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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."
Because they know that all it needs is one plugin, that replaces any web page you visit with a big "DOWNLOAD ANOTHER BROWSER" button that lets you grab Vivaldi, or Chrome/Chromium, or Firefox/IceWeasel, or whatever else.
The API is a massive security hole and can tank the entire browser with ease so they will only allow large companies that they can fight in court to make extensions.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
Hello,
It is interesting how concerned Microsoft is about "building a thoughtfully curated ecosystem" with browser extensions that are "high-quality and trustworthy" for Microsoft Edge, while at the same time, its Windows Store offers many poor-quality mobile apps bordering on the scammy (fake browsers meant to look like Google Chrome, pirated copies of books, etc.) for years.
Of course, Microsoft collects a percentage of sales from Store apps, so maybe it was more to their incentive to have it filled with these in order to inflate the number of apps back when the "app gap" was a concern before they abandoned Windows Phone/Windows 10 Mobile.
I have to wonder, though, if Chrome and Firefox versus Edge is the new version of iOS and Android versus Windows Phone.
Regards,
Aryeh Goretsky
Dexter is a good dog.
"We want Microsoft Edge to be your favorite browser"
I'm reminded of a saying about wanting in one hand, and shitting in the other...
IT HAS SO FEW FEATURES!
I try using it, just to give it a chance but there's no way to organize bookmarks easily, it has constant problems on popular sites like Flickr and it's hard as hell it find the settings you want to tweak it to something comfortable for your use.
It's like Microsoft made a browser for speed but then forgot that people need to be able to USE it too!
There are no users so extension writers don't give a damn? It explains why a lot of Firefox extensions are rotting away too.
I love the whole Peewee Herman "I meant to do that" apologetic being pedaled by Redmond and its shills. Anything but admit that the majority of Windows 10 users view Edge as nothing more than the Chrome download app.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Who needs plugins when you've got telemetry?
they have a long history of having addon capability. no one produces such addons. the most addons that ever appear for Microsoft products include adware, spyware, Trojans, viruses, etc. I've seen this happen to generations of Microsoft products: IE, WMP, etc.
something about the community of developers, they suck, and go for other solutions instead such as foobar2000, Winamp, Firefox, etc.
I'm surprised to see 70+ addons for a Microsoft product. O_O
https://www.trumpsweapon.com/
I purposefully use the Chrome browser as little as possible. Because I don't want to contribute to the creation of the next big web monopoly. We've learned from Microsoft's past not to use the biggest thing every time.
Microsoft, you are assholes. You are assholes to the users and you are assholes to web developers. For years, when Internet Explorer was the dominant browser, you had numerous little gimmicks in your 'interpretation' of web standards that made pages appear broken unless developers went out of their way to support Internet Explorer specifically. Now that Internet Explorer is only a relic for corporate IT to continue using outdated software (and thus not doing their job), you create an entirely new browser that fucks the user even harder.
That browser is called Edge. It is the most worthless browser ever created. It looks like it renders about 50% of web pages in some kind of usable form - but even the intended 'usable' form is a nightmare in UI. Because a few people use Windows 10 as a tablet, you make it work like that for 100% of people. The reason there are no Edge plugins is because there are no Edge users. The only Edge users left are the dumb ones that don't even know they can search 'Chrome', 'Firefox', or 'Opera' and instantly start having a better computing experience. Edge is a half-finished smoldering pile of garbage that makes the user feel like he or she is being controlled.
--- We need more Ron Paul!
and that is MS hope to make edge get users. Just wait for the EU smack down on that.
Edge most optimistically, with almost a forced smile, is at most a utility for the enterprise environment. Maybe .. it could be used for in-house browsing where the company can be sure everyone is on the same page. It would enable companies to leave Internet Explorer yet still make use of a built in browser.
Elsewise, Edge is so b*tt-ugly, who would use it? It looks like an poor rejected mediocre iPhone app that grew by stuffing its face and forced it's way onto the desktop. IE is much better looking. With IE you can even assign icons of your choice to the folders in Favorites. But Edge is ugly. It looks unpolished. It looks like a low quality "app". The arrows don't even look like graphics, they look like they were borrowed from the font bin. Ugly. Moreover, it's colourless and drab. Depressing to look at. A sad sad piece of software regardless of load times and javascript speed. And it's not intuitive - go to erase your history - they hide half the list. And if you expand it, it's rehidden when you go back the next time. Did I mention it's colourless? Colourless, drab and although I am an "up" person, I would imagine other people could get depressed by its drab colourless appearance. Drab, colourless, Edge.
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.
Seriously, who cares about Edge? If you write a Chrome plugin, it runs on Chrome and a lot of other browsers using the same engine (Vivaldi, for example). And you are not tied to one platform (Windows) either. Even learning how to write an Edge plugin is a waste of time, the market is far too small.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
It is from a far too untrustworthy company.
You can lead a man with reason but you can't make him think.
Usually Microsoft is championing how they're "Making it Simple(TM)" to develop and deploy millions of plugins with little regard to privacy, security, upgradability, or robustness. Just get the latest Visual Studio which will give you a wizard that will spew out reams of boilerplate code, and you insert your application in the white spaces.
Not always. At one time their promotion of add ons for IE amounted to "It is harder to make add ons so you will have less competition.
I would have to check, but I could imagine that this is actually the case. But you know what they say, you can lead a donkey to the well but you can't make him drink, and you can make it easy to develop plugins but you can't force people to make one for a browser nobody uses.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Opera Software was acquired by some Chinese partnership, last I'd heard. That makes a lot of people uncomfortable about using Opera's products.
I don't care about minor speed differences. FF is certainly quick enough. Moreover, FF is really getting better. The latest is better organized. And the thing is so customizable. I don't do too much with it, but I made it look nicer, added the dictionary I wanted, and employ a well known tab addon that makes tabs work the way I want. It's cross-platform. Chrome spyware is pushed like a drug with every visit to a Google site, the ugly Edge spyware is built into the OS of most desktops/laptops, the FireFox software is a choice, like Vivaldi and others.
The reason why I didn't even try to use edge is that every extension must from the Microsoft Store. No thanks. Not touching that thing with a 20 foot pole.
That opens the door for a lot of userscripts.
... why hardly anyone uses Edge.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
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.
Give it a rest already. They're all spying on us.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Sure. How do I install it in my Linux box?
The single most awful thing about win 10 is all the crap I have to leave installed because microsoft.
I don't want edge because it's probably a security threat even if you don't use it. How long before there's an exploit that invokes it even when it's not your default web browser.
and yet - it appears to be very difficult to remove.
Absolute statements are never true
AFAICT with the latest versions, e.g. 55, 56, most of the reporting is default OFF and has to be manually turned ON. Moreover, you can select whatever search engine you want with FF. Almost all of that you'd expect e.g. if you click the links in the Tile page - duh - they're built in. But I have even the Tile page OFF. And they check my IP once a month at the country level!? Most websites figure out my IP to the city block, every visit. FF is not the big spy machine you think it is. They ask permission, so it's not even spying. And yes, to check a certificate , it has to go to a certificate authority - third party. Then again though, there's an open easy way to turn off certificate checking. The list is very mild, basic, and really applies to things one rather deliberately opts into, rather than going on secretly, or was some click through at install time. I don't "sync" with FF for instance, so all the stuff regarding syncing would be NIL. Now, give of the list of stuff sent using Edge/Cortana on Windows 10 using the default settings. Give us the list of all websites with the Google snitch widgets embedded, all Chrome enhanced I would venture.
Who cares if browser X is 2 ms faster that browser Y. They killed the adaptability in FF 57, that's why it is going to fail completely now. But what can you expect from a bunch of "the user should want it the way we do it" SJW's who fire people for their political views?
We have a difficult time getting developers to create them.
"I believe in Karma. That means I can do bad things to people all day long and I assume they deserve it." : Dogbert
Microsoft Edge is missing basic functionality that has been found in every other browser for the past 10 years (the ability to view a certificate). The Senior Program Manager saying things like "We want Microsoft Edge to be your favorite browser, with the fundamentals you expect". Is the equivalent to somebody telling you they are trying to lose weight while eating an entire gallon of ice cream.
If you search "Edge view certificate" the answer given by a moderator on technet is basically Open Internet Explorer and check the certificate there.
This is just the tip of the ice berg. Almost every time I try to use edge I run into a quirk and it is unable to do what I need it to do... Currently it is garbage.
The problem with the new Firefox is all plugins no longer working.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
Correction:
Adblock Plus doesn't work against taboola, there are plenty of other extensions that do. So be accurate there.
So rise up, all ye lost ones, as one, we'll claw the clouds.
one day, someone will tell me why my browser needs an add-on in the first place. It's been 30 years, and as long as my browser shows the web page, I don't see what else it needs to do. One plug in to open a PDF, but not any other type of file? What good is that?
Maybe edge needs an add-on to be able to print a selection. That'd be swell. PrintScreen & Paint will do just fine though.
still better than anything google.
... because no one uses Edge. Even where I work people rather use an old ass IE instead of Edge. Most have chrome or FF for web stuff installed anyway.
It makes a lot of people more confident about using Opera's product.
No NSA backdoors. I hope. I'll just make sure to use Firefox for my planning to overthrow the Chinese state and Opera for planing to overthrow the USA by campaigning for Trump2020.
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"