What does everyone think of the new Microsoft Edge?

[Motor_Mouth]

I consider Edge to be one of Microsoft's worst designs, it looks like a forgotten application from Windows 95. I know they're trying to make one browser work for both desktop and tablet but it fails at both.

Really? I actually think it's a decent enough desktop browser, especially in the latest build. I like the way the settings are laid out and it has enough features for the basics. It only fails for me as a replacement for the Modern UI version of IE.

[Jarrichvdv]

It's pretty fast and is pretty good at what I want a browser to do. 

Browse the web without too much bloat features.

I don't like the fact that you can't sign-out easily and if you do, you'll be singed-in back again; I'm sick of "personalized experience" everywhere and for me this is a serious privacy issue. That's the first thing, the second is lack of extensions - say whatever you like, but browsing web nowadays without protection from tracking elements and intrusive ads is like sadomasochism caused either by choice or ignorance.

 

Layout is nice - it reminds me both Firefox and Chrome, and also I like the simplified options but there's still lots of stuff that should arrive - like better bookmarks support.

I browse the web without any extensions... Apparently I'm a sadomasochist?

Nah, not really. I'm just not as paranoid! Ads are the reason many of the services I use are free, so yeah same for Neowin. Blocking these would go against my principles, really.

[Son_Of_Dad]

I actually think it's a decent enough desktop browser

 

I don't like having less favourites displayed on screen of that opening a sub folder goes to that folder rather than expanding it which every other browser including IE does.

[dragontology]

I think it has potential, and that it's unfair to judge an unfinished product. As of now, I like it. It can go black right from the start, and the layout isn't terrible, it's just... spartan. Pun intended.

 

I was an IE 6 loyalist for the longest time. I had it set up just right and I didn't care about blocking ads, though when I switched to Firefox, ad blocking hadn't really taken off, though, once it did, that was about it for IE. But before then I found it perfectly serviceable to my needs.

 

I don't hate any browser. I've never hated IE. I have found IE 7 and IE 8 lacking, but IE 9 is a decent browser for the average user, if you can forgive the lack of an ad blocker, and most folks can. I understand web developers have valid grievances with it, but for the average user, that doesn't really matter (whether it should or not is beside the point).

 

Currently I use two browsers. Opera and Chrome. I also keep Firefox because it's my wife's first, last, and only choice for a browser (though, she uses Chrome on Android). And I don't mind Firefox, but it can't handle Facebook. Scroll down a page or two and it just gives up. This is on a Xeon 1231v3 with 16GB of RAM. It's just sloppy code, and I'm willing to lay a good portion of that at Facebook's door, but Chrome and Opera can handle it just fine, so I prefer them. I've been a loyal Firefox user for years, but it just doesn't scratch my itch anymore. I prefer Opera on my phone (Android), and on the desktop, it's just as good as Chrome. I currently sync both browsers, and try to keep Opera "work friendly." No adult sites, no torrent sites, no sites I wouldn't be willing to show my boss. And I use Portable Opera at work. I use Chrome for much more. (I do have Portable Chrome, and Portable Firefox. Options are good, and space isn't a factor. Not at the size of these applications, anyway.)

 

Edge has a chance of becoming my go-to browser if two unlikely conditions are met. One, Portable Edge becomes available. Microsoft never supported portability with its main applications, favoring tight system integration. They're sticking with Windows 7 at work, so it would need to support that as well. Two, Edge needs to come to Android, or I need to go to Windows Phone. I need my browser with me in three places, and if Edge can't follow, I can't hang with it. Though, that won't make me hate it, or stop using it. I'll use it occasionally, and I'll fully customize it to my needs. I used to stick with just one browser, and using another was jarring. That doesn't work for me anymore. We need to diversify our tools. Especially us older geeks. You get stuck in one thing, when that road runs out, what then? But, that's getting a bit off-topic.

[Motor_Mouth]

I don't like having less favourites displayed on screen of that opening a sub folder goes to that folder rather than expanding it which every other browser including IE does.

If that's the biggest problem Edge has, then I\it must be a lot better than I thought it was, because I don't think that's a problem at all. If I am looking at a folder full of favourites related to one subject, why would I care that I can or cannot see unrelated favourites?

[Deus Maximus]

Why would you want to use Google? We have to do a lot of image searches at work and we have never found Google to be superior at all. Bing consistently returns the best results nearer the top. Why do you think Google copied Bing's image search layout? (Of course, Bing copied some of Google's refinement's too, but the basic layout was originally Bing's.) I reckon over the last two or three years I have got half the news room using Bing over Google, based purely on results. In general searches, whenever Bing has been unable to find something for me and I've resorted to Google, it has never found what I was looking for, either. Not once.

