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Microsoft Edge Beats Chrome and Firefox in Malware-Blocking Tests (computerworld.com)

An anonymous reader quotes Computerworld:Microsoft's Edge easily beat rival browsers from Google and Mozilla in third-party tests of the behind-the-scenes services which power anti-malware warnings and malicious website-blocking... NSS Labs says Windows 10's default browser is better at blocking phishing and socially-engineered malware attacks than Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox... According to NSS Labs of Austin, Texas, Edge automatically blocked 92% of all in-browser credential phishing attempts and stymied 100% of all socially-engineered malware (SEM) attacks. The latter encompassed a wide range of attacks, but their common characteristic was that they tried to trick users into downloading malicious code. The tactics that SEM attackers deploy include links from social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, and bogus in-browser notifications of computer infections or other problems.

Edge bested Chrome and Firefox by decisive margins. For instance, Chrome blocked 74% of all phishing attacks, and 88% of SEM attacks. Meanwhile, Firefox came in third in both tests, stopping just 61% of the phishing attacks and 70% of all SEM attempts... Both Chrome and Mozilla's Firefox rely on the Safe Browsing API (application programing interface), but historically, Mozilla's implementation has performed poorly compared to Google's. No shock: Google created the API. Edge also took top prize in blocking attacks from the get-go. In NSS's SEM attack testing, for example, the Microsoft browser stopped nearly every attempt from the first moments a new attack was detected. Chrome and Firefox, on the other hand, halted 75% and 54% of the brand-new attacks, respectively. Over a week's time, Chrome and Firefox improved their blocking scores, although neither reached Edge's impressive 99.8%.

The researchers spent three weeks continuously monitoring the browsers on Windows 10 computers. But in the real world, Edge runs on just 5% of all personal computers, while Firefox runs on 13% and Chrome on 60%.

126 comments

  1. Stability? by ChunderDownunder · · Score: 1

    Hopefully Edge crashes less in the spring creators update due Wednesday.

    1. Re:Stability? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It's interesting that Edge performed so well, but, here's the problem (from the article):

      But test scores like these have not helped Edge grow its share of the browser market . . . . . Since mid-2015, when Windows 10 and Edge launched, the latter's share of the former has continually dropped.

      Edge may do well in this one set of anti-malware tests, but overall, as a web browser, it is broken and completely useless. Edge lacks basic functionality and user interface features that have been commonplace in browsers, including Internet Explorer, for a decade or more.

      Of course, I shouldn't be surprised at this. The entire fiasco that is Windows 8 and 10 demonstrates pretty clearly that Microsoft is completely clueless about user interface design.

    2. Re:Stability? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Edge lacks basic functionality and user interface features that have been commonplace in browsers, including Internet Explorer, for a decade or more.

      Like what? You can't even give one goddamn example?!

      Shit, modern browsers barely have any UI at all, regardless of whether we're talking about Firefox or Chrome or Safari or Opera or whatever other modern browser you want to name. Their UIs consist of a short row of tabs, a toolbar with a few icons and a text input for a URL, and then a large area rendering the web page.

      It's fucking absurd to say that Edge's UI is somehow "lacking" when it's pretty much identical to all of its competitors! If Edge is lacking in some way, then so is every other modern browser!

      The only real problem with Edge is that it runs on Windows only. That's why a lot of us who'd love to use it can't. We use OSes like macOS or FreeBSD, which Edge doesn't currently support, while Chrome and Firefox and other browsers do.

      If Microsoft ported Edge to other major OSes, then I think we'd start to see its usage grow. A lot of us are sick and tired of Firefox and moz://a shitting all over us users, and we don't really want to use Chrome, either, because of Google's involvement. And we sure as fuck won't go anywhere near Opera, now that the Chinese are allegedly involved with it. Pale Moon destroyed its reputation during the AdNauseam debacle. So we're stuck using browsers like those until Microsoft gets Edge ported to other OSes.

    3. Re:Stability? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The entire fiasco that is Windows 8 and 10 demonstrates pretty clearly that Microsoft is completely clueless about user interface design.

      Why should they care? [click 5 year] They have always been imitators, never innovators.

    4. Re:Stability? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      An easily accessible "back" button right next to where you right-click. This is by far the greatest non-keyboard time-saver in a browser UI, especially since most pages assume your hands are not on the keyboard when using them. And if the words "but you can change it..." are about to be typed here, then Firefox wins by default because of the great plugins.

      Also, complaining about privacy on others and shitting all over users when using Microsoft products is laughable. Edge has a bad UI, some stability issues, and most of all MS have a horrible record on the web (slow release schedule making their advantages in every benchmark and test short lived, bad standards compliance, terrible / invasive plugin support, etc).

    5. Re:Stability? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      The entire fiasco that is Windows 8 and 10 demonstrates pretty clearly that Microsoft is completely clueless about user interface design.

