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Microsoft Reproduces Google's Battery Life Test To Show Edge Beats Chrome (venturebeat.com)

Earlier this year, Microsoft said that its Edge browser was more power efficient than Google's Chrome, a claim that Google refuted with its own findings. But the debate isn't over. An anonymous reader writes: Microsoft is at it again -- touting Edge as the most battery-efficient browser on Windows 10. The company has rerun its battery tests from the previous quarter using the latest versions of the major browsers, open-sourced its lab test on GitHub, and published the full methodology. But this time, Microsoft says it also replicated one of Google's tests to show that Edge lasts longer than Chrome, Firefox, and Opera.

74 of 132 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Sure by neoritter · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Or instead of resorting to logical fallacies you could look at the published information to determine if they are right. You know, by reading the released methodology and looking at the published lab test code.

  2. Well, yeah by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Hum... so the browser with the most limited set of features requires less power... go figure..

  3. Re:Sure by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Informative

    A test specified, run and controlled by a party with a huge vested interested. And one that has been convicted for criminal behavior twice. Yep, that inspires confidence.

    While I share your concern when it comes to Microsoft, the test has been Open Sourced. Please point at the bad part. Explain also why you trust Google.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  4. Edge by dontbemad · · Score: 5, Informative

    Say what you will about M$FT or IE or whatever, but Edge is surprisingly fast and efficient.

    I bought a tiny $80 Windows 10 tablet with around 2gb of ram and a minuscule atom processor, and Chrome will choke at just about everything (especially gmail). Edge opens quickly, browses quickly, and utilizes very little memory.

    Not shilling for Edge or Microsoft by any means, but for what its worth, they definitely improved their web browser pretty substantially.

    1. Re:Edge by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Not shilling for Edge or Microsoft by any means

      For some reason I'm reminded of a funny cartoon of a polar bear sitting among a bunch of penguins wearing a fake beak.

    2. Re:Edge by SQLGuru · · Score: 2

      Edge now has extensions (https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/extensions/). It's just a matter of NoScript providing the extension. [Ad-Block is there, but it'll be less useful very soon.]

    3. Re:Edge by samwichse · · Score: 1

      Weird, my wife's similarly-specced Chromebook browses quickly and utilizes very little memory.

    4. Re:Edge by jwdb · · Score: 1

      My similarly-specced Chromebook doesn't, unfortunately. If I leave a tab with gmail open for a week (because who reboots a Chromebook?), just that tab consumes almost half the RAM and slows the thing to a crawl. I semi-regularly have to open the task manager and close any tabs using more than 400 MB.

      It didn't use to, so either Chrome has become more bloated or gmail has. Considering it's not just gmail, however, I'd guess the former.

    5. Re:Edge by Curate · · Score: 2
      Ad-Block is there, but it'll be less useful very soon

      Argh!! I just installed it. Why will it be less useful soon?

    6. Re:Edge by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      Not shilling for Edge or Microsoft by any means, but for what its worth, they definitely improved their web browser pretty substantially.

      If I stripped out my car's seats, dash, windows, metal panels on the rear, all the lining, removed the spare tire, speakers, and everything else that wasn't required for steering or pressing on the gas it would run faster and more efficiently too.

      That doesn't make it an improved car.

      I'll be more impressed if I could get Edge to actually work using much of the internet. I don't give a crap about it's battery life.

    7. Re:Edge by The_Revelation · · Score: 1

      Sure, but if you want to use it to view actual web sites you'll often find yourself out of luck. Its unfortunate that websites that require Internet Explorer won't work with Edge. Thats a real problem, but then there are many other sites I require daily as part of business that allow any browser, yet still don't work with Edge. Things like iDrac, or managing vSphere environments. Edge is so poor at compatibility and rendering pages, that its simply a liability. I don't have time to enter my details into every web site twice because I stupidly starting filling out the form with Edge before realizing it doesn't render any of the submit buttons! In short, MS should perhaps spend less time extending the battery life when using Edge and concentrate a little bit more on making their browser work with web pages, which is actually its central function.

