Microsoft Edge Beta (Chromium)

I was an original Edge user for a while, but I switched to Firefox earlier this year when I heard Microsoft was transitioning Edge to Chromium. The Edge beta is pretty far along now, I've been using it about two weeks.
https://www.microsoftedgeinsider.com/en-us/

So far, so good. It seems equivalent in page loading performance coming from Firefox. (Unscientific, just my impression.)

Something I really like about it, which I also liked about the original Edge browser, is the big right-click menus, especially when right-clicking on browser tabs.
Another feature I've always liked about Chromium browsers is the paste as plain text option (Ctrl + Shift + V), which is invaluable to me as, for my work, I just about never want the source formatting to go where I'm pasting something.
The dark mode is also nice, though I find it annoying that when you start the browser, it's white first and then changes to dark. Another minor annoyance is that pressing F6 takes you to the tabs. You have to press it twice to get to the address bar.

I know there [probably] are extensions to add some/all of the functionality I described to Firefox, but I like that they are built into the Edge browser without me needing to do anything.

Charles

 

Same. I wanted to test out the Edge Chromium and got the Dev Build and it was pretty nice.
F6-ing was one of the few issues I disliked too as well as some others that got fixed. One of them is uBlock Origin constantly needing to be "re-paired". For some reason its crashing and I need to re-add it from the Microsoft Extensions site. The UI is pretty nice as well.

 

Does Edge Chromium support Google sync?

 

I'm not sure. I got it syncing with my Microsoft account though, that works fine.

Charles

 

that's a Negative and a big deal breaker for me. You can only login with a Microsoft account.

 

I think people at MDL will find ways to un-earth hidden Google Sync features!

I hope MSFT won't switch Edge with FF in near future if Chrome becomes a resource hog. The biggest feature is enhanced JS debugging feature available Edge Chromium unlike their EdgeHTML engine which felt weak in debugging websites.

 

I don't limit myself to just one or two but I have IE, Edge, Chrome, FF. There are some sites that work better when using another browser like anything web-based from Microsoft is best used in IE or Edge. And torrents work better to download in FF. So one shouldn't limit their options here. Also I have adblockers plugins for all browsers and they work wonders besides my custom hosts adblocker edited file and that helps stop redirects and popup from killing my internet experience. I came from the days you can get to internet and not have ads or popups follow you.

 

Just an FYI, F4 takes you directly to the address bar. That was the same in the old Edge, so I assume MS decided to port it over to Chromium Edge.

 

Ctrl-L also still works

 

Copying FF would never happen. Chrome is the king in terms of market share, Firefox has been in market share decline for years.

Safari and Opera are also both Chromium based now.

 

Safari no way in hell! 95% are Chromium/Chrome now and rest are IE,Edge,FF and Safari.

 

https://gs.statcounter.com/browser-market-share/desktop/worldwide

 

Isn't Opera Chromium based nowadays? I think only IE,Safari and FF will remain.

 

It is, but it doesn't play all that nicely with Play Store extensions.

 

M$ is trying revive Internet Explorer/Edge, the problem with using IE/Edge or even this newer version coming out Kids is M$ entire operating system is focused around its web browser-its not stand a lone program and M$ web browser is connected to everything in Windows if it gets hit by virus,worm, ect your entire operating system crashes. I have never used Google Chrome and wont use it. As too market shares by web browsers several are here today and gone tomorrow. Netscape Navigator is an example Netscape was a virtual monopoly in the 90's and by 2002 was gone with the wind. As too whats the most popular web browser that subject to wide fluctuation and massive over estimation and massive under estimation. Virus programs can report erroneous web browsers to sites asking to ensure privacy,ect. Who checks on the web sites to determine if they are accurate in web browsers downloading a web site to view ? No one does.

 

Upgrading to the new Microsoft Edge
https://blogs.windows.com/msedgedev/2020/01/15/upgrading-new-microsoft-edge-79-chromium/

 

The Microsoft Edge Beta is still getting updates too:

Microsoft Edge is up to date.Version 80.0.361.40 (Official build) beta (64-bit)

VS:

Microsoft Edge is up to date.Version 79.0.309.71 (Official build) (64-bit)

 

I have been testing the new Chromium-based Edge for a few weeks and have no complaints. I would prefer to be able to use a Google account log-in, but the flip side of that is it looks and feels like Chrome and the import of bookmarks and passwords from Chrome was seamless and now everything that has kept me tethered to Chrome/Google is now syncing with my Micro$lop account. I like the idea of not feeling tethered to Chrome/Google. To be clear, I don't like either company, but they suck less than the alternatives. Oh, wait... what alternatives?

I've acclimated to it enough that I have made it my defaut web browser on my crash test dummy Windows 10 installation that has all of the stock Redmond Retard digital cancer enabled.

Agree. I strongly dislike Firefox browser. I think Opera and Vivaldi stink as well. I would stick with Internet Explorer rather than use Firefox, Opera or Vivaldi. A tasteful UI isn't everything, except when I hate the UI and then literally nothing else it has to offer, no matter how great it might be, matters enough to make me be willing to put up with the tacky-looking UI.

 

I'd smack you silly when you said that about Opera

I'm using latest Opera stable version and it works quite well on all my PCs...thank you very much

 

I like the built-in VPN mode, works well when you are stuck on a web site without https... I'm looking at you NBR...