      You consider Windows 8 and Windows 10 becoming the top two most widely used desktop/laptop OSes to be a "fiasco" for Microsoft?! Here in reality, where you don't seem to be, we all realize that both of those products have been very successful.

      If there has been a "fiasco" during this era, it's the actual fiasco involving open source desktop environments. According to you they had a perfect window, no pun intended, to take market share away from Windows. Yet what did we get during this period of time? GNOME 3, perhaps the worst desktop environment ever to have been created. KDE has gotten extraordinarily bloated. Xfce stagnated and has essentially died. Unity gave us a terrible experience for years and last I heard was being discarded in favor of GNOME 3!

      Windows 8 and Windows 10 were successes. Linux's inability to capture anything more than maybe 3% of the desktop market after two decades of trying is the real failure here.

    6. Re:Stability? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      yes. when windows isn't installed by default to computer vendors then come back and we'll compare numbers Baba

    7. Re: Stability? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't whine. Be better. Linux desktop isn't.

      W8 ui was completely ridiculous shit. 8.1 improved it a tiny bit but still shit., W10 isn't that much different from W7 or it's older near clone Vista which are/were both way fucking better than any desktop ever imagined for Linux.

      If Linux cloned W7 it would finally have a real desktop and might grow its user count finally after decades of absolute failure in this area.

    8. Re: Stability? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Windows 8 and Windows 10 were successes."

      Wow, just wow. To the extent that they were "successes", it was due to inertia provided by previous versions and microsofts deceptive "upgrade" practices. It was not because they were better in any way.

    9. Re:Stability? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If the right click back is the only UI issue, why not download Microsoft's Mouse Gesture extension and enjoy the second it saves you over the right click menu.

      While Edge might not be the best browser there needs to be some reasonable level of competition. I've been coming across some pages that I use for things that won't work unless I'm using Chrome, that was the spot we didn't like when it was IE, we don't want to go back there just because some people have a better opinion of Google than they do Microsoft.

    10. Re:Stability? by Stephen+Battleware · · Score: 2

      To all intents and purposes the desktop/laptop is still using the GUI Xerox invented - desktop metaphor - mouse - onscreen pointer - click and move about the icons for files and folders - WYSIWYG word processors .. so ... automoblies still have steering wheels, even self-driving ones.

      In the late fifties, Buick experimented with a joystick controlled automobile. It worked fine, but the test customers didn't like it, as they felt more comfortable and in control with a wheel .. so Buick decided not to reinvent the wheel, and dropped the experiment.

    11. Re:Stability? by epine · · Score: 1

      Windows 8 and Windows 10 were successes. Linux's inability to capture anything more than maybe 3% of the desktop market after two decades of trying is the real failure here.

      Of the 10% of the population who were willing to fight constant battles with DRM and game-proof their hardware, Linux on the desktop captured nearly 30% of the market.

    12. Re: Stability? by Monster_user · · Score: 1

      I think Outlook might be the "killer app" which keeps many Windows users from switching to Linux. Aside from the availability of free tech support.

      Those who don't use Outlook have probably already switched to an iOS or Android device for most of their computing needs. Other than Outlook, there is iTunes for iPhones, but that isn't necessary per se.

      Otherwise for gamers it is the support for games on Windows. Those who are most likely to support the Outlook users have more familiarity with Windows because of its game support.

      A good LTS Linux desktop is great for home use. No having to upgrade your computer every year. I've quite enjoyed my forays into Linuxdom. Outside of KDE 4, anyway. KDE 3.5, and 5.x are functional DEs, KDE 4 was about as bad as Mac OS X. Got an old 10.2 Jaguar disc, wonder how it was ever considered a usuable OS.

    13. Re:Stability? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I hope it crashed so much to force it's usage numbers into oblivion, microsoft continually makes grandios claims from contrived data in attempt to lure users... and the browser continues to be broadly slow buggy and the least standards compliant browser of all. Please please just fucking die EIdge and let the real competition take over for the good of everyone.

    14. Re:Stability? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Linux's inability to capture anything more than maybe 3% of the desktop market after two decades of trying is the real failure here.

      I blame Joe, the average, for failing Linux, and, thus, creating this toxic environment the Internet has become.

    15. Re:Stability? by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      Edge isn't all that great, even if you could run it on Linux or other OSes. Unless I'm missing something, it lacks all the extensions that the other browsers have, and of course one of the big, big ones is Ublock Origin. Whatever ad-blocking Edge has built-in surely pales in comparison. Or, if you're even more paranoid, and use stuff like NoScript etc., that stuff just doesn't exist on Edge.

      Protecting you from simple phishing attacks that target non-tech-savvy users really isn't all that useful when the browser still shows you zillions of annoying ads.

      However, you have a point; if they ported Edge to all the major platforms, then we'd probably see a lot more extensions available for it.

    16. Re:Stability? by Grishnakh · · Score: 2

      I don't know about your mouse, and I don't know if Edge supports this, but on Linux on my personal laptop, I use one of the typical many-button mice that are available today, so to go back I just click the button that's on the left side of the mouse.

