I talk about my own 8 gripes with Microsoft Edge in celebration of its end!
Episode #9-17 released on December 9, 2018
Microsoft Edge was dead on Arrival and now Microsoft has gotten the memo. And, while Microsoft has finally decided to abandon their browser, very few people will be shedding any tears. Microsoft will be moving forward building a new browser using the open source chromium browser, which means they will finally be more compatible with the majority of web-sites on the Internet and this will, also, make it easier to develop web-sites since the standards for every browser, Firefox excluded, are relatively the same.
But rather than talk about why the change is good for everyone, because it truly is, we should probably analyze why Microsoft Edge sucked and was doom for the eternal garbage pile in the cloud.
First, Microsoft Edge was a descent browser, but it had nothing special about it. With so much competition from frankly better browsers with more and better features, why would most people use Microsoft Edge?
Second, Microsoft Edge had reported issues with graphics drivers and this hinders the user experience, which leads to people using better browsers.
Third, web developers don't typically design web-sites for Microsoft Edge. If you are building a web-site considering only the most popular browsers, you are more than likely building for Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. And, for a bonus, building for those browsers means you will, also, be compatible with more practical Browsers like Brave.
Forth, Microsoft Edge can be slow with some connection for some users. Some report constant waiting for responses from web-sites. And, while it is possible for those issues to be related to the web server, it is, also, possible that Microsoft Edge had issues related to connectivity, too.
Fifth, nobody likes to be told to use a browser, or be told that it is better when we all know that this was simply not true. This meant that every single time Microsoft tried to force a user to use Edge, either through suggestions or settings resetting in Windows, they alienated the users instead of gaining loyal users. And, yes, while Microsoft makes the operating system and browser, no other browser developer makes such claims and thus does not alienate their user base.
Sixth, Microsoft is fighting an uphill battle against other browsers and we are referring to the fact that it wasn't that long ago that Microsoft was still supporting legacy browsers which prevented many web-sites from being able to be cross-browser compatible. In some cases, including myself, we simply didn't bother coding for their former browsers, and with the advent of Microsoft Edge, we still didn't build for it, anyway.
Seventh, debugging code in Microsoft Edge is a pain in the arse. Most browsers have a better developer console that makes debugging easier to do. Edge seriously lacks functionality in this department. If you are wondering what I am referring to and you are on a desktop computer, click F12 in most browsers. I, personally, love the developer console for Google Chrome, and this is one of the most popular browsers used currently by people across the Internet.
Eighth, the settings menu is terrible. Sure, it loads from the right, but it looks like trash, and it could have been made to look better and less confusing for people.
And, I am sure there are many other gripes with this Browser, but at this point we get the point, and we are happy with Microsoft's decision to switch over to Chromium, this will be the single best decision for the browser since its inception.
Host : Steve Smith | Music : | Editor : Steve Smith | Producer : Zed Axis Dot Net