back to article Microsoft Chrom... Edge hits beta as new browser prepped for biz testing

Microsoft has rolled out the first beta version of its Chromium-based Edge web browser. The pace of development has been quick: Microsoft signalled its intent to rebuild Edge using the Google-sponsored Chromium browser engine in December 2018. In April 2019 preview versions were released, including a Dev channel updated weekly …

  1. nematoad Silver badge
    Happy

    Hah!

    "It remains likely that Google will find ways to give Chrome users the best experience when using Google services. "

    The biter bit.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Also in the news, Microsoft have abandoned development of their closed source OS Windows and have replaced it using Android which is now called Microsoft Open Windows. To commemorate this Satya Nadella has also changed his name to Larry Brin and named Sergey Page his number 2.

    1. katrinab Silver badge

      I think it will be Ubuntu rather than Android.

  3. This post has been deleted by its author

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    That's illogical Captain

    It would have benn far more logical for MS to have teamed up with Mozilla in order to keep diversity and competition healthy.

    It's also very sluggish and resource hogging browser from my experience these days.

    Mr Spock.

    1. jelabarre59

      Re: That's illogical Captain

      There's exactly the problem. Google Chrome is well on it's way to becoming the disaster MSIE6 had been back in the day. Only difference is the Chrome/Chromium codebase is an infestation on more than one browser.

      And not only the concern of the potential disaster of an easily-infected browser monoculture, but if MS is seriously expecting to compete against Google, they should have teamed up with the group in the completely opposite camp. Ah well, MS used to teeter back and forth between "evil" and "incompetent"; these days they seem to lean more towards the latter (but certainly not always).

      1. katrinab Silver badge

        Re: That's illogical Captain

        On the other hand, people use Edge as a Google Chrome downloading tool. If Edge is basically the same thing, then all they would need to do is change the default search engine.

      2. Jakester

        Re: That's illogical Captain

        "Evil" and "Incompetent" are not mutually exclusive.

        1. Persona Silver badge

          Re: That's illogical Captain

          True, but it's much less dangerous than evil and competent.

  5. Will Godfrey Silver badge
    Stop

    Back to the bad old days?

    With world+dog sniffing round chrome, are we heading for monoculture browser again - but this time with much more access into the underlying OS.

  6. Luiz Abdala
    Facepalm

    Considering Outlook Webmail interface works BETTER in Chrome than in Edge... I'm not surprised.

    No really, I can hit the DELETE button and actually delete an email - in Chrome, but not in Edge. Truly ingenious, when you consider my Company has EXCHANGE servers and having identical access as HOTMAIL, plastered all over the place. Hell, they could be renting storage from Microsoft and I wouldn't know the difference.

    Meanwhile, corporate Outlook has no Archive button - which the browser access does. So does Gmail.

    I still don't get why they do some of these things.

    1. AMBxx Silver badge

      >>>Meanwhile, corporate Outlook has no Archive button

      You might want to try upgrading

  7. mark l 2 Silver badge

    While MS may have some success getting some businesses to use Edge I still think even when Edgechrome becomes the default browser on Windows 10 it will still be mainly used to download Chome.

    Personally I still prefer Firefox over any of the Chrome based browsers.

    1. ToFab

      RE: Microsoft Chrom... Edge hits beta as new browser prepped for biz testing

      > it will still be mainly used to download Chome.

      Unless you are a heavy Google user, I see absolutely no reason why that that should happen. Why would you do download chrome and use that over EdgeChrome?

      EdgeChrome is likely to provide a much better experience for Windows 10 users than Google Chrome.

      1. Captain Scarlet

        Re: RE: Microsoft Chrom... Edge hits beta as new browser prepped for biz testing

        Because a user goes to Google and is told over and over hey why not get a more secure browser.

  8. fobobob

    Rename proposal

    Was going to suggest "Microsoft Chredge", but that seems to have already taken off.

    1. John Roberts

      Re: Rename proposal

      Nah,it's Edgeium ;)

  9. Richard Plinston

    Statcounter

    Statcounter works by loading some Javascript with the web page and this then talks directly to the Statcounter site. This means that the websites that are included in the stats are self-selected and also that users that are recorded are those that don't block scripts.

    I use Firefox (mostly) because I can block all those trackers with various plug-ins. I would suggest that many others do as well, resulting in the stats for some of the browsers being much lower than the actual usage.

    1. James O'Shea Silver badge

      Re: Statcounter

      Statcounter and other similar sites hate me. I usually use Safari on a Mac. But I have the dev tools turned on, so prior to going to certain sites I do things like change the user agent so that it looks like Edge. Or Chrome (Mac). Or Chrome (Windows). Or Firefox (Mac). Or Firefox (Windows). Or Safari (iPad). It's really just plain Safari (Mac), though, so I have Firefox and Opera for real, and certain sites bookmarked there. And I have a nice Ubuntu 18.04 VM with Firefox set up for secure connections to specific sites. Statcounter will have hell classifying my connections.

    2. P. Lee

      Re: Statcounter

      Indeed.

      And all the glitters is not Chrome. It might be Brave.

      I've have a real soft spot for firefox since the netscape days, but they went all woke which left a bit of a bad taste. There's no point trying to rebel against the mainstream and then going all PC.

      And Brave has all Chrome's plugins, including NoScript and that hideous thing the ATO uses.