    17. Re:Stability? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Bill is that you ??

    18. Re:Stability? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Edge has relatively few addons, but uBlock Origin is one of them: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/p/ublock-origin/9nblggh444l4

      Disclaimer: Work on something related.

    19. Re:Stability? by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      In the late fifties, Buick experimented with a joystick controlled automobile. It worked fine, but the test customers didn't like it, as they felt more comfortable and in control with a wheel .. so Buick decided not to reinvent the wheel, and dropped the experiment.

      I'd be interested in reading about this, because I'm very dubious.

      First, I have read about some experiment like this by one of the American makes, using something called a "side stick", but that was back in the 90s or 00s. I have serious doubts that something like that could possibly be made to work using 1950s technology, at least that available on automobiles which are very price-sensitive (you can't use cutting-edge military aircraft tech on a car, it's just too expensive). A joystick on a car would require a pretty complex electronic control system and electric steering, I would think. These days, that'd actually be pretty simple to implement because any decent car these days uses electrically-assisted steering, which is why "automatic lane keeping" is now a common feature in midl-level and below cars: the only extra hardware needed is a camera, and a RPi-like computer. In the 50s, the age of recirculating-ball steering (or even completely non-power-assisted steering still in many cars) I have no idea how you'd implement joystick steering without it being some kind of rube goldberg contraption.

      Secondly, the joystick is simply a poor UI for a car. It doesn't offer the granularity that a steering wheel does, for small, precise movements. A modern computer-driven system can work around this by making it non-linear, and not allowing you to turn the wheels all the way to one lock when at speed, but that's far harder or impossible with 50s consumer-level tech. Also think about it this way: if joysticks were better than steering wheels, then why are Formula 1 racing cars still using wheels? That's a racing series where almost anything goes technologically (unlike NASCAR), so if they really were better, they would have switched over ages ago. And F1 drivers don't have the problem of being uncomfortable with new tech that old-fart Buick drivers (or any consumer car brand) do; they'll use anything that gives them an edge, which is why they were the first to adopt paddle shifters.

    20. Re:Stability? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Last time I checked, Edge had problems downloading attachments in gmail and hotmail.
      Being able to download files is kind of a key feature, and making your own browser play well with your own email site should be something that your iron out long before you launch.

    21. Re:Stability? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > You can't even give one goddamn example?!

      I recently had the misfortune of discovering that Edge has no support for exporting bookmarks. At all.

      To make matters worse, the old format of "a directory of .lnk files" is silently "upgraded". So if you assume the bookmarks follow along a user's profile by copying the the .lnk files, you'd be mistaken....

    22. Re:Stability? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      From https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/apps_windows_10-msedge-winpc/how-to-export-favorites-microsoft-edge/ef2abdb4-434f-4777-bfeb-2e5f726c9c79?auth=1

      Step 1: Open Edge browser. ...
      Step 2: Under Import favorites and other info section, there is a button called Import from another browser. ...
      Step 3: Now, under Import or export a file section, click the Export to file button to open Save as dialog.
      Step 4: Enter a name for the HTML file containing favorites and select a location to save the file before clicking the Save button. By default, the Edge browser saves the HTML file with Microsoft_Edge_Favortes_date name in the Documents folder.

    23. Re:Stability? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.microsoft.emmx

      Does Android have a user base large enough for you?

    24. Re: Stability? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Lol. Are you serious? So the export function is under the import listing? No wonder why he couldn't find it. That just reinforces the point people are making that edge has horrible design. What next in the fall creators update? Removing all the exit buttons and hiding the only close button deeply nested in the help menus?

    25. Re:Stability? by Stephen+Battleware · · Score: 1

      Ford did it first with the 1954 FX Atmos concept car. Buick tried too e.g. the Firebird III, also in the 1950s.

    26. Re:Stability? by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1

      If Microsoft ported Edge to other major OSes, then I think we'd start to see its usage grow. A lot of us are sick and tired of Firefox and moz://a shitting all over us users, and we don't really want to use Chrome, either, because of Google's involvement. And we sure as fuck won't go anywhere near Opera, now that the Chinese are allegedly involved with it. Pale Moon destroyed its reputation during the AdNauseam debacle. So we're stuck using browsers like those until Microsoft gets Edge ported to other OSes.

      Oh really?

    27. Re: Stability? by murdocj · · Score: 1

      It makes as much sense as the way Chrome export works. Basically they both make it easy to import, hard to export.

    28. Re: Stability? by murdocj · · Score: 1

      A good LTS Linux desktop is great for home use. No having to upgrade your computer every year. I've quite enjoyed my forays into Linuxdom.

      Why would you have to upgrade your computer every year (assuming you are talking about Windows)? I upgrade every 5 years or so. Given my experience with Linux I'd say I'd be doing the same in that environment.

