaft, but I was mostly curious about the initial reception.

        So what does "New Edge" do for you that Chrome does NOT ? Other than, NOT be Firefox, that is... (because Chrome vs Firefox post-Australis is no real choice at all)

        Mozilla SHOULD DISTINGUISH ITSELF from this by actually BEING DIFFERENT, that is, being NOT a 2D FLATTY McFLATFACE 'Australis' version...

        "Classic Firefox" UI anyone? EVERYONE?!!!!

  3. The Original Steve

    Edge does do some things very well. From 4k support (the only browser to do so) for Netflix, power consumption and PDF rendering there'll are genuinely things that the competition could learn from. It was also pretty nippy too.

    Sadly the awful UI and reliability is what has put me off. If that's changed due to using Chromium's engine and interface then I'm all for it.

    Regarding the (well founded) privacy issues; if I'm using anything that's touched Google, Microsoft or - God forbid - Facebook I assume I'll have none. Not saying its right, but I fear that battle has been lost.

    1. Steve K

      Blocking Auto-Play

      The current Edge blocks Auto-Play videos which is the only reason that I use it.

      If they drop that aspect in New Edge then I'm not going to use it...

      1. sabroni Silver badge

        Re: Blocking Auto-Play

        Firefox's been doing that for me with YouTube recently, new tabs don't play until you switch to them. That may just be a script I've denied though....

        1. K.o.R

          Re: Blocking Auto-Play

          I've noticed that too, although the "don't play until tab is clicked" has been around a while. Now I have to start the video manually as well.

    2. Robert Ramsay

      PDF's on Edge

      Edge saved my behind recently when Firefox's PDF renderer printed my document with loads of scribbles over the text. Edge rendered AND printed it perfectly.

    3. Persona Silver badge

      I use Edge on my old underpowered tablet that I use for browsing while watching TV. Chrome really sucks on it giving Edge a big performance advantage. I've a nasty suspicion that New Edge is going to suck worse than Chrome.

  4. Alan Potter 1

    "[moving to Chromium] was generally well received"

    You must have been looking at different fora from the ones I was reading, where people - quite correctly - were bemoaning the increased homogeneity of the web and the additional power being granted to Google.

    1. sabroni Silver badge

      There was a time when this forum would've been one of the ones bemoaning the loss of an alternative rendering engine.

      1. imanidiot Silver badge

        I can recall a thread about the move on this very reg that was filled mostly with moaning. Even here few Reg (l)users where happy with the move.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Well recieved, yeh I don't believe that either. In fact, isn't that clearly a lie?

      1. Factually, the majority didn't care enough to use it let alone care about its development.

      2. The few that did use it probably used it because they liked how it worked.

      3. How many people that use Edge are going to notice, especially if it's the same skin?

      I suspect that comment of "well received" is a Chrome fanboy comment, because it just can't be.

  5. DJV Silver badge

    MS Account

    Avoid like the plague!

    I only use my MS Account in a VM* - other than that my PCs (7 and 10) always quite deliberately use a non-MS account as I always attempt to do my best to reduce the slurpage.

    * for testing the latest bug-ridden Insider joke!

    1. bombastic bob Silver badge
      Thumb Up

      Re: MS Account

      "Avoid like the plague!"

      And, with some difficulty, NOT USE IT AT ALL, especially for something with 'admin' capability on YOUR computer. (Not Micro-shaft's computer, which is why I emphasized it)

    2. adnim

      Re: MS Account

      What's an MS account?

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    User agents

    Anyone who has tried the new Edge using the chrome render engine, please feel free to post your user agent string here

    (I know, never use user agents to detect browser features blah blah)

    1. bombastic bob Silver badge
      Devil

      Re: User agents

      simple check here: https://www.whatismybrowser.com/detect/what-is-my-user-agent

      I'll check back and maybe add something snarky to an existing web page, for grins, based on the user-agent

      I'd also be interested in whether or not the 'micro-shaft logon' is in any way transmitted in the request headers. Spitting this information back as web page content might have interesting results

  7. JLV

    Err... menus, or the lack thereof, should have been covered. Is this another MS “our way or the highway” UI moment?

    1. DJV Silver badge
      Happy

      Menus

      Obviously, they have been covered...

      well, covered up completely so you can't find them!

  8. Barry Rueger

    Memory Use

    What I would really like to know is if Microsoft has figured out how to beat memory hogging sites into submission. It's ludicrous that I need to close one or both of Gmail or Facebook every few hours or my not too old laptop grinds to a halt.

    Of course that machine has "only" 4 gigs of RAM.

    1. Ian 55

      Re: Memory Use

      Use Firefox. Hundreds of tabs open here.

  9. jelabarre59

    dumb decision as usual

    Considering that Google is MORE of a competitor to Microsoft than the old Netscape organization ever was, Microsoft should have teamed up with the Mozilla organization, if for nothing else so they could spit at Google. And they could have used Thunderbird as a replacement for Outlook while they were at it.

    But while MS may be conniving and evil, they often aren't very smart.

  10. roblightbody

    Old Edge had its good points!

    On my 4gb laptop, Old Edge was far better than Chrome in terms of resource usage (to the point that I uninstalled Chrome and consumed even Google's services through Edge). I also think its sad that now there are only 2 major browser technologies. We all need to support Mozilla I feel.

  11. samic.ip@gmail.com

    HTML5test.com test is not using HTTPS

    HTML5test.com gave Edge Chromium 481 because you test without using https.

    If you test with HTTPS, it goes up to 535 which even higher than Google Chrome due to the support of Content Security Policy 1

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