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Microsoft is building a Chromium browser to replace Edge on Windows 10

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Re: Microsoft is building a Chromium browser to replace Edge on Windows 10

#561

Post by mesaframe »

TanakaTarou wrote: post #183

What other options do they have? Even on HN you hear "I use Egde to download Chrome". Many of you here don't test your own work in Edge. At the same time Microsoft is getting the heat that Windows 10 is unstable and the last major update shows that it is. Very urgently, I imagine, Microsoft is trying to change the perception of Windows 10 by doing everything they can to make it more stable. Changing the browser engin…

>Changing the browser engine is a big step in that direction

I doubt Browser's engine has much to do with application UI, which was the main issue of edge.

Re: Microsoft is building a Chromium browser to replace Edge on Windows 10

#562

Post by userbinator »

Edge was already in a difficult place from the beginning --- a new browser engine in a new UI that tried to be yet-another-Chrome-clone. They alienated both their IE users, which hate the UI changes, and weren't very successful in pleasing web developers with their new browser engine either. I would much rather have the classic familiar IE UI with a new browser engine, because the UI is the only reason I use IE over other browsers (which are increasingly turning into approximations of Chrome's UI.)

There used to be many browsers. Not so long ago, it was mainly a choice between Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and IE. Now it'll be more like a choice between Chrome, Chrome, and Firefox.

Re: Microsoft is building a Chromium browser to replace Edge on Windows 10

#563

Post by Already__Taken »

cztomsik wrote: post #450
cletus wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft only releases it on one OS. so if you happen to use a Mac or Linux you need another browser. Chrome and Firefox are the only viable options. Also Microsoft are victims of their own legacy, namely what they did with Internet Explorer. Changing the box model, not adopting standards, not fixing bugs, causing no end of headaches for people having to support IE and so on. Trust needs to be earned. Apple had the…

The only problem with IE box model was that they implemented it before the standard got finished (and changed) so it was impossible to fix it without breaking already existing web pages. The situation is not very different from now with Chrome implementing unfinished proposals.

It's very different with feature flags. Browser prefixes was a nice idea in theory but should have predicted it wouldn't work out.

Coupled with an indiscriminate upgrade policy it is actually reasonable to deprecate features from chrome.

Re: Microsoft is building a Chromium browser to replace Edge on Windows 10

#564

Post by teddyuk »

headmelted wrote: post #310
swalladge wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, I tell my friends and family to use Firefox. There is more than one decent browser out there. I don't like the idea of everything using the Chromium engine; monoculture _is_ bad and we shouldn't put our eggs in the one basket. That said, IE and Edge have historically been terrible both compatibility and performance-wise. It's not just websites that aren't tested in Edge - my experience with Edge is that all aspec…

It's not really better though - having only two real browsers is not good for open standards or the open web. This will be especially true when Firefox inevitably shutters it's in-house efforts in a couple of years due to the amount of sites that won't work with it , and starts using Chromium too. Staring into my crystal ball tells me Firefox will become "janky" in the eyes of users on account of how many sites don't…

I'd like to see microsoft/mozilla/google collaborate on "THE" browser engine then all this compatibility bs goes away - they can all ship their own cruft and advertising but with a single rendering engine we can forget about multiple browsers forever

Re: Microsoft is building a Chromium browser to replace Edge on Windows 10

#565

Post by sametmax »

AnaniasAnanas wrote: post #560
sametmax wrote: post #547

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This will be especially true when Firefox inevitably shutters it's in-house efforts in a couple of years due to the amount of sites that won't work with it, and starts using Chromium too. It seems very unlikely: - Mozilla has been in a far worse uderdog position before during the IE6 era, with way more incompatible sites and less funding. - Mozilla is not for profit. Fighting for the open Web is one of their goal.…

> - Privacy concerns are (FINALLY !) being taken in consideration from the crowd I don't know how true this is when considering all the calling-home (split over multiple settings in about:config making it difficult to disable) in modern firefox versions. > Mozilla has the hardcore geeks on their side. A lot of geeks are moving away from it to forks or to other browsers like qutebrowser, which actually makes senses co…

> I don't know how true this is when considering all the calling-home (split over multiple settings in about:config making it difficult to disable) in modern firefox versions.

I agree but between a broken leg and cancer, you choose the broken leg.

> A lot of geeks are moving away from it to forks or to other browsers like qutebrowser, which actually makes senses considering that mozilla keeps trying to sabotage the poweruser demographic.

This has always been the case. We try alternatives, that's what we do. It's sane, and no matter Mozilla's behavior, we would do it.

Re: Microsoft is building a Chromium browser to replace Edge on Windows 10

#566

Post by kgwxd »

asituop wrote: post #521
WalterGR wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are VS Code’s insane telemetry options?