 

My nephew put me onto Bing 6 or 7 years ago and, to be honest, I stuck with it mostly because I love the Image of the Day but for the past few years I reckon it has gotten as good as Google, or near enough that it doesn't matter any more.

 

And you can't blame Microsoft for trying to get back at Google, given the way Google treat Windows Phone.

Because in my experience, Google consistently finds what I'm searching for, whereas Bing is downright terrible at finding relevant results. There's also the matter of being able to access my search history on whatever device I use.

Plus, a lot of my services (primary e-mail, primary calendar, primary contacts, etc) use Google as the provider, because I use several different platforms, and Google is far better at platform agnostic services than others, such as iCloud or Microsoft's offerings. It's certainly not perfect, but it works on pretty much every platform I use.

In the end, even if I could use Google as my default search engine, I'd still use Chrome over Edge, because it doesn't support extensions, and a browser without having quick and easy access to Lastpass is absolutely useless to me.

[slam_speech]

I really don't like to judge something until I see the finished product.  Right now, I am not terribly impressed.  It's not that it's a bad browser (it's pretty good).  I just never liked the minimalistic style when it came to browsers on the desktop (one of the main reasons I never liked Chrome).  I run Cyberfox (a Firefox fork) on Windows and I personally like the ability to customize every inch of my browser to fit me.  The only new browser that has raised an eyebrow is Vivaldi.

 

I am interested to see their extension API there are 3 extensions that I am about to upload to the AMO, then I will port one of them to Chrome.  The other 2 won't work with Chrome's API.  I wonder how open this Spartan API will be.  If they have rich depth of FX and support something similar to XUL then I will get all my extensions over there.  If it is largely the same as Chrome, then I will still port my Chrome extension over.

[Obry]

I don't know what to think - the UI is not very good. I like the dark theme for no other reason but because it is dark. On my Lenovo X1 (14" touch screen) it is still not that easy to hit most touch targets. I can only imagine what it must be like on something like a Surface 3 or god forbid some 7-8" tablet. Then from a mouse and keyboard point of view, the UI is way too big and wastes too much space. So for me it is a "neither-nor" design. I was hoping it would scale better between desktop and tablet mode but it really doesn't. Maybe they will update it to further optimize it but who knows. Actually I used to use IE a lot more in Windows 8 than I see myself using Edge with Win 10 so Chrome it is but god damn those white title bars are horrendous and not easy to change (modifying the theme doesn't produce a polished outcome either)...

[x-scratch]

not a fan of it. prob will remove it, i perfer firefox

[Motor_Mouth]

Because in my experience, Google consistently finds what I'm searching for, whereas Bing is downright terrible at finding relevant results. There's also the matter of being able to access my search history on whatever device I use.

 

This is completely at odds with  my own experience. I've been using Bing for seven years or so now and it has been three or four years Since I found something on Google that I couldn't find on Bing. i.e. 100% of the time in the last several years, if Bing can't find something, niether can Google. What I like about Bing is that it consistently puts the best results nearer the top, especially with image search (which is probably 80% of my search usage).

[onewarmslime]

I've been using IE11 for the past year and I'm very happy with it (also got adblock set up). Edge looks like crap visually so I don't think I'll be using it...

[George P Global Moderator]

I haven't used it much, mostly because I've been testing through a VM so you can't get a good idea of performance that way.  Still, I'd like to see a few changes, A little dab of color to the UI wouldn't hurt for example, and more features that are still missing.  I'm not a big extension user but I know others are waiting for that to come, just hope they don't take forever to bring it.

 

I think performance is fine, not much they need to worry about in that area, just standards support and features.

[theyarecomingforyou]

Edge suffers from one of the same problems that plagued IE - an incomprehensible UI.

 

The reason Chrome is so popular is because the interface is minimalistic. Everything is there for a reason and there aren't unnecessary buttons floating about. You have:

• navigation buttons - back, forward, refresh
• navigation bar - with a star to favourite a website
• hamburger button - hides various menu option

With Edge you have:

• navigation buttons - same as Chrome
• navigation bar - it has two buttons, the favourite star and a faded out book icon; the navigation bar also fades out when not selected, which means the buttons look like they're not related to it
• favourites menu button - the icon is a series of different length lines that gives no indication as to what it does
• OneNote button - presumably Office adds this (?) but it shouldn't be a default button
• share button - brings up the Metro sidebar, which is horribly out of place in Windows 10
• menu button - the icon is three dots, which is inconsistent with standard app design

There's simply too much clutter and there's no way to infer what the buttons do other than to click on them and hope for the best. I also dislike Microsoft's icon design, which isn't limited to Edge - the Settings panel icons are appalling. Microsoft's icon design has taken a step backwards.