    29. Re:Stability? by Luthair · · Score: 0

      Exactly how is Firefox shitting on you? By using less memory than other browsers? By dropping an ancient system to modify the UI?

      Edge would never find any marketshare on other OSes any more than Safari on Windows did. There is no compelling reason to use it, its not the fastest, its not the most secure, its dev cycle is tied to OS releases so it always lags on features.

    30. Re:Stability? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If it hasn't already been mentioned, you can easily install Ad Nauseum to Palemoon by disabling a single about:config option. I'm willing to trusst the developer further since that is the only thing they've done which seems out of place. Compared to Mozilla there's no contest.

    31. Re:Stability? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Like what? You can't even give one goddamn example?!

      You can't actually view or download SSL certs in edge, you must trust the browser that it checks out with no way to verify. This may be something that most users never do, but I consider it a basic piece of browser security.

      In their forums Microsoft staff explicitly tells people the solution is to use IE to view the actual certificate data.
      https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/18301fff-0467-4e41-8dee-4e44823ed5bf/microsoft-edge-browser-and-ssl-certificates?forum=win10itprogeneral

    32. Re:Stability? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Saab gave it a go in the 90's with the prometheus, but it never went into production.

    33. Re: Stability? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Lol. Are you serious? So the export function is under the import listing?

      Where's the confusion? We've had this UI concept for 22 years now, it was introduced with Windows 95, where you had to press "Start" to shut down.

    34. Re:Stability? by iampiti · · Score: 1

      They don't care because Windows on desktops is still very strong and will have tons of users regardless of whatever stupidities they may inflict upon it

    35. Re:Stability? by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      According to this article, there's very good reasons this joystick idea never took off, the same reasons I iterated before.

    36. Re: Stability? by LinuxIsGarbage · · Score: 1

      I think Outlook might be the "killer app" which keeps many Windows users from switching to Linux. Aside from the availability of free tech support.

      Doubt it. More and more people use webmail and mobile for email. In the workplace O365 and GApps are increasing in marketshare, and while Outlook is (*for the next few years at least) supported, the web interface receives a lot of focus, rather than an afterthought.

      As far as "killer app", that's probably not Outlook, but one of many, or several industry, or company specific productivity apps (CAD, etc).

      *I remember seeing an article talking about when Microsoft hosted O365 would drop support for certain versions of Outlook client. Right now all I can find is guaranteed support for Outlook versions still in mainstream support. My workplace migrated from another mail product to O365 with Outlook 2010 support a year ago. 2010 went out of mainstream support in 2015, and will drop extended support in 2020. Maybe that's when they will kill all access to MS services with Office 2010.

    37. Re:Stability? by ArmoredDragon · · Score: 1

      Like what? You can't even give one goddamn example?!

      Shit, modern browsers barely have any UI at all, regardless of whether we're talking about Firefox or Chrome or Safari or Opera or whatever other modern browser you want to name. Their UIs consist of a short row of tabs, a toolbar with a few icons and a text input for a URL, and then a large area rendering the web page.

      Probably because it works well that way. But what about how by design, Edge makes it very hard to change settings that users commonly want to change, and its whole settings menu is a total pile of shit (also mostly by design -- Microsoft wants you to use the browser in its stock config and actively discourages changing things, such as default search engine and privacy settings, which are buried in there pretty far; not to mention Edge sends all of your search terms and clicked links to Microsoft and you can't turn it off.)

  2. turn off scripting by evanh · · Score: 1, Insightful

    problem solved.

  3. But... by ctrl-alt-canc · · Score: 1, Insightful

    ...does it block Windows ?

    1. Re: But... by fbobraga · · Score: 1

      Good question

  4. But Edge is malware itself. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    All browsers are malware these days, Firefox 57 is extension breaking malware, Chrome is ram stealing malware and Safari is Mac malware.

    1. Re:But Edge is malware itself. by Z00L00K · · Score: 4, Informative

      The only reason I see for Edge doing well is that it's still not the main target for malware writers.

      --
      If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
    2. Re: But Edge is malware itself. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Edge is a target of the biggest malware writers - those making malware known as 'ads'. And yes, other browsers handle this case better.

  5. so much butthurt from Chrome & Firefox fanboys by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    so much butthurt from Chrome & Firefox fanboys

    enjoy your botnet browser, boys

  6. Maybe true for the stock browser, but... by ToTheStars · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Firefox has addons for ad blocking, 3rd-party request blocking, script blocking, and other security and privacy enhancements; use those, and this ranking will reverse itself.

    1. Re:Maybe true for the stock browser, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why does it need addons for what should be a basic feature?

      Even worse, isn't it exactly the other way around: Aren't all those mechanisms that allow data to leak themselves features? Shouldn't those all be disabled, until explicitly enabled, maybe even until installed as addons by the user? i.e., shouldn't a browser be just a browser (displaying content from one source), and anything beyond that (loading data from secondary sources, script, ...) need to be explicitly installed/enabled by the user?

