New Microsoft Edge

I started using The new Microsoft Edge since I have windows and Mac computers. It’s being great so far. I am using it even on my iPhone. I have to say that I am impress.

Is someone else using it? What are your thoughts.

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I have it loaded on my windows gaming laptop and it has been great so far. It seems quick and responsive!

I’m impressed with MS. Believe it or not I have Bing as my default browser. It gets good enough results. I think MS is certainly doing a good job lately with software and hardware!

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What are its advantages over other browsers?

I like it also, it’s just Chrome without the Google spyware. Unfortunately, it still uses lots of RAM and I’ll only be using it to test webpages that I’m developing. Safari will still be my go to browser.

On the one hand, I’m glad that Microsoft has abandoned IE and all its backwards-compatibility & proprietary crud that’s been piling up for a quarter of a century. As a realist, I recognize that Trident (IE’s engine) will be kicking around for a few more years as people refuse to let to/update their websites, much like Flash holding on until the bitter end.

OTOH, that Microsoft chose Chromium as the basis/rendering engine makes me worry. In the late 90s, through the mid-'00s, Microsoft’s near-monopoly put a stranglehold on the web and all the proprietary “works in IE only” stuff made things messy - we very nearly had a browser engine monoculture. We risk this same thing with Chrome/Chromium today.

I would have been happier to see Microsoft choose Firefox and put resources into that engine to help promote more diverse platforms on the web.

Every browser on Android uses Chrome underneath, just like every browser on iOS uses Safari for its rendering. But we can’t be too dependent upon mobile devices to protect us from this monoculture, and Firefox on PCs/Macs only has about 10% market share based on the numbers I recently checked.

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Good point on the underlying parts of IE sticking around for a while. The place I work has such old websites and APIs, it’s embarrassing. I still have to use original IE because that’s the only way to get some of our sites to work. It’s soul crushing - lol.

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At my work I’m stuck using IE for several state run services. IE11 has support from Microsoft until 2025, I can’t wait to see what happens then.

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Actually (for now) have it set as my default browser on macOS. Safari has just enough quirks that I find the Chromium experience better. Have liked the new Edge since the first “canary” builds months ago.

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My work requires access to government sites as well. Sensing a pattern. Lol

With Mozilla’s position on privacy I don’t think it would work well with MS

Can you expand what you mean?

I installed edge on my Mac a few weeks ago. It works fine now that it can be configured to use Kerberos for authentication. I still prefer Safari. My company SharePoint online site was loading slowly on Safari. It lads noticeably faster in Microsoft Wsge or Chrome, but Safari Technology Preview is noticeably faster still. I am looking forward to the next version of Safari.

Edge does allow me to separate my work browsing (in Edge) from my personal browsing (in Safari) I’d I want to.

Microsoft wants to collect data ad much as Google. Firefox is always trying to protect the users privacy. Or at least gives you the option to have more control. Microsoft and Mozilla’s interest are not aligned with each other…

That’s fair. I’m sure Microsoft does use/sell it more than Mozilla, but according to Mozilla’s privacy policy they definitely use information about their users.

The nice thing is that Microsoft does give you some control over the data they collect and how it is used (through their privacy dashboard).

Yes, Microsoft announced the decision to migrate to Chromium in December 2018.

Personally, I choose not to wade through the personalization maze and opt-outs and opt-ins related to a Microsoft account/browser, especially when alternatives don’t have any of that.

The browser’s Prefs allow you to reduce diagnostic data sent to Microsoft (the choices are Full or Basic), but not eliminate it. Also, there is a resettable identifier unique to your browser, with the option to (manually) periodically change the identifier. Diagnostic data is saved for “up to 18 months.”

Microsoft will target you if you ‘allow personalization’ (signed into a Microsoft account and have permission on for personalization in settings): "If you’ve allowed personalization, we will collect and use your Microsoft Edge browsing history to personalize experiences and advertising on Bing.com, Microsoft News, and other Microsoft services. This will provide more relevant and useful search results, ads, and news content."

But Microsoft wants you to be signed in: "To sign you in seamlessly, when you first launch Microsoft Edge, we’ll attempt to detect your identity from the operating system. If we detect your identity from the operating system but you don’t want to remain signed in to Microsoft Edge, go to your Microsoft Edge profile settings and either sign out or remove your profile."

And

"If you’ve chosen to improve searches and other Microsoft products and services, we send info about websites you visit to Microsoft… This diagnostic data includes the URL of the page you visit, website metrics, title of the page, how you accessed the page, info about the page content, and other relevant info about the page navigation. Some diagnostic data is attached with an identifier unique to your device. Otherwise the diagnostic data is associated with a resettable identifier unique to your browser."

Speaking of the “works in IE only” believe it or not I have one app that requires it. I am in the financial services business and my broker/dealer chose an app that only runs in IE. The app is required use since it tracks commissions, compliance, etc. Pretty sure it’s that nasty ActiveX stuff.

This is the app that forced me to use VM. And for a long time was the only app that required Windoze. Now, since I have to have the VM anyway, I use a few other windows-only apps. And a couple that simply function better than their Mac counterparts. .

Yeah it’s very concerning that some very big names in the accounting industry rely on very outdated and from my point of view insecure systems.

beyond control on your data, I do not see much, but before when I setup a Windows machine, the only use for internet explorer, was to download any other browser, soon that will not be like that, edge it seems good and stable enough.

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I am using Edge on my working PC also, and for me is being fine, we are very tight with office 365 and Sharepoint and is working great. I have to say, I am impress…

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The Edge Browser recently scored worst in testing of telemetry privacy.

The research, conducted by Douglas J. Leith, a professor at Trinity College at the University of Dublin, looked at Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Brave, Microsoft Edge, and the Yandex Browser. Evidence was found that Chrome, Firefox, and Safari all tagged telemetry data with identifiers that were linked to each browser instance, allowing Google, etc to track users across browser restarts, but also across browser reinstalls.

Edge and Yandex both used unique identifiers that were linked to the device’s hardware(!), rather than the browser installation, potentially linking browser installs with other apps and online identities. Edge collected the hardware UUID of the user’s computer, an identifier that cannot be easily changed or deleted without altering a computer’s hardware, and “[a]s far as we can tell this behaviour cannot be disabled by users.”

Brave was the only browser that by default didn’t use search autocomplete functionality to collect and send back information on a user’s visited web pages. (This can be disabled in Firefox, Chrome, and Safari but it is on by default.)

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