6 ms·

Edge beats Firefox to become second most popular browser

31 points by me551ah 7y ago

Barrin92 7y ago
I have to say I wouldn't have thought it but I really like Microsoft's take on Chromium. It seems at least for some reason faster and more responsive than Chrome although it's built on pretty much the same base. The "reader view" is quite nice and the text to speech feature is great, the quality is really good. It also seems to be getting vertical tabs pretty soon. For now I'm only using it on windows though, it'd be great if there was a linux version at some point.
stevavoliajvar 7y ago
:(
fenwick67 7y ago
As expected, we're approaching a web browser monoculture. When you have an open platform where only one company controls it, it fails to be open any more. I'm sincerely worried about an ad company controlling the largest source of information on Earth.
- Craighead 7y ago
  Chromium is controlled by more than two companies, in fact, its open source, so I'm not sure of the relevance of your rant.
- __s 7y ago
  Today I was setting up a spreadsheet in google sheets using Firefox. When I would hit backspace while editing formulas, it'd occasionally but frequently reinsert the deleted character half a second later
- mardifoufs 7y ago
  I'm not too worried to be honest. IE almost completely dominating the market didn't prevent it from being completely overtaken by newer, better tech. And this time with Chrome being open source it would be even easier for a competitor to emerge if chromium becomes the new IE. if it doesn't and it stays better than the competition, what's the problem? The better product dominating the market makes sense. You don't even have to ever touch a google service to use chromium
- beefbroccoli 7y ago
  It's not a browser monoculture, it's a browser-engine monoculture. I for one welcome our new overlords. I think it's great to have diversity in a browsers; one browser might focus on being light weight, while another might have a new spin on the UI. But I do NOT want diversity in how different browsers render a table.
  - kitsunesoba 7y ago
    Problem is, there are limits to how different browsers using the same engine can be, especially when it comes to matters like efficiency. At some point you’re going to have to start modifying the engine and eventually, fork it due to divergence becoming unmanageable — this is why Blink was spun out of WebKit.
  - fgonzag 7y ago
    You must have missed the 90s. When a single vendor mandated every new technology in the browser space. ActiveX and other pleasantries came out of those times.
    - beefbroccoli 7y ago
      I remember the 90's. It was the era of "Best viewed in X version Y".
- qazqwert 7y ago
  first of all start using AdNauseam
WorldPeas 7y ago
I'm a firefox user myself, and am slightly angered by this news, but at the same time, the good news is that because most of these users are upgrading their copy of windows, which means fewer people using IE11! The death of IE11 can't come soon enough, at least there's a silver lining to this cloud.
- djdeusudufy 7y ago
  Firefox had been a bad browser for years, the only people I ever meet who use it heavily are tech enthusiasts and privacy activists. If nobody is choosing your browser for practical reasons then you've failed to make a useful browser but pointing this out only ever results in jeering and being told some token line like "Compromise means the erosion of privacy!". This is what that philosophy gets you and down the line I expect the real situation will be Firefox in 4th since Brave has been gaining momentum too.
  - abdullahkhalids 7y ago
    Edge, IE and Safari have their shares because they are the default already installed browser on the main OSes, used either because people like them or are too technically illiterate to install a potentially better browser. Chrome has a huge share because it is heavily advertised on some of the most used websites in the world. The others like Firefox, Brave, etc have almost zero advertising budget and rely on word of mouth and third party kindness to be known. The fact that millions to hundreds of millions of people use them, despite knowing the alternatives, is testament to how good they are. 55% of traditional PCs have Windows 10 on them [1], yet Edge only has a 7% share of the browser market specifies how good Edge is. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_10#Market_share_and_sales https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_10#Market_share_and_sa...
  - paulryanrogers 7y ago
    > If nobody is choosing your browser for practical reasons... Is that really the case or is it marketing and network effects. For a time IE had a majority share and it took a while for superior browsers to overcome that. There is also marginal utility in switching as all browsers converge on the same set of user-visible capabilities.
hereisdx 7y ago
:(
pjbk 7y ago
It is also very responsive in Android. I use FF in the desktop but in my phone and tablets it is practically unusable. Switched to Edge there a couple of years ago and it was a smooth transition and has some good configuration options, like blocking ads.
jrnichols 7y ago
Maybe it was in the article and I missed it, but has Edge started to eat into Google Chrome's marketshare at all? Or Safari's? (Yes, I know, Safari's marketshare is less than 4%, but it's been consistent.)
techslave 7y ago
why are folks sad about this? Edge is great. It doesn’t make firefox any less great.
peschu 7y ago
really strange how fast people forget what kind of company microsoft is... so: F*CK MS! Viva la revolucion!! (somebody has to say it) :) Everyone is talking about compliance and risk management and all that blabla, but the most obvious and highest risk (and btw not compliant to GDPR) of a quasi monopolist (with closed source), is not being taken into account...
qazqwert 7y ago
wtf?!