      1. Scott 53

        Re: Statcounter

        There's no point trying to rebel against the mainstream and then going all PC.

        You can get Firefox for Mac as well.

  10. tcmonkey
    Thumb Down

    Where will I stand?

    On the side of the game that has as little as possible to do with Google's slurpmonster and its derivatives as possible, just like before.

  11. Roger B

    Back to Firefox for me I think, but

    I've always felt one of the biggest reasons for Google Chromes popularity was you couldn't visit any website without being offered to download, install and make it your default browser, when I was doing consumer IT repair, so many customers would come in and upon seeing 2 or 3 browsers installed on their system asking for their default and they'd say Chrome, "it just changed one day so we thought we had to use that one now" no one has a clue, and because Edge Chrome wont be attached to Adobe Flash updates, visiting YouTube or installing god knows what addon, I doubt there will be much of a % jump in users.

    I just hope Firefox has got a bit lighter in terms of system requirements.

    1. BrownishMonstr

      Re: Back to Firefox for me I think, but

      The reason I moved to chrome 10 years ago, was because of the tabbed browsing experience, incognito, and it also felt a lot faster and stable compared to IE.

  12. Slions

    Vivaldi

    I'll stick to Vivaldi.

    1. MrMerrymaker

      Re: Vivaldi

      I'll stick to Firefox.

      1. Captain Scarlet
        Trollface

        Re: Vivaldi

        I'll stick to Netscape

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Vivaldi

          Mosaic?

          1. Captain Scarlet
            Trollface

            Re: Vivaldi

            YES THATS IT!

            I'll stick to Erwise

            1. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

              Re: Vivaldi

              You kids and your newfangled toys. I'll stick to netcat and composing and reading HTTP directly.

              1. Inspector71

                Re: Vivaldi

                Me, I'll stick to WorldWideWeb on my Next Cube.

                If it's good enough for Tim then it's good enough for me.

    2. src

      Re: Vivaldi

      I also use Vivaldi. It allows me to set zoom increments other than 100/110/125/... (I have bad eyesight) and supports the Google Translate extension (I live in Japan). There are other things I like about it but those are the main attractions.

  13. The Original Steve

    Rather like it

    Not a fan of Google's slurp, and sadly FF hasn't performed adequately for me for years now.

    Been using the Dev channel of Edge for the last few months and I'm genuinely impressed. Flawless compatibility (as you'd expect) and essentially has most of the benefits of Chrome whilst also having the benefits of Edge. (Yes there are some. Netflix 4K steaming, integration with MS services etc.).

    Recommend people give it a play. You maybe pleasantly surprised.

    1. Timmy B

      Re: Rather like it

      I agree. It's not so bad. If only they could get round to changing some parts to be more like "classic" Edge - such as the history and favorites flyouts and surface pen functionality. Perhaps down the road...

  14. Dave 144

    I've never managed to get Edge browser to, well, work at being a browser. My home laptop runs Windows 10 and even though my default browser is set to Chrome, MS insist on opening the pages they want to open in Edge. Which promptly fails to load anything other than a 404 page. I call that a win.

    As for the new version of Edge being based on Chrome, well I'm sure that'll be equally as awful as the old version of Edge. Chrome is mediocre browser, once Microshaft have finished with it, we'll all be downloading Netscape. The future is in the past people.

  15. TeeCee Gold badge
    Unhappy

    Shame really.

    Apart from the monoculture problem, I quite like the current Edge. One thing that nobody else seems to have noticed is that Edge for Android absolutely pisses over the competition for speed* and lightness.

    *FF is on a par for speed but is a bit of a resource hog.

  16. Franco Bronze badge

    I'll stick with Firefox personally. I've never liked Chrome as a browser, even leaving aside Google's attempts to take over the market with drive-by downloads.

    Sadly still need IE though, purely for the odd old bit of kit that still runs a DRAC or iLO that needs an ActiveX plugin.

  17. johnnyblaze

    Bad smell

    There was a bad smell coming from the original Edge, and I don't think new Edge will make that smell go away. Your average user is already Chrome-ified, and is unlikely to change. They won't have a clue about the Edge changes, so yes, it will still be used - once - primarily to download Chrome, and that's job done. Google are now synonymous with search and Internet, browsing (Chrome) and mobile (Android). Only those arrogant Apple users full of their own self-importance with their glorified iFashion accessories think differently - because Apple tell them to!

  18. rajivdx

    The problem for Edge is Microsoft itself!

    I have been using Edge exclusively for 4 years now and have not come across a single website that didn't work with edge. The problems with Edge that I experienced were:

    1. Poor integration with Windows - Cut & Paste were dodgy and so were other keyboard shortcuts and integration with the on screen keyboard.

    2. Idiotic Google nagware encouraging me to 'upgrade' to a 'better browser'.

    3. Websites that didn't know which browser I was using and just throwing up an 'Incompatible browser' message - these websites worked flawlessly when I dismissed the annoying popul.

    I have found Edge to be a lot more secure, faster and lean on resources than Chrome. Chrome is a massive resource hog (don't know how it is these days) hogging both memory and CPU for tabs that are in the background. A common problem with Chrome was my laptop overheating when I opened too many tabs - haven't had that problem in a while now that I'm using Edge.

    The biggest problem with Edge is Microsoft itself who have no faith in their own products!

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