    8. Re:Edge by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      They take money to show you ads. UBlock Origin is better anyway.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    9. Re:Edge by tkrotchko · · Score: 1

      There are currently a total of 13 extensions available

      --
      You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you
    10. Re:Edge by jwdb · · Score: 1

      Then please enlighten us.

      I'm not sure if it's swapping or what, but too many tabs open for too long causes this Chromebook to slow to a crawl, only fixed by closing the largest memory hogs.

    11. Re:Edge by dontbemad · · Score: 1

      I'll be more impressed if I could get Edge to actually work using much of the internet. I don't give a crap about it's battery life.

      I'm interested to know what specific parts of the internet you are referring to. Granted, I haven't used the browser for terribly much (in case I didn't make it clear in my original post, my browser of choice is still Chrome), but I haven't noticed anything not functioning as intended.

    12. Re:Edge by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      Interestingly most of the internet which used to require IE7. Everything from government websites to sites which were optimised for webkit specifically of which there are plenty. The top 10 obviously play well, but beyond that every attempt to actually use edge just resulted in a pissed off user switching it out for Chrome, even on my laptop, even several version back when Chrome was an even larger CPU hog than it is now.

    13. Re:Edge by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      It is a configuration checkbox. If you care so much why not just uncheck the box?

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
  5. Duh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Of course it has better battery life, it has no features and doesn't work with many sites.

  6. Re:Who cares? by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1, Interesting

    SUPPOSEDLY, this one is supposed to be web standards compliant. I'll believe that when I have to start supporting it and I don't have to fiddle with css to get it to look right.

    --
    "That's the way to do it" - Punch
  7. Pointless by MBGMorden · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Battery life isn't the be all and end all browser test. For me - on mutliple systems - Edge just stalls and stops randomly at the most annoying times - even if I've only got 2 or 3 tabs open. Chrome pretty much never does this.

    What good is extra battery life if I spend 20-50% more time in the browser waiting on it to do something?

    --
    "People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
    1. Re:Pointless by chispito · · Score: 1

      Battery life isn't the be all and end all browser test. For me - on mutliple systems - Edge just stalls and stops randomly at the most annoying times - even if I've only got 2 or 3 tabs open. Chrome pretty much never does this.

      What good is extra battery life if I spend 20-50% more time in the browser waiting on it to do something?

      I don't like Edge a whole lot, but recently Vimeo has decided to crash in Chrome on but not in Edge. So for some training I've been doing, I've been running it in Edge. I use Chrome for everything else.

      --
      The Daddy casts sleep on the Baby. The Baby resists!
  8. So Edge is the best browser on Windows 10 by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Funny

    Great. It's a bit like being the top dog in the dump.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  9. The Microsoft Problem Is Never Performance by alternative_right · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Microsoft products generally perform well under the hood. The problem is the other stuff. The interface shows the signs of design by committee, and applications are configured in such a way as to manipulate us into using other Microsoft products and services. That is what we hate, because both of these interrupt the process of work, and replace it with the process of working-around-Microsoft.

    1. Re:The Microsoft Problem Is Never Performance by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Also how secure is Edge? That will be the real test.

    2. Re:The Microsoft Problem Is Never Performance by zapadnik · · Score: 2

      I don't know if "performing well under the hood" includes programming to the Microsoft APIs, but I find the Microsoft APIs to be hideous (after suffering connecting to them for 20 years). Even when they went to dotNet they couldn't resist stinking the interfaces up with pseudo-Hungarian notation on their interfaces. Yukk. I'm sure many Slashdotters who have never worked with cleaner designs will FEEL that Microsoft has the be-all and end-all of API design. I beg to differ, and I know I'm not alone.

      Personally, I find Microsoft's ecosystem vastly less reliable than alternatives. The one area they are still ahead is graphic drivers. But in the browser space Edge is still not a pleasant experience with stutters and trying to convince me to use Bing and other Microsoft junk I don't want.

