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Why we challenge Microsoft’s battery test

opera.com

41–50 of 220 posts

Re: Why we challenge Microsoft’s battery test

#41
post #15

Definitely not a fair test... Edge was rendering a lot more without an ad-blocker.

You might argue that not rendering ads is a valid method to save battery.

Of course it is. But if you care a lot about battery life, you might wonder if you should use Edge with an ad blocker or Opera, and the provided benchmarks are not very useful for determining which of those options is superior.

Re: Why we challenge Microsoft’s battery test

#43
post #16
post #4

Opera with an ad blocker vs Edge without it doesn't seem like an ubiased test.

Even with the ad blocker being a feature in opera out of the box? They were trying to show that opera can achieve better battery performance based on it's features and optimizations. Does that not include the ad-blocker?

They could have turned on an ad blocker for Edge as well.

Re: Why we challenge Microsoft’s battery test

#44

Microsoft didn't just do a battery test, they also release statistics based on Windows 10 telemetry showing that Edge has better battery life than Chrome, Firefox: "In addition to testing battery life internally, Microsoft also looks at tens of millions of PCs that send telemetry data to the firm, Weber said. And what it sees there is simple: A small advantage over Firefox, but massive gains of about 50 percent addit…

Not to discredit their results, but what it shows is that users who used Edge consumed less power than Chrome or Firefox.

Whether that means Edge is more power efficient, or devices where Edge is used more often are more power efficient, or users who select for Edge tend to visit sites that allow Edge to be more power efficient isn't clear.

To be fair to both sides, this is a really hard thing to measure.

Re: Why we challenge Microsoft’s battery test

#45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope: it is Statephobia and States have no right to honor, just people eith individual bodies.

That seems like splitting hairs to me. Would you want people to reject your software just because of your nationality or that of your company? Probably not. So it seems to me that an implication of the golden rule is that we shouldn't do that.

I would understand if people from another country did not use my software for fear of an NSA backdoor. It'd suck, but I would not think twice about their decision.

Re: Why we challenge Microsoft’s battery test

#46
post #25
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even with the ad blocker being a feature in opera out of the box? They were trying to show that opera can achieve better battery performance based on it's features and optimizations. Does that not include the ad-blocker?

In that case you might as well browse different websites because using adblocker makes your browser render different content.

Not necessarily true if both ad blockers are using the same filter lists. I find Adblock Plus and uBlock Origin (I prefer the latter) to be relatively on par in terms of things they block and things they tend to miss, even cross browser. I think the initial pageload would be the biggest differnce, as it relies on the performance of the adblocker in applying its filters to the DOM once it's loaded. The underlying extension framework probably affects this a lot too.

I'd think the user agent string is more likely to cause a huge discrepancy, as many frameworks will be utilizing polyfills and employing different technologies depending on what each browser supports. (Or, in the case of the user agent string, what the framework thinks the browser supports, regardless of how correct its assumptions are.)

Re: Why we challenge Microsoft’s battery test

#47
post #35
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In that case you might as well browse different websites because using adblocker makes your browser render different content.

Microsoft is welcome to include a native content blocker in their rendering engine

While I applaud their work and appreciate that there is an extension framework at all, I seriously doubt this will happen unless they plan to also redesign their home pages to remove the ads.

I just loaded up MSN.com and scrolled down the page. I count 3 ads total: one gigantic banner at the very top of the page before all of the content, and two smaller panners that pop into place as you scroll. These are served by AdChoices. When I turn my ad blocker back on, these all disappear, and the site loads much faster.

I think if Microsoft were to release a default ad-blocker, they would need to re-code their own website to use native advertising rather than a third-party network. I believe this to be an excellent practice, but I just don't see Microsoft going this route. I'd love to be pleasantly surprised though.

Re: Why we challenge Microsoft’s battery test

#48

Microsoft didn't just do a battery test, they also release statistics based on Windows 10 telemetry showing that Edge has better battery life than Chrome, Firefox: "In addition to testing battery life internally, Microsoft also looks at tens of millions of PCs that send telemetry data to the firm, Weber said. And what it sees there is simple: A small advantage over Firefox, but massive gains of about 50 percent addit…

Which is impressive I guess given that Firefox users often use extensions of varying quality?

Re: Why we challenge Microsoft’s battery test

#49
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In that case you might as well browse different websites because using adblocker makes your browser render different content.

Not necessarily true if both ad blockers are using the same filter lists. I find Adblock Plus and uBlock Origin (I prefer the latter) to be relatively on par in terms of things they block and things they tend to miss, even cross browser. I think the initial pageload would be the biggest differnce, as it relies on the performance of the adblocker in applying its filters to the DOM once it's loaded. The underlying exte…

His point is that only one of the browsers was using an ad blocker so they were rendering different content because one rendered ads and the other did not.

Re: Why we challenge Microsoft’s battery test

#50

Now that Opera Software is owned by a Chinese company I've avoided their browser anyways, regardless of potential battery/performance benefits.

Isn't that just xenophobia?

Only in the same vein as the more extreme example of avoiding flight itineraries with a layover in North Korea is.

There are two sides to any story and countries have different versions of reality that they believe in and promote. Nonetheless it's foolhardy to not notice which countries take an overly keen interest in people's communications and the "correctness" of their views... and jail those saying things they don't like.

If you're completely unfamiliar with the history of recent Chinese-western software collaborations, try googling "TOM-Skype"

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