The VS code you download is not Open Source, it has a special Microsoft license and includes close source Microsoft Telemetry ( which could be considered as spyware) which you cannot opt-out completely. See https://code.visualstudio.com/license If you want a clean VS Code with MIT license and no spyware you have to build it yourself or use VS Codium : https://github.com/VSCodium/vscodium/blob/master/README.md This pr…

Build it yourself with build tools from MS... which have telemetry :/

Re: Microsoft is building a Chromium browser to replace Edge on Windows 10

#567

Post by glenneroo »

pjc50 wrote: post #426
jodrellblank wrote: post #394

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it has no distinguishing feature. Tab Set-aside, the thing where you can suspend tabs and then bring them back later, instead of having a browser with dozens of open tabs all using up memory. It integrates with OneNote and pen input, you click the "add notes" button and the open web page turns into a screenshot with a OneNote toolbar for highlighting and drawing on it, which can save or share the note. It has that dr…

> Tab Set-aside, the thing where you can suspend tabs and then bring them back later, instead of having a browser with dozens of open tabs all using up memory. I'd never heard of this, so I thought I'd give it a go: it's not on the right-click menu but on a separate icon on the top left, where the System menu should be so I'd never looked there. It turns out to be handicapped by not being able to save/restore individ…

Firefox doesn't restore after closing either until you enable "Restore previous session" in Options. I just re-installed Windows and FF last week and this bit me the first time after a reboot.

As for tab-heavy users, I find FF Quantum to be horrible in this respect, and I keep missing Chrome, which allows a ton of tabs and resizes them, albeit slightly unreadable after ~40-70 tabs, but at least I can see the icon, which is usually enough to find what I'm looking for. FF resizes until ~5 characters of the title are still visible, thereafter requiring "" arrows to scroll through tabs... unfortunately if you click one of those arrows too fast (twice in < 1 second), it will skip 10-20 tabs or jump to the completely opposite end(!), which can be frustrating to get back to the tab that is just barely hidden off-screen. I have seen this complaint in forums but still haven't found a reliable workaround other than editing some javascript relating to the default theme (I forget the details)? I have reverted back to tab/ctrl-tab to cycle through tabs.

Re: Microsoft is building a Chromium browser to replace Edge on Windows 10

#568

Post by hannasanarion »

SwellJoe wrote: post #293
colordrops wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't quite put my finger on it but something feels wrong about blaming the general populace for Edge's failure as a browser. Microsoft is one of the wealthiest companies on Earth. They've had every opportunity to use every marketing channel and dump resources into the team to make Edge an obvious winner. But they didn't.

I'm not sure what more they could do. They're extremely pushy about it in Windows. It takes several steps to make it stop pushing Edge when you open any web links. I don't use Edge (or Chrome) because I don't trust the companies that make them, and it's one small piece of my computing life I can withhold from them. So...there's nothing they could do to make Edge good enough for me, without fixing the lack of trust I…

> They're extremely pushy about it in Windows.

Now they're starting to push it on mobile too. Swiftkey just added a non-removable bing search bar that also prompts you to install Edge for Android.

Re: Microsoft is building a Chromium browser to replace Edge on Windows 10

#569

Post by AlexandrB »

mda wrote: post #458
reitanqild wrote: post #444

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Chrome didn’t come to dominate the desktop browser market by forcing users’ hand, but by offering a better experience. Disagree strongly. Reasons: - Google has been extremely pushy with Chrome, including lying (IMO) about it on their front page, a place where no other ads have been shown ever (IIRC). - Their own products often don't work in other browsers. Might be an honest mistake but personally I really don't bu…

So many conspiracy theories. When did HN become this hysterical...

These are not conspiracy theories. They’re practices of a search engine monopolist trying to get an unfair advantage in other markets. Compare and contrast to old Microsoft and browser bundling.

Re: Microsoft is building a Chromium browser to replace Edge on Windows 10

#570

Post by sametmax »

cm2187 wrote: post #498
JohnBooty wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, this is just depressing and honestly a little baffling. Seems contrary to Microsoft's interests - why let Google control this aspect of the Web? (Obviously, MS will maintain their own fork and can permanently fork away whenever they want/need to, I guess, so it's not like they've locked themselves in forever, but still) I actually wasn't aware of the problems with Edge. This is the first I've heard of them... I…

Not that I have any insight into Microsoft but it appears to be consistent with their strategy of disengaging from the client. Why bear the cost of maintaining your own browser technology given the extraordinary complexity, a low market share and little to no associated revenues. I wouldn't be too sad if Firefox was switching to chromium either. Then developers would only need to worry about rendering into one engine…

> I wouldn't be too sad if Firefox was switching to chromium either. Then developers would only need to worry about rendering into one engine, and users would have all their sites always working.

That would be a terrible day for the open web. Damn it, somebody inject some IE6 into these people stat.

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