  10. Re:Who cares? by MightyMartian · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Battery life is at best a distant second in my books on browser performance. Edge just isn't very good. I've tried a couple of times to use it, but it's like some really awkward late alpha early beta project. It's also easily broken, which is why we basically abandoned in at my office.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  11. Adblock by 110010001000 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Unless your browser supports some kind of adblocking it is going to lose a battery life test.

    1. Re:Adblock by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative
  12. Chrome has made a giant leap. Bravo! by lophophore · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I say "bravo!" for the Chrome team. Their results are significantly better than the prior test.

    in the last test, Edge lasted 70% longer than Chrome. see https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    in this test, four months later, the laptop with Edge lasted only 11% longer than Chrome. If I were the Edge team, I'd be watching my back and not crowing so loudly.

    Note that they only tested on Windows 10, because Edge only runs on Windows 10.

    --
    there are 3 kinds of people:
    * those who can count
    * those who can't
    1. Re:Chrome has made a giant leap. Bravo! by chispito · · Score: 1

      If I were the Edge team, I'd be watching my back and not crowing so loudly.

      If I were the Edge team, I'd focus on general improvements to my browser and leave extremely marginal performance increases for later. A few more UI options, a few more options under the hood. Last time I tried you couldn't allow pop up exceptions. I suppose they're trying to be Apple and force people to write better websites. In the Enterprise, though, you have to deal with a range of crummy nonstandard sites and software.

      --
      The Daddy casts sleep on the Baby. The Baby resists!
  13. Re:Sure by JoeMerchant · · Score: 1

    Isn't the whole thing missing the point?

    I mean, really, when's the last time you were concerned about which browser to use because you only had 6 hours of battery left if you used Chrome to surf, instead of 7 if you used Edge? And, if you're on battery for that long, odds are you're binge-watching a series on Netflix while camping or something, and you will be far more concerned with the battery performance of your wireless connection and the video rendering engine, rather than the browser.

    Far far more important than differences in browser energy consumption is the performance of your battery manager and whether or not your laptop battery is performing like new, bricked like so many get after a couple of years, or bulging out and threatening to catch fire like it's a 2006 MacBookPro.

  14. Don't care, won't use it by nine-times · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I honestly don't care what Microsoft can show regarding Edge. I'm not going to use it.

    First, because Chrome has a track record of complying with standards. Microsoft IE does not. Chrome has become the de facto standard at this point. Most developers that I've talked to in the past couple of years have prioritized testing on Chrome. If you want your website to work, use Chrome. (there's some nice irony here) Second, when they had the dominant browser, it was a disaster. I'm not looking to return to those days. In fact, Microsoft has shown a patter of screwing their partners and their customers, and I have no interest in providing them with any more influence or power than I'm forced to. Also, Chrome has a community of developers making various extensions. I don't use a lot of extensions, but if you're making your decision based on functionality, Chrome is probably the best choice. Finally, I can log into Chrome with my gmail account, and my settings and extensions sync to whatever device I use. Whether I'm using a Mac, Windows 7 machine, Windows 10 machine, Chromebook, Android phone, or iPad, I sign in with my gmail account, and I get all my stuff set up automatically.

    Microsoft should just admit defeat, and stop trying to make their own browser. Create a metro-themed fork of Chrome if you have to, but stop trying to make Edge happen. It's not going to happen.

    1. Re:Don't care, won't use it by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 2

      First, because Chrome has a track record of complying with standards. Microsoft IE does not

      Edge is a completely standards complaint browser, written from scratch. In fact, it technically is more compliant than Chrome. (The delta is in edge cases no one cares about.)

      Chrome has become the de facto standard at this point

      It depends on your audience. If you want an executive at a Fortune 500 company to read your site (from the office), it will work in IE and Firefox, then you test Edge, then Chrome if you have time (spoiler, you don't).

      Microsoft has shown a patter of screwing their partners and their customers, and I have no interest in providing them with any more influence or power than I'm forced to.