31 points by me551ah 7y ago

I have to say I wouldn't have thought it but I really like Microsoft's take on Chromium. It seems at least for some reason faster and more responsive than Chrome although it's built on pretty much the same base. The "reader view" is quite nice and the text to speech feature is great, the quality is really good. It also seems to be getting vertical tabs pretty soon. For now I'm only using it on windows though, it'd be great if there was a linux version at some point.

stevavoliajvar 7y ago

fenwick67 7y ago

As expected, we're approaching a web browser monoculture. When you have an open platform where only one company controls it, it fails to be open any more. I'm sincerely worried about an ad company controlling the largest source of information on Earth.

Craighead 7y ago
Chromium is controlled by more than two companies, in fact, its open source, so I'm not sure of the relevance of your rant.
__s 7y ago
Today I was setting up a spreadsheet in google sheets using Firefox. When I would hit backspace while editing formulas, it'd occasionally but frequently reinsert the deleted character half a second later
mardifoufs 7y ago
I'm not too worried to be honest. IE almost completely dominating the market didn't prevent it from being completely overtaken by newer, better tech. And this time with Chrome being open source it would be even easier for a competitor to emerge if chromium becomes the new IE. if it doesn't and it stays better than the competition, what's the problem? The better product dominating the market makes sense. You don't even have to ever touch a google service to use chromium
beefbroccoli 7y ago
It's not a browser monoculture, it's a browser-engine monoculture. I for one welcome our new overlords. I think it's great to have diversity in a browsers; one browser might focus on being light weight, while another might have a new spin on the UI. But I do NOT want diversity in how different browsers render a table.
- kitsunesoba 7y ago
  Problem is, there are limits to how different browsers using the same engine can be, especially when it comes to matters like efficiency. At some point you’re going to have to start modifying the engine and eventually, fork it due to divergence becoming unmanageable — this is why Blink was spun out of WebKit.
- fgonzag 7y ago
  You must have missed the 90s. When a single vendor mandated every new technology in the browser space. ActiveX and other pleasantries came out of those times.
  - beefbroccoli 7y ago
    I remember the 90's. It was the era of "Best viewed in X version Y".
qazqwert 7y ago
first of all start using AdNauseam

WorldPeas 7y ago

I'm a firefox user myself, and am slightly angered by this news, but at the same time, the good news is that because most of these users are upgrading their copy of windows, which means fewer people using IE11! The death of IE11 can't come soon enough, at least there's a silver lining to this cloud.

djdeusudufy 7y ago
Firefox had been a bad browser for years, the only people I ever meet who use it heavily are tech enthusiasts and privacy activists. If nobody is choosing your browser for practical reasons then you've failed to make a useful browser but pointing this out only ever results in jeering and being told some token line like "Compromise means the erosion of privacy!". This is what that philosophy gets you and down the line I expect the real situation will be Firefox in 4th since Brave has been gaining momentum too.
- abdullahkhalids 7y ago
  Edge, IE and Safari have their shares because they are the default already installed browser on the main OSes, used either because people like them or are too technically illiterate to install a potentially better browser. Chrome has a huge share because it is heavily advertised on some of the most used websites in the world. The others like Firefox, Brave, etc have almost zero advertising budget and rely on word of mouth and third party kindness to be known. The fact that millions to hundreds of millions of people use them, despite knowing the alternatives, is testament to how good they are. 55% of traditional PCs have Windows 10 on them [1], yet Edge only has a 7% share of the browser market specifies how good Edge is. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_10#Market_share_and_sales https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_10#Market_share_and_sa...
- paulryanrogers 7y ago
  > If nobody is choosing your browser for practical reasons... Is that really the case or is it marketing and network effects. For a time IE had a majority share and it took a while for superior browsers to overcome that. There is also marginal utility in switching as all browsers converge on the same set of user-visible capabilities.

hereisdx 7y ago

pjbk 7y ago

It is also very responsive in Android. I use FF in the desktop but in my phone and tablets it is practically unusable. Switched to Edge there a couple of years ago and it was a smooth transition and has some good configuration options, like blocking ads.

jrnichols 7y ago

Maybe it was in the article and I missed it, but has Edge started to eat into Google Chrome's marketshare at all? Or Safari's? (Yes, I know, Safari's marketshare is less than 4%, but it's been consistent.)

techslave 7y ago

why are folks sad about this? Edge is great. It doesn’t make firefox any less great.

peschu 7y ago

really strange how fast people forget what kind of company microsoft is... so: F*CK MS! Viva la revolucion!! (somebody has to say it) :) Everyone is talking about compliance and risk management and all that blabla, but the most obvious and highest risk (and btw not compliant to GDPR) of a quasi monopolist (with closed source), is not being taken into account...

qazqwert 7y ago

wtf?!