Microsoft Edge Performance Evaluated

An anonymous reader writes: Now that Windows 10 is close to launch, Anandtech has put Microsoft's new browser, Edge, through a series of tests to see how it stacks up against other browsers. Edge has shown significant improvements since January. It handily beats Chrome and Firefox in Google's Octane 2.0 benchmark, and it managed the best score on the Sunspider benchmark as well. But Chrome and Firefox both still beat Edge in other tests, by small margins in the Kraken 1.1 and HTML5Test benchmarks, and larger ones in WebXPRT and Oort Online. The article says, "It is great to see Microsoft focusing on browser performance again, and especially not sitting idle since January, since the competition in this space has not been idle either."

Comments

Ad blocking?

[Mark4ST]

I wonder how easy it will be to block ads with Edge, and prevent tracking users. If I can't do that, I can't use Edge. The internet is no place for advertising.

Re:Ad blocking?

[Ol Olsoc]

Enjoy your paywalls!

that would please me to no end. Dunno why people use that as a threat.

Sure beat the bejabbers out of a few dozen scripts and trackers on every page. And even better, if a website's content is shit, they'll be out of business soon enough.

Re:Ad blocking?

[Sowelu]

Wouldn't that be more intrusive, though? If every page was paywalled or subscription-based...like, every page...then you're going to be on-file as paying a whole bunch of people. Even if micropayments actually become a thing again, you're going to have a service with a list of every site that you not only patronize, but that you like enough to pay for.

God, imagine the damage it would do if someone hacked and published a record of _that_.

Seems pretty dangerous to people in repressive regimes, too, since subscribing to any kind of opposition news is basically funding a political enemy, more directly than just loading ads on a page.

Re:Ad blocking?

[Kjella]

Even if micropayments actually become a thing again, you're going to have a service with a list of every site that you not only patronize, but that you like enough to pay for. God, imagine the damage it would do if someone hacked and published a record of _that_.

This is actually a pretty creepy possibility already on fairly "generic" sites, it's one thing that people know you read a newspaper. With a subscription though they could list exactly what articles you bothered to read and which you didn't.

Re:Ad blocking?

[westlake]

The internet is no place for advertising.

I take it then that you are a subscriber to Slashdot --- and to every other site that you visit on a regular basis.

Re:Ad blocking?

[Mashiki]

Enjoy your paywalls!

How about this? Companies properly vet ads, and ensure they don't contain malware. And I'll turn off my ad-blocker, and we'll both be happy. But we already know that the companies don't want to vet ads in the first place.

On top of that we already know that sites that go paywall fail miserably. Only when you have unique content can a paywall stand, this is doubly true in today's "every site has exactly the same news, because our reporters don't report they simply recycle wire stories."

Re:Ad blocking?

[cbhacking]

Good question. IE has had ad-blocking and tracking protection (same feature, Tracking Protection Lists just can also be used to block ads) for a few versions now, and I think there's actually a legit AdBlock Plus extension for IE (haven't tried it). On the other hand, Edge is supposed to be super-minimalist, and I'm not sure if it'll support any kind of browser add-in (at least, initially). Tracking Protection and TPLs like IE9-11 have had is harder to say (I haven't tried it yet).

Worst case you can always use a HOSTS file, but of course you can also just use a non-Microsoft browser.

Re:Ad blocking?

[hairyfeet]

Most of us have no problems with ads IF they went back to being as they were back in the day which if why I have no problem with Adblock's "acceptable ads" because its pretty much how it was back before ads became giant tracking flash ridden malware. As long as its 1.- Limited to text and jpeg, 2.- Links are clearly labeled, 3.- NO tracking 4.- NO sound blasting, and 5.- NO malware carrying flash and java.

There is a reason the Internet existed for so many years without ad blockers, its because the ads used to not be giant intrusive bandwidth sucking malware vectors, if it was to go back to that again? I have a feeling many here would soon find little reason to block ads. The websites brought it upon themselves when they brought in the third party ad companies and started letting them shit their malware and trackers all over the page. if you care so little for your viewers that you would risk their PCs, why should they give a piss about you?

Re:Too late?

[Sowelu]

Maybe we don't want to go back, but we sure don't want to stay here either. Google used to be a knight in shining armor, not so much these days. Their market share is big enough that they can get away with almost anything they want--so, put them up against competition again, and see if 'being the good guys' turns back into a desirable market strategy.

Yeah I'm not getting my hopes up either.

Re:Is Edge going to be portable to non Windows?

[Sponge Bath]

Everyone running Windows 9 should be fine though.

Re:Does it really matter any more?

[FranTaylor]

With today's crappy browsers, the biggest factor in page loading is that the browser doesn't crash trying to render it.

Re:Error in the summary

[Actually, I do RTFA]

According to the people at MS, they regularly test the most popular 500-1000 sites. You have to optimize for something, after all.

They also focus on standards compliance.

Re:Is Edge going to be portable to non Windows?

[spire3661]

Come on. IF you look at my post history you can see i have been slamming MS for 15 years and even I think they are turning the ship. OneDrive, Office and Cortana on Android would have been unthinkable for MS 10 years ago.

Re:Too late?

[Dutch Gun]

Google used to be a knight in shining armor, not so much these days.

Google was NEVER a knight in shining armor. The only thing that changed was that they got caught pulling the same sort of shit just about every other corporation on the planet does, and now very few people believe that "don't be evil" nonsense. You got it almost correct - it was a "marketing strategy", not a "market strategy", and it was brilliantly done.

Giant corporations are like nuclear power plants. Their production capacity is pretty much unmatched, but you also have to take great care to ensure they don't run wild, and there's always some nasty by-products in exchange for that productivity.

Re:Is Edge going to be portable to non Windows?

[spire3661]

Yesterday i converted a pdf to Word Online (free), uploaded it to Google Docs (free). I then saved it on Dropbox (2GB free), One Drive(15 GB free) Gdrive (15 GB free) and my personal NAS running linux (cost of hardware). Please explain where you see lock-in anywhere in this chain when my data moves freely among these disparate entities. I dont think you understand what 'lock-in' has meant historically.

Re: Is Edge going to be portable to non Windows?

[Dashiva Dan]

If you think the esoteric procedures described by the GP are too difficult, then perhaps you're on the wrong forum.
And before you say "but the rest of the world..." stop. Aside for that most people wouldn't bother with that level of redundancy, short of the linux NAS (which you can buy in most large computer stores ready to go - plug and play, so to speak) even my grandmother could figure out how to import a pdf to word online, and store it to as many cloud storage accounts as are bothered to sign up for. This is 2015. That stuff was complex and involved and required a lot of tech-savvy in the 90's, when you had to string your solution together yourself with bash scripts and cronjobs, etc, but we're talking about polished consumer-grade software here that pretty much anyone with a couple of brain cells to rub together can figure out how to use the basics of.

Re:Error in the summary

[GigaplexNZ]

It may benchmark well, but it just feels so damn slow. The UI is often unresponsive when I try to scroll after initially loading a page, and any time something uses flash (usually ads), the UI hangs long enough that I get a brief "not responding" notification.