      While I agree with you, I feel the same about Google. Actually, I think Google has been worse. Microsoft will support the framework you built on forever. Google kills projects and leaves devs high and dry. Google spies on me. Microsoft just wanted my money (pre-Windows 10, I don't know who's winning on this dimension anymore.)

      In any case, the fact that I want neither one of those two to win means I want whoever is doing worse to pick up steam.

      Chrome has a community of developers making various extensions

      So does Edge. I think they're paying developers to port them over? Anyway, you can get some important ones (ad blockers, etc.) so that's good.

      Finally, I can log into Chrome with my gmail account, and my settings and extensions sync to whatever device I use.

      One man's killer feature is another's feature that kills interest. I like my data on my machine.

      Although the really reason I won't use Chrome is it seems to use tons of memory and crash all the time. And it's really hard to control JS on a page/source level.

      --
      Your ad here. Ask me how!
    2. Re:Don't care, won't use it by nine-times · · Score: 1

      Actually, I think Google has been worse.

      Ha... no. Sorry. I can't agree with that.

      Microsoft will support the framework you built on forever. Google kills projects and leaves devs high and dry.

      Whether that's good or not depends at least a little bit on perspective. If you expect Microsoft to continue supporting 20 year-old frameworks, I think you'd better brace yourself. I think a lot of the push to force Windows 10 down everyone's throats was to lessen the end-user impact when they start obsoleting a bunch of old stuff that they're not going to support anymore.

      Google spies on me. Microsoft just wanted my money.

      Oh, I wish that were true. Microsoft is spying on you too. What, you think they don't keep track of what you're searching for on Bing? You think they're not pulling usage data from Windows? We can argue about who's worse, or who has more noble motivations, but they're both "spying on you". At least Google isn't using crappy DRM/Activation schemes to control how you use their products.

      So does Edge. I think they're paying developers to port them over?

      Yeah, that's a good sign. Anyway, like I said, I don't really care. I won't use it.

      Although the really reason I won't use Chrome is it seems to use tons of memory and crash all the time.

      I don't know what scary sites you're visiting. With years of daily usage on multiple platforms, I can't remember Chrome crashing. It's certainly not an unstable application.

    3. Re:Don't care, won't use it by oji-sama · · Score: 1

      Chrome has become the de facto standard at this point.

      This has been a bit of a problem for a while. Web pages have been popping up which state that the page has been designed to work with Chrome. As a Firefox user this reminds me a lot of the "Please use Internet Explorer x" pages of the horrendous past.

      Welcome to the new old web.

      --
      It is what it is.
  15. Does Edge do tab isolation? by Solandri · · Score: 1

    One of the reasons Chrome uses more power (and more memory) is because it forks a separate process for each tab you have open. That is, each tab is a separate complete instance of Chrome running in its own memory. This makes it tougher for a browser exploit on one site to access memory info on another site you have open in another tab. And it means if one site freezes or crashes, it doesn't take down all the other tabs you have open. It also dramatically increases the memory footprint and power consumption. (This is also the reason I switched from Firefox to Chrome - I got tired of losing my other tabs when one tab hug or crashed.)

    Does Edge offer the same protection? Or are we comparing apples to oranges?

    1. Re:Does Edge do tab isolation? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Microsoft has done the same since IE 8. FireFox is the only "major" browser that considered threaded browsing too difficult to implement.

    2. Re:Does Edge do tab isolation? by ChunderDownunder · · Score: 1

      Firefox was in last place on these tests, but it's not clear if they used an electrolysis enabled build.
      Servo + browser.html might get them back in the game.

    3. Re:Does Edge do tab isolation? by samwichse · · Score: 1

      I use Firefox on Android.

      It is a Crap browser with a capital "C" there. Inferior to Chrome in every way but one: you can install plugins.

      uBlock Origin on Android? Yes, please.