[neo1911]

The font rendering is so horrid on non 4K screens that it is shameful to even look at it. I use Firefox or Chrome.

[Guest]

Very fast on many sites - seems to have a rather large delay when loading any pages on neowin though.

[rocksturdy]

i'm using edge, its a fast fast fast browser plus turning flash on or off is pretty handy.

[Motor_Mouth]

[nekrosoft13]

horrendous

 

tried using it few times, MS should really give up trying to make a browser. 

[Motor_Mouth]

Why? I find IE 11 on my laptop superior to Chrome or Firefox on either of my workstation at the office, one a PC and the other a MacPro. I prefer it's UI, both on the desktop and especially the Metro version, and it is far more stable.

[Son_Of_Dad]

horrendous

 

tried using it few times, MS should really give up trying to make a browser. 

 

Couldn't agree more, granted IE11 desktop / metro both had failings but one did the job for desktop and the other for touch screen. This thing does 1/2 a job for each and looks bloody ugly while doing it.

[BajiRav]

Edge suffers from one of the same problems that plagued IE - an incomprehensible UI.

 

The reason Chrome is so popular is because the interface is minimalistic. Everything is there for a reason and there aren't unnecessary buttons floating about. You have:

• navigation buttons - back, forward, refresh
• navigation bar - with a star to favourite a website
• hamburger button - hides various menu option

With Edge you have:

• navigation buttons - same as Chrome
• navigation bar - it has two buttons, the favourite star and a faded out book icon; the navigation bar also fades out when not selected, which means the buttons look like they're not related to it
• favourites menu button - the icon is a series of different length lines that gives no indication as to what it does
• OneNote button - presumably Office adds this (?) but it shouldn't be a default button
• share button - brings up the Metro sidebar, which is horribly out of place in Windows 10
• menu button - the icon is three dots, which is inconsistent with standard app design

There's simply too much clutter and there's no way to infer what the buttons do other than to click on them and hope for the best. I also dislike Microsoft's icon design, which isn't limited to Edge - the Settings panel icons are appalling. Microsoft's icon design has taken a step backwards.

Three dots is actually consistent on phone... well that's about it.

[+Anarkii Subscriber²]

I like it, I just wont be using it as my everyday browser until it supports extensions though. 

[AngelGraves13]

Is there a reason to use anything other than Chrome? Nope.

[siah1214]

Edge suffers from one of the same problems that plagued IE - an incomprehensible UI.

 

The reason Chrome is so popular is because the interface is minimalistic. Everything is there for a reason and there aren't unnecessary buttons floating about. You have:

• navigation buttons - back, forward, refresh
• navigation bar - with a star to favourite a website
• hamburger button - hides various menu option

With Edge you have:

• navigation buttons - same as Chrome
• navigation bar - it has two buttons, the favourite star and a faded out book icon; the navigation bar also fades out when not selected, which means the buttons look like they're not related to it
• favourites menu button - the icon is a series of different length lines that gives no indication as to what it does
• OneNote button - presumably Office adds this (?) but it shouldn't be a default button
• share button - brings up the Metro sidebar, which is horribly out of place in Windows 10
• menu button - the icon is three dots, which is inconsistent with standard app design

There's simply too much clutter and there's no way to infer what the buttons do other than to click on them and hope for the best. I also dislike Microsoft's icon design, which isn't limited to Edge - the Settings panel icons are appalling. Microsoft's icon design has taken a step backwards.

 

Really?  That's what you're going with?

 

It's not that different and edge seems a lot friendlier.  The favorites icon is the exact same setup. 

The hub could use a more descriptive icon, and probably will by RTM.  But it's not just favorites, it's favorites, downloads, reading list, and history.  Which to me is better than chrome's shoving EVERYTHING into the hamburger menu then hiding behind sub menus. At least Edge doesn't have submenus, which I think is a huge step forward. 

It's the friendliest browser UX out there IMO.  Yeah there's not a lot of advanced settings yet but that's ok. 

 

The onenote icon is there no matter what, just fyi, and yes it's a default feature. Why shouldn't it be?  

The only thing I agree with is the legacy share charm, I was hoping they'd have something friendlier by now.   

[Son_Of_Dad]

Is there a reason to use anything other than Chrome? Nope.

 

Not wanting Google tracking everything you do...?