Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft Explains Why Edge Has So Few Extensions (betanews.com)
Mark Wilson writes: It's now a little more than a year since Microsoft first brought extensions to Edge. After so long you would expect the selection of addons to be overwhelming -- but that's far from being the case. In all, there are only 70-odd Edge extensions available, and Microsoft has been moved to explain why.
In a blog post, the company almost apologetically explains that it is "building a thoughtfully curated ecosystem," citing concern over quality and a fear of diminishing the user experience. What some might describe as "slow," Microsoft refers to as a "purposefully metered approach" to new extensions, and you probably shouldn't expect things to speed up a great deal any time soon.
Colleen Williams, senior program manager for Microsoft Edge, says "We want Microsoft Edge to be your favorite browser, with the fundamentals you expect -- speed, power efficiency, reliability, security." She also adds that "Astute observers of our release notes and active testers in the Insider program may have noticed that some preview builds break extensions temporarily."
In a blog post, the company almost apologetically explains that it is "building a thoughtfully curated ecosystem," citing concern over quality and a fear of diminishing the user experience. What some might describe as "slow," Microsoft refers to as a "purposefully metered approach" to new extensions, and you probably shouldn't expect things to speed up a great deal any time soon.
Colleen Williams, senior program manager for Microsoft Edge, says "We want Microsoft Edge to be your favorite browser, with the fundamentals you expect -- speed, power efficiency, reliability, security." She also adds that "Astute observers of our release notes and active testers in the Insider program may have noticed that some preview builds break extensions temporarily."
Microsoft, please port Edge to Linux and macOS!
With Firefox having essentially destroyed itself, and with Firefox 57 breaking nearly all of my extensions, I'm in the market for a new browser. I prefer to use the same browser on all the systems I use, so it has to support Linux and macOS.
I refuse to use Pale Moon after how its development team treated Pale Moon's users so awfully during the AdNauseam extension blocking disaster. Pale Moon doesn't even exist now, as far as I'm concerned.
I also don't want to use any Chromium-derived browser, including Chrome, Vivaldi, Opera or Brave. I do like Safari, but it doesn't work on Linux, obviously.
If Edge were ported to Linux and macOS, it could finally become the cross-platform Chrome competitor we've all wanted for so long, or at least since Firefox went shitty.
I would gladly use Edge if it supported the OSes that I use.
That opens the door for a lot of userscripts.
I recently switched to Edge from Chrome because I am doing everything I can to step away from Google.
The only Chrome extension that I use that was not available in Edge is Privacy Badger. I went with Ghostery instead.
Other than that, they had everything else I use. LastPass. Adblock Plus. etc.