      I know, I know, I should root and install a system-wide blocker... but rooting is a hassle :-/

    4. Re:Does Edge do tab isolation? by TangoMargarine · · Score: 1

      Inferior to Chrome in every way but one

      How about you name any of them? I've been using Firefox on Android without any problems other than the somewhat unexpected conditions under which your browsing session isn't remembered.

      Yay anecdata!

      --
      Unity? Screw that: XFCE. Slashdot Beta? Screw that: SoylentNews. Australis? Screw that: Pale Moon. UX developers DIAF
    5. Re:Does Edge do tab isolation? by dunkelfalke · · Score: 1

      It is very very slow. If I close a tab that had a few videos running, it can take up to 20 seconds until firefox actually acknowledges that the tab is closed and until it happens, other tabs won't load anything at all. It is a memory hog so on a phone with "just" 2 gigs of RAM (Galaxy S5) I get a lot of force closes. It works somewhat better on Sony phones because their premium line of phones and tablets has 3 gigs of RAM. Reflow doesn't work and hasn't for two years or so. It uses its own copy&paste routines that look and behave differently from the Android stock and are quite buggy. I actually have a lot more complaints, but why bother? As long as no other browser provides the extensions I need, I'll have to stay with Firefox on Android.

      --
      "It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
    6. Re:Does Edge do tab isolation? by samwichse · · Score: 1

      You pretty much describe my Android FF performance experience in one shot.

      It also gets into some kind of javascript loop a lot where it will stop responding.

      And of course there's the dreaded blurry scrolldown thing. Something with the way it caches the rendered page, you scroll down and everything is blurry and you have to sit there and wait 5-20 seconds for it to suddenly render it properly.

      I also have a "low" 2 gigs of RAM (Nexus 5).

      Oh, and my favorite pet peeve: in the tab list if you close the bottom-most tab, the "undo" popup covers the close button on the next tab if the title is under a certain length. So when I close two related tabs, I find myself closing then reopening the last tab I just closed with annoying regularity. Possibly one of the dumbest UI choices I've ever seen.

  16. Good by ndogg · · Score: 1

    Let's hope the Chrome team makes some improvements to turn this around.

    That's really how all this should go.

    --
    // file: mice.h
    #include "frickin_lasers.h"
  17. Re:Sure by SilentTristero · · Score: 3, Informative

    Isn't the whole thing missing the point?

    I mean, really, when's the last time you were concerned about which browser to use because you only had 6 hours of battery left if you used Chrome to surf, instead of 7 if you used Edge?

    Um, no. In previous Chrome builds (<53) it would spin laptop fans endlessly even when nothing was going on and use at least 50% CPU, at close to max freq. Battery life was significantly worsened just by having Chrome open. So when was the last time I was concerned about battery life due to which browser? A couple of months ago it was a real problem. Now they're close enough that Chrome is usable, because it's so much better as a browser and only a little worse on the battery.

  18. Re:Sure by OneHundredAndTen · · Score: 2

    Explain also why you trust Google.

    Who says I do? All other things being equal, I never trust any company when it claims that its junk is much better than the competitor's. This is about a particularly despicable company, not about another not yet quite as particularly despicable.

  19. Re:Who cares? by darkain · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Actually YES. It is called "Market Competition", ya'know, that thing we bitch about lacking in the ISP industry? With there being Webkit, Blink, Gecko, and Trident all competing for top dog right now, us, the users all win. Each of the engines are trying to be the fastest, most accurate and complete HTML5/CSS3 representation, and now the longest battery life for mobile devices. So while *YOU* may not use Edge/Trident, Microsoft is still forcing Google, Opera and others to up their game in specific benchmarks that do matter to quite a few users. So yes, in the end we all win, and should care about the competition between these products.

  20. Microsoft Edge’s industry-leading efficiency by khz6955 · · Score: 2

    Microsoft tweaks the OS to give the impression Edge uses the battery more efficiently and this gets translated into industry-leading efficiency? A better test would be to compare browsers on another Operating System.

    Microsoft Edge now gets even more out of your battery

  21. Edge is a bad browser by Arkham · · Score: 1
    Do people thing that battery efficiency is the primary factor in picking a browser? I've honestly never, ever heard anyone in the real world suggest that.

    Edge is kludgy to use. It doesn't share bookmarks with my Mac or my iPad or my Android Phone. The "extension" story is all but nonexistent (there appear to be a total of 13 of them). In return, what does it offer? Performance is about the same, and battery might be a little better according to the benchmarks.

    When I am on my Windows 10 gaming machine, I use Chrome exclusively. I don't trust Google at all anymore, but at least I used to. Microsoft has never been worthy of trust.

    --
    - Vincit qui patitur.
    1. Re:Edge is a bad browser by MightyMartian · · Score: 1

      The interface, such as it is, is also pretty non-intuitive. It really isn't a terribly good browser, regardless of how well it might perform on power savings.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    2. Re:Edge is a bad browser by Malc · · Score: 1

      Battery is one of the major reasons I dropped Firefox. That and memory consumption. If they had a process per tab then I could manage these better, which I can with all the other major browsers.

  22. The advantage is even greater than we think by hyades1 · · Score: 1

    Let's not forget, Edge is managing to outperform Chrome, apparently, even while spending significant resources ratting out its users in every way Microsoft can conceive of.

    This is indeed a major accomplishment!

    --
    I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
  23. Not really surprised by JustNiz · · Score: 1

    Given that most of Edge is actually integrated into Windows 10 OS. What you run as the Edge app is basically a wrapper, whereas Chorme is far more self-contained.
    If they'd have also factored in the power wastage of Windows 10 OS because of that, the results would have been much different.

  24. Re:Who cares? by MightyMartian · · Score: 1

    Not sure. My suspicion was something was broken with the Metro subsystem, because the event log was full of errors regarding apps. I found heap loads of advice about using DISM.EXE, but the only reliable fix I found was to cook the profile.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  25. More important matters by iampiti · · Score: 1

    I wish they fought instead about whose browser protects the user's privacy best. But being Google and Microsoft (which is trying to become Google) I guess that's not their top priority.

    1. Re:More important matters by donaldm · · Score: 1

      I wish they fought instead about whose browser protects the user's privacy best. But being Google and Microsoft (which is trying to become Google) I guess that's not their top priority.

      To be fair you can turn off both Chrome and Edge when you are not using a browser so you can have more privacy. You can even lock down Chrome if you are worried about privacy, it's actually very easy to do.

      A simple test will prove this. Get and install Wireshark however before you do this you will have to learn how to use it. if you can't be bothered then stop reading this now.

      OK I assume you have the basics. Run Wireshark on your OS and make sure all your network applications are not running (ie. browsers, torrents etc.). If you were on a Linux distribution you would only see network traffic to and from your router which is normal and fairly small. You may also see a few site probing your machine which could be owned by your ISP so you can check this later by noting down their IP addresses.

      On a Windows 10 machine unless you really have locked it down it will be chatting non-stop to plenty of servers which are owned by (you guessed it) Microsoft. You will probably have so much information from Wireshark that you just give up although if you do a sort there really should not be that many IP address to query.

      Assuming you persevere and have noted down all IP addresses of interest. You may as well stop Wireshark since starting a Web browser will make it go ballistic. Open up a web site that you can get information on IP addresses (I use this one ) and enter the IP addresses you are curious about. If you have got this far you will probably know the reason why I don't run Windows 10 even though I do have a legitimate license and have it installed in a virtual machine. Now excuse me I have to readjust my tinfoil hat.

      WARNING: Do not run Wireshark in any environment other than your own home unless you have written permission to do so otherwise you could be mistaken for a cracker and while hacking is not a crime, cracking is.

      --
      There ain't no such thing as proprietary standards only proprietary formats. Standards are by definition open.
  26. Re:Who cares? by jellomizer · · Score: 2, Informative

    According to HTML5 Test we see the following...
    Edge 14 460
    Chrome 52 492
    FireFox 48 461
    Safari 9.1 370

    I guess Edge is getting there. It is on Par with FireFox and beats safari... However chrome has a strong lead.

    --
    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
  27. Re:Who cares? by Merk42 · · Score: 1

    but... but... that would mean giving credit to Microsoft for doing something good! This is Slashdot!!

  28. Re:Who cares? by Dan+East · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Our dev team recently spent an entire iteration enhancing the performance of our online products. They involve lots of resource loading, WebGL rendering, HTML5 canvas rendering, etc. Our benchmarks showed Edge was far and away the best performer of our supported browsers (Chrome, IE, Edge, Firefox, OSX Safari), particularly when it came to loading time. We develop using Chrome and only do compatibility testing on Edge, but all the times I've used it I was impressed.

    --
    Better known as 318230.
  29. Re:Who cares? by MightyMartian · · Score: 1

    I have seen it myself on about a dozen occasions. The Edge splash screen will come up, and then edge dumps to a rather nasty error dialog. There's a DISM command that allegedly fixes it, but the only reliably solution is to delete the profile or, if you've got a roaming profile, to go to a pre-error backup of the profile. I've also seen Cortana fail in much the same way, along with numerous errors point to Metro app problems. Because we keep backups of profiles, I've long since abandoned any notion of fixing the problem, and just simply go to an archived profile.

    And what the fuck does this have to do with Linux. Typical Redmond shill, too cowardly and pathetic to admit that Windows 10 has rough edges, and keeps talking about Linux, as if whataboutery somehow reduces Microsoft's culpability for foisting early beta software on the world.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  30. Unpopular opinion by kangsterizer · · Score: 1

    I use Edge every now and then, and beside the extension/addon support that is still a bit in its infancy, it's a *great* browser.
    This is my "real life" experience, and keep in mind that I'm biased towards Firefox as my browser of choice - but I like to try to keep an open mind and test things out.

    1) It feels faster than Chrome or Firefox, as in its responsive.
    2) It uses as little energy as them or less, as in my laptop run out of battery later (be it because edge is partially loaded all the time or not, I don't know)
    3) Everything that's modern works. This is not Explorer.
    4) I hate the bing integration, but you can turn that off.
    5) Dev tools don't seem as nice as Firefox or Chrome.

    At the end of the day I still use Firefox, though I run Edge every now and then when I need smth quick ;-) (and I use Chrome for Chrome apps mainly)

    So yeah, Edge is, in fact, a great browser IMO - and if it wasn't Microsoft behind it I guess me and others would migrate to it. Shows that both performance and reputation go a long way, in particular, performance matters more than it seems.

    1. Re:Unpopular opinion by cbhacking · · Score: 1

      1) Its UI, especially around tab management, is trash. No way to switch tabs in last-used order, no way to see a preview of all open tabs (or even their titles) at once, no way to tell what tab opened another tab, no way to group tabs, can only re-open closed tabs in the reverse order they were closed.
      2) Its cookie management is coarse and barely present. It is very much a mobile browser in that way, and this is not a good thing. Ad-blocking extensions make this somewhat more tolerable, but it's still bad.
      3) It doesn't provide a way to view the TLS server certificate. It'll give you some basic data about it, but that's it.
      4) No RSS reader. That's a deal-breaker for me; I use RSS daily and have no reason to switch to another app when my browser takes care of it for me.
      5) Can't re-open a previous browsing session unless set to always do that.

      They are steadily improving it, so I suppose there's some hope, but right now it's still a shit browser, especially for a PC. Less shit than it was a few months ago, but still definitely shit.

      --
      There's no place I could be, since I've found Serenity...
    2. Re:Unpopular opinion by kangsterizer · · Score: 1

      If you think about it, everything's that hard to do works well.
      Everything thats easier to do isn't great (basically, UI stuff).

      Other browsers are the opposite.

  31. Re:Edging out the competition by ilsaloving · · Score: 1

    But would someone think of the poor prostates?

    *snaps rubber glove* All right sir, this will only take a moment. Just try to relax...

  32. Doesn't matter. by ilsaloving · · Score: 1

    Ignoring all the pros and cons about improvements in Edge's functionality, there is one very simple reason why I will never use it. Well, apart from not using Windows 10. I still remember what Microsoft did with IE6, and I will never give them the chance to do it again.

    They simply can't be trusted. Windows 10 is strong evidence that they haven't learned a damn thing.

  33. Re:Who cares? by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 3, Informative

    >They involve lots of resource loading, WebGL rendering, HTML5 canvas rendering, etc

    I already hate your website and I haven't even used it yet.

    --
    I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
  34. Battery life? by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 1

    I only care about battery life when travelling on a plane, which is exactly when I'm not using a web browser.

    --
    I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
  35. Re:Who cares? by Daltorak · · Score: 4, Insightful

    According to HTML5 Test we see the following... Edge 14 460 Chrome 52 492 FireFox 48 461 Safari 9.1 370

    I guess Edge is getting there. It is on Par with FireFox and beats safari... However chrome has a strong lead.

    HTML 5 Test has made some questionable decisions about what specs should count towards the totals. Edge, for instance, is docked 4 points for not supporting Shadow DOM, but this spec is still in draft form and nowhere near completion. Same story with Web Animations.... still an Editor's Draft, but is worth 3 points. Same with MediaStream Recording..... 2 points. Same with window.requestIdleCallback..... 1 point. Same with Credential Management Level 1.... 3 points. Same with Speech Recognition..... 3 points. Same with WebGL 2 ..... 5 points.

    Do you really think it's wise to give credit to a web browser for implementing something that is in draft status and is likely to change? That's bad for web compatibility, not good. Right? Chrome loves implementing these features early, but web developers can't really take advantage of them because they're at risk of some future browser upgrade breaking their site.

  36. Re:Sure by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    I could tell the difference even on my desktop PC, to which I have attached a ten dollar LED watt/volt meter. That's informative even when the desktop gadget with the processor states is obscured...

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  37. Re:Sure by JoeMerchant · · Score: 1

    So, yeah, my Chrome will do this (fans) but only when I'm on a Reddit page full of animated GIFs... if you computer is always doing this, maybe you should close your Reddit window once in awhile?

    Isn't the whole thing missing the point?

    I mean, really, when's the last time you were concerned about which browser to use because you only had 6 hours of battery left if you used Chrome to surf, instead of 7 if you used Edge?

    Um, no. In previous Chrome builds (<53) it would spin laptop fans endlessly even when nothing was going on and use at least 50% CPU, at close to max freq. Battery life was significantly worsened just by having Chrome open. So when was the last time I was concerned about battery life due to which browser? A couple of months ago it was a real problem. Now they're close enough that Chrome is usable, because it's so much better as a browser and only a little worse on the battery.

  38. Re:Who cares? by Dan+East · · Score: 1

    The entire website is of course not implemented using client side technology of that sort. Only the interactive bits for cognitive training that children interact with.

    --
    Better known as 318230.
  39. Re:Who cares? by godefroi · · Score: 1

    If you count Webkit and Blink as different, then you can't claim Edge uses Trident; that's the old IE engine. Trident is a mostly-rewritten fork, just as Blink is a mostly-rewritten fork of Webkit.

    --
    Karma: Poor (Mostly affected by lame karma-joke sigs)
  40. Re:Who cares? by Dixie_Flatline · · Score: 1

    I use it at work, and it's terrible. It lacks even the most basic and common-sense UI conventions. I mean, I open up a tab and start typing and nothing happens--because the address bar isn't focused. Why? Huh? Who does that?

  41. Re:Who cares? by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 1

    I'm a bit surprised my one sentence rant against fancy browser features garnered a score of 5.
    Maybe if I had interactive cognitive training then I could judge these things better.

    --
    I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
  42. Re: Who cares? by Coren22 · · Score: 1

    when it lacks features I do care about

    Such as? What feature should they be supporting that isn't still in draft?

    --
    APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?