Have you tried the "Gaming Opera", Opera GX?

 

Yes, I agree and it works fine for me, too. I just do not care for the UI. If I do not like the UI, the software "does not pass GO and does not collect $200" with me. The UI is not the only thing that is important to me, but it is the one thing for which I offer zero forgiveness when it does not meet my expectations.

Windows 8.X was DOA for me due to that and Windows 10 is held in extremely low esteem for the same reason, albeit to a slightly less appalling degree. Never mind the fact that both of them suck on top of their butt-ugly UIs. Yes, you can mask or disguise the ugliness to mitigate the projectile vomiting, but you never forget that a monster face is hiding under the surface.

 

Brave deemed most private browser in terms of 'phoning home' Zdnet.com | Today

The new Microsoft Edge and the Yandex Browser deemed the most data greedy.


EDGE AND YANDEX
But the most intrusive phoning-home features were found in the new version of Microsoft Edge and the official Yandex Browser.

According to Prof. Leith, both used unique identifiers that were linked to the device's hardware, rather than the browser installation.

Tracking users by hardware allows Microsoft and Yandex to follow users across installations and potentially link browser installs with other apps and online identities.

The professor said that Edge collected the hardware UUID of the user's computer, an identifier that cannot be easily changed or deleted without altering a computer's hardware.

 

Read the research PDF for more details:
https://www.scss.tcd.ie/Doug.Leith/pubs/browser_privacy.pdf

I've got a lot of Microsoft endpoints blocked already, I'll check the list again and add the ones the report lists. Hopefully the browser will still function. It'll probably fall back to "plan B".

Now that I think about it Edge has 3 stages of Privacy and I have the 3rd or strict set, to not allow any of that info out - I didn't see if the researcher checked that option - he seems to be checking everything at defaults, which is fair, but easily fixed.

I also have several other extensions blocking and filtering (posted earlier) so I'm pretty sure I'm ok as is, but I'll have to set aside some time to make sure.

I've also made a lot of configuration changes from default, including all the "helpful" ones that send info back and forth to Microsoft, all of the things he discusses can be turned off easily - but it's a pain to go through all the levels - with sublevels - of configuration menus', for example this one is hidden several steps down:

" Show me search and site suggestions using my typed characters"
If you turn this off, you’ll only see suggestions from your favorites and history. Typed characters won’t be sent to the search engine used in the address bar."

That's one I have turned off. I guess I could post all of my configuration pages at some point.

I just re-read that line from the browser... " won’t be sent to the search engine used in the address bar", so "duh" search engine defaults to "bing" so it's sending the chars to bing, but I changed mine away from bing, so right there I'm not giving Microsoft correlating data.

Probably get to the big dump of configuration tomorrow at this point, check through your own configuration looking for anything like "use a service to" or like "catch / stop bad downloads", or anything that "helps Microsoft", and perhaps start by setting Privacy to "Strict".

Here's my Edge Extensions and other info until then:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/the-random-video-thread.758474/page-209#post-10993660

 

It's really extremely unfortunate... even tragic... the way literally everything, with super-rare exceptions, in the world of technology is turning out to be pure evil, (or broken garbage,) at its very core. The most respected companies that were once worthy of being regarded as gems that every nerd held in high esteem have become diabolical bastards that look for every opportunity to exploit. Calling it "telemetry" is nonsense. They are no different than hackers and malware authors selling their filth on the dark web other than their intentions are slightly less nefarious, albeit theft on a much grander scale than anything the hackers are capable of imagining in their wildest fantasies. I'm really getting sick of all of this [insert expletive]. This digital excrement is producing a disgusting stench on every platform known to man and the concept should have all of us projectile vomiting. People that are being spastic with fear over the Corona virus really should be a lot more worried about this crap.

 

The most respected companies as etc Microsoft... Do the same as with their OS. Destroy everything they touch!

Bug in Microsoft Chromium-Edge causes black screen
Posted on 2020-03-10

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There seems that Microsoft Chromium Edge has a bug for some time now that suddenly turns the browser window black. The bug does not affect all users and occurs sporadically. Microsoft has already released a fix in newer betas, but it does not solve the problem for all users. But the fix at least brings improvement.

 

I have the same problem with Chrome. It is not isolated to Edge Beta. I have to disable hardware acceleration in settings or the browser window is black. That has been an ongoing issue for me with Chrome and Brave for a while now (all of which are based on Chromium).

 

I haven't seen this. And from the Edge article " There seems that Microsoft Chromium Edge has a bug for some time now that suddenly turns the browser window black. The bug does not affect all users and occurs sporadically"

Probably the same for Chrome and Brave.

 

Yes. I don't know if they have determined what the problem is, but to fix it I disable the GPU (RTX 2080 Ti and my mobile 2060) in Device Manager, go to Chrome settings and move the slider to disable it. Then I re-enable the GPU in Device Manager. It does not happen on Windows 7, only Windows 10. It does it on Windows 10 on my laptop and desktop. Every time Chrome, Brave or Edge Beta receive an update, that slider gets turned on again and I have to re-disable it following the same steps. I think it is GPU driver related, and might affect RTX cards more than those with no ray tracing.