      Aren't those default features, and how widespread they are, what is inviting website operators to abuse them?

    2. Re:Maybe true for the stock browser, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Unfortunately, all addons for Firefox are no longer going to work in the next version, as I understand.

    3. Re: Maybe true for the stock browser, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe so,but do you see every person who can barely turn on a computer and get on Facebook do that? There are users that need to be protected from themselves. And having to click yes to do you want to turn on feature x will have them clicking yes without reading the prompt

    4. Re: Maybe true for the stock browser, but... by Monster_user · · Score: 0

      Add-ons are going away. What made Firefox great, is going away. Pretty much went away when Mozilla started using the major number as a minor number, breaking add-ons with each release.

    5. Re: Maybe true for the stock browser, but... by thomst · · Score: 0

      Monster_user observed:

      Add-ons are going away. What made Firefox great, is going away. Pretty much went away when Mozilla started using the major number as a minor number, breaking add-ons with each release.

      This.

      Mozilla.org's arrogance and seeming blind determination to ignore all user feedback has made Firefox progressively less usable as time has gone by - and I speak as someone who has for years now resisted the underhanded attempts of a wide variety of products (including Avast! and Adobe Flash) to force Chrome down my throat. The upcoming revision that will deliberately break what Mozilla's asshat developers insist on terming "legacy" addons - notably including NoScript - will likely be the very last straw for me. And once I'm forced to undergo the ordeal of migrating four Windows desktops and three laptops to Chrome, there will be no going back. I'll be done with Firefox permanently.

      I very much doubt I'll be alone, either. Living in a bubble is a terrible idea. Coding in one is even worse ...

      --
      Check out my novel.
    6. Re: Maybe true for the stock browser, but... by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 1

      The upcoming revision that will deliberately break what Mozilla's asshat developers insist on terming "legacy" addons - notably including NoScript ...

      NoScript is migrating to a WebExtensions API version: https://blog.mozilla.org/addon...

      --
      It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
    7. Re: Maybe true for the stock browser, but... by thomst · · Score: 1

      I predicted:

      The upcoming revision that will deliberately break what Mozilla's asshat developers insist on terming "legacy" addons - notably including NoScript ...

      Prompting fahrbot-bot to point out:

      NoScript is migrating to a WebExtensions API version: https://blog.mozilla.org/addon...

      Y'know, I'd've found that a whole lot more reassuring had Fireflop 56.0.1 not so completely fubared the most-current version of NoScript that even reinstalling the addon couldn't unfuck it. (Although, to be fair, restarting FF in "safe mode" - i.e. - with all addons disabled - then restarting it again with all addons re-enabled does seem to have fixed that problem.)

      NoScript is certainly one of the most popular - and arguably the most important - addons in the FF ecosystem. To have released even a minor, general update to the browser that so thoroughly disables it that it disappears entirely from both the browser's main toolbar and its context menu (thereby rendering it impossible for it to affect script permissions - and, not incidentally, permitting ANY and EVERY script on EVERY page you visit to run unimpeded) was profoundly irresponsible, at best. Given the omnipresence of JS-based malware across the known web, it could even reasonably be construed as culpably negligent. (Note: IANAL, objects in mirror are closer than they appear, contents are packed by weight, not volume, the legal relationship between you and Mozilla.org is controlled by the end user Terms & Conditions, yadda-yadda ... )

      My point stands: Mozilla.org's developer hubris is driving even its most loyal users the fuck away. Soon, so many of us will have decamped that those arrogant assholes will be free to concentrate on developing and enhancng a browser that only they, themselves will use - and, if the 56.0.1 debacle is any guide, the only thing they appear interested in using it for is to test whether they have at last managed to drive a stake through the final, feeble remnant of Netscape Navigator's once-beating heart.

      --
      Check out my novel.
    8. Re:Maybe true for the stock browser, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why does it need addons for what should be a basic feature?

      Even worse, isn't it exactly the other way around: Aren't all those mechanisms that allow data to leak themselves features? Shouldn't those all be disabled, until explicitly enabled, maybe even until installed as addons by the user? i.e., shouldn't a browser be just a browser (displaying content from one source), and anything beyond that (loading data from secondary sources, script, ...) need to be explicitly installed/enabled by the user?

      Aren't those default features, and how widespread they are, what is inviting website operators to abuse them?

      It is not a basic feature for a web browser. When your business is in making web browser, you have no expertise in security (anti-malware) field. Of course, they are related but you should not try to take over. Just make your web browser to be secured in your own way (don't leak private data and encrypt it). You should not try to enter other expertise field (blocking other attackers) because it is users' responsibility. Once you start to venture in other expertise fields, the overall quality of the product will go down because you are increasing the code base by a lot. It is bad that you have to maintain the new added code parts because you are lowering the overall product quality (by dividing attention on different features). It is even worse if the code parts are libraries from others that you don't maintain yourself. All in all, don't add features that jeopardize your software quality just because it looks cool or sounds useful.

  7. The anti-malware functions are malware themselves by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Because they achieve their goal by sending all the URL's you visit to someone else's servers. That, of course, is bad because you have no control what else they will do with that information.

  8. Life on the Edge by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Summary malware writers don't support Edge.

    Might be malicious but still needs to leverage existing functionality which Edge has.... 0 I mean it was designed not to support anything no plugins addons etc, which is why it is not used. Suggest researchers try using Chrome etc with an addblocker and a script blocker.

    Would be interested to see how IE faired as this seems like a fairer test.

    1. Re: Life on the Edge by Monster_user · · Score: 2

      Side note RE 0 functionality: First thing I noticed broken with Edge was intranet sites over a VPN tunnel. So literally 0 functionaloty for remote workers. Forced me to actually look for Internet Explorer classic.

    2. Re: Life on the Edge by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Side note RE 0 functionality: First thing I noticed broken with Edge was intranet sites over a VPN tunnel. So literally 0 functionaloty for remote workers. Forced me to actually look for Internet Explorer classic.

      Holy crap batman! If Edge breaks any of the standard intranet com that has been used for years it will wind up on the garbage heap real quick. Win10 is just starting to show up on our workstations and if edge breaks any or our internal html based interfaces and we have to do extensive rewrites then EDGE is toast. Hell most of the stations user prefer chrome to IE on Win7 and if EDGE breaks the interfaces they use everyday it doesn't have a snowballs chance in hell of ever being adopted. A system update rewrite of our core intranet html shit would cost far too much and is not justified because it has not currently causing us problems either security wise or functionwise.

  9. And in other news... by hyades1 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    A brick doorstop was 100% effective at blocking phishing and socially-engineered malware attacks. It also performed nearly 98% as effectively as Edge at rendering websites properly.

    We shall leave aside, for the moment, the question of whether Microsoft's telemetry should be considered "malware".

    --
    I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
    1. Re:And in other news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, thank you. Very important to include the doorstop positive control in this kind of testing.

    2. Re:And in other news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Meet Brick, its a wonderful product. Chalked through with 100% of all daily nutrients the body needs!!..

  10. Does anyone else suspect... by tlambert · · Score: 1

    Does anyone else suspect... that this is because Chrome and Firefox both allow downloading of Firefox?

    Right now, Firefox appears to have a big, ripe target on it.

    It doesn't help that there are a lot of WebGL based games that insist on Firefox, despite being supported on other browsers which disallow plugins.

    1. Re: Does anyone else suspect... by Monster_user · · Score: 1

      Old web culture fromthe 00's, when the US government put out a warning not to use IE, and Firefox was the internet's Golden boy?

    2. Re: Does anyone else suspect... by tlambert · · Score: 1

      Firefox was never the "golden boy". It's derived from Mozilla, which is derived from the public parts of Netscape.

      It took for freaking ever before you could build a working browser with those bits.

      Until you could do that, it was totally irrelevant, because no one could "tinker": it wasn't a workable thing.

      It was surpassed by other things before it ever became buildable, and has been trying to become relevant ever since.

    3. Re: Does anyone else suspect... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Firefox was never the "golden boy". It's derived from Mozilla, which is derived from the public parts of Netscape. [...]
        It was surpassed by other things before it ever became buildable, and has been trying to become relevant ever since.

      Your history is wrong.

      Netscape's browser was relevant for a narrow window 1996 - 1998. Netscape was closed-source and based on NCSA Mosaic, but Mosaic didn't support .JPG and Netscape did. I'm sure Netscape had other features, but the web was so simple back then, space backgrounds and indented lists and maybe "tables," that basically only the support of inline jpeg mattered.

      Netscape made most of their money off the SSL cartel. They were selling some stupid web server that nobody wanted to use, but for a brief window it was the only one that did SSL, so. . . "commerce," $$$.

      Mozilla was hard to build with all that stupid XUL "reflection" stuff, but I think it was possible to build. And it was extremely relevant immediately because Netscape was closed source.

      I don't think the distinction between Mozilla and Firefox is interesting. It was the same browser code, just linked into an executable differently. Mozilla had a bunch of other stuff linked in, like an irc client, the MUA that became Thunderbird, and maybe a Usenet news reader? All of this was linked into a single binary. For a long time you could pick which way you wanted it. I always picked Mozilla because text segment memory use isn't that relevant, but Firefox had better marketing.

    4. Re: Does anyone else suspect... by tlambert · · Score: 1

      Between 1998, when parts of the NetScape source were release, and 2004, when Firefox was first released, all that existed were "parts of NetScape".

      You couldn't build crap, unless you were a NetScape employee, and then you could only build the full suite.

      It's one of the reasons Jamie Zawinski bailed.

      That's six years during which it was an unbuildable heap of crap.

      This is the same problem both Solaris, and Darwin, faced as nominally "Open Source" projects.

  11. Re:Addons = inefficient & inferior vs. hosts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    and a hosts file cannot differentiate between a malicious and a benign javascript file coming from the same host.

    host blocking is a tool in the toolkit, not a catch-all.

  12. We shillin for M$ now? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Edge doesn't actually DO anything but turn off a lot of things we are used to having in IE. They basically don't support all those dangerous activities, so of course it's safer.. They just turned off all the dangerous legacy behaviors and don't support them at all, so you'd just as well use wget and a text based web browser....

    Somehow I get the impression that we are just extolling the virtues of M$ here... Not really considering what they actually did which was to toss the legacy stuff out the window then start a marketing campaign about how much safer and faster THEIR browser is over the rest just don't expect it to work on your favorite websites...

    1. Re:We shillin for M$ now? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Somehow I get the impression that we are just extolling the virtues of M$ here..."

      Actually, the summary as usual these days sucks; the actual article isn't all that complementary in substance. Edge is being used on roughly 17% of the Windows 10 installations, (Windows 10 wasn't even mentioned in the Summary until the second to last sentence...), and Windows 10 is used on only roughly 29% of the entire OS installed base. That works out to be applicable to about 5% of the Desktops out there. Edge is overwhelmingly unpopular for reasons not mentioned. Picking of nits applies.
      OSX clocks in at about 6.3%. (netmarketshare) Why no comparison with Apple Browsers in Malware-Blocking? Why can't Editors even do simple Math these days?
      This is more like shilling for that obscure NSS Labs, puffing themselves up.

  13. LOL! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm still not going to use it!

  14. The baddies aren't optimising for bypassing edge by Cesare+Ferrari · · Score: 2

    It fells to me this is just telling you that the malware writers aren't targeting bypassing edge, and are concentrating on chrome. If edge had a larger user base, and was worth attacking, then the ways around the blocking of malware would be found, and we'd see a change in these stats.

  15. Chrome is malware by DarkOx · · Score: 4, Interesting
    --
    Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
    1. Re:Chrome is malware by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Use Chromium, for example as packaged in Debian.
      https://wiki.debian.org/Chromium

      It's certainly possible to get it to use for Windows, but unfortunately you will have either to compile it yourself or trust third-party binaries instead of Google's. I do not know what's worse.

    2. Re:Chrome is malware by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is a really fucking dumb page.. At this point I question who is more trust worthly. GNU that is trying to mislead me for their own agenda, or Google that is trying to protect you. hmmm... easy answer. It's not GNU..

      Chrome has a back door for remote erasure of add-ons.

      To allow the remote removal of malware + a user wants to remove an extension from all their browsers. I.E. phones / desktops at the same time. Oh my conspiracy!!

      Google can also forcibly and remotely install apps through GTalkService (which seems, since that article, to have been merged into Google Play). This is not equivalent to a universal back door, but permits various dirty tricks.

      Quietly forgetting to include that they did so only on malware. Oh how could they!

      Google offers censorship software, ostensibly for parents to put into their children's computers.

      Oh the horror!! Little bobby won't be able to look up scat porn on this droid? CENSORSHIP REEEEE!

      This stupid propaganda is worse than a North Korean pamphlet.

  16. But it doesn't run on my operating system by Edweirdo · · Score: 1

    I've tried, but I can't get it to run in Fedora.

    Okay, I lied. I didn't try.

    --
    Life is too short and too important to { take seriously | use windows }.
  17. Or...NSFW (Not Safe For Windows) by TheOuterLinux · · Score: 1

    Edge uses spyware (phones home) to monitor your browsing habits to pair with a list of unsafe for Windows or bad for business websites, so of course it's going to find more. Most Linux websites and non-Microsoft hardware are probably on their list. At least Firefox and Chrome users GET TO VOTE on what websites are actually malicious or not. I wonder how much it costs to get a competitor listed? Simple example: Ever wonder why you keep getting malware warnings for video sites and it's getting worse? Hollywood.

    1. Re:Or...NSFW (Not Safe For Windows) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fuck Chrome, Fuck Edge. They're like plastic whores who kiss and tell every single time. Mozilla is too corrupt right now to have any engineering sense. What's left, Slack clients? Back to the desktop?

    2. Re: Or...NSFW (Not Safe For Windows) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You get 'malware warnings'?
      I use browsers that aren't vulnerable. No need for warnings then.

    3. Re:Or...NSFW (Not Safe For Windows) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fuck Chrome, Fuck Edge. They're like plastic whores who kiss and tell every single time. Mozilla is too corrupt right now to have any engineering sense. What's left, Slack clients? Back to the desktop?

      Something really scary like your systems file manager? Something which Microsoft tried to do back in Windows 98 days but backfired on them big time.LOL I remember the first time computer viruses became a real problem with Windows coincided almost exactly with the release of what became the IE engine as the desktop interface.

      Since then the differentiation between browser, file manager and program launching UI has become the stumbling point of UI design and one of key reasons why most users just don't quite get the concept of program execution security. If you shit in your sandbox it is still going to get all over your clothes if your sandbox is the only place you know how to play! Dumbing down the users caused the problems with computer security in the first place. So Edge locking down the internet sandbox for Windows users to the point of breaking shit is not a bad first step in isolating the dumbed down users who cause the majority of bot net shit to happen in the first place. Edge adoption should be mandatory for anyone who cannot even install an operating system let alone grasp what a bot net is!

  18. No problem & why/how... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    See subject: I turn off scripting in my browser in classic Opera (& if sites need script I do a bysite preference allowing that site to use script + globally block it for all others) & before NoScript can parse tags for ads, hosts blocked them already @ a faster level (kernelmode IP stack vs. slower usermode, which addons IF 'stacked', especially in FF this shows, SLOW browsers down & tear up resources like mad vs. hosts).

    * Lastly/Additionally - I never said "hosts do all" (nothing does) but that no SINGLE addon by itself does more than hosts...

    APK

    P.S.=> I simply built the best tool for populating hosts for speed, security, reliabilty & anonymity online DOING MORE FOR FAR LESS in resources used by natively using what you HAVE already vs. illogically "Bolting on 'MoAr'" in addons which are highly detectable, blockable & exploitable (per my post you replied to's "evidence thereof")... apk

    1. Re:No problem & why/how... apk by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 1

      And absolutely nobody cares.

      --
      Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
  19. False positives? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    These results are meaningless without testing for false positives.

  20. Vs. malscript, malicious sites & far more? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    See subject: Browsers do even better (& go faster) APK Hosts File Engine 9.0++ SR-7 32/64-bit https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&biw=&bih=&q=%22APK+Hosts+File+Engine%22+and+%22start64%22&btnG=Google+Search&gbv=1/

    Ads/script/malware rob speed/security/privacy/bandwidth.

    Hosts add speed (via hardcodes/adblocks), security (vs. bad sites/malware/poisoned dns), reliability (vs. dns down), & anonymity (vs. dns requestlogs/trackers).

    Less power/cpu/ram + IO use vs. DNS/routers/addons/antivirus + less security bugs/complexity & faster vs. addons/routers/remote dns!

    Avoids DNSChangers in routers/IP settings & dns redirect (99.999% of ISP DNS != patched vs. it) + DNS requestlog tracking & lighten DNS load & resolve faster from local system RAM!

    * Via what u NATIVELY have in a FASTER kernelmode IP stack!

    APK

    P.S. - Safe https://www.virustotal.com/en/file/e01211ca36aa02e923f20adee0a3c4f5d5187dc65bdf1c997b3da3c2b0745425/analysis/1433430542/

  21. Addons = inefficient & inferior vs. hosts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hosts protect where addons can't (or as well):

    Bad sites (past ads)
    Botnet C&Cs
    DNS down or poisoned
    Trackers (dns logs/ads/transparent ISP proxy)
    Dns blocks
    Spam/phish payload
    Slowdown 2 ways: adblocks & hardcodes
    Hosts = Ez edit.

    AB+ 151mb https://www.google.com/search?q=Adblock+memory+consumption&btnG=Search&hl=en&gbv=1/

    UBlock 64MB https://www.google.com/search?q=UBlock+memory+consumption&btnG=Search&hl=en&gbv=1/

    Hosts~16mb

    Addons = ClarityRay defeatable & crippled http://www.businessinsider.com/google-microsoft-amazon-taboola-pay-adblock-plus-to-stop-blocking-their-ads-2015-2/

    NoScript tag parses. Hosts block script prior to it!

    No 1 addon does as much.

    Stacked addons slowup.

    ADDONS = EXPLOITABLE https://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=11166303&cid=55266729/

    APK

    P.S.=> APK Hosts File Engine https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&biw=&bih=&q=%22APK+Hosts+File+Engine%22+and+%22start64%22&btnG=Google+Search&gbv=1/

  22. YARUS on /. by prefec2 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Yet another rubbish and unreliable study on Slashdot. I checked the article, but I couldn't find what they actually measured this result, how they tested it and I could not find a replication documentation. Without this is just a marketing claim. I also would like to know who paid for that study and why. If it was part of a research project what is their goal.

    1. Re:YARUS on /. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There is a good reason for that. The actual results are $295 each, and there are two https://research.nsslabs.com/reportaction/report-509/Marketing and https://research.nsslabs.com/reportaction/report-508/Marketing that cover this study. What TFA did is take the press releases for those reports and barely summarized those into a single article. Why spend almost $600 to cover the real results when you can get just as much articles from 10 minutes of work and a click-bait headline.

  23. last time I checked it didnt even stop ads by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    go figure...

  24. Does it work on Linux? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If the answer is "no", I'm not interested.

  25. Should start including Brave by ttfkam · · Score: 1

    Its market share may be very low now, but isnâ(TM)t it worth it to evaluate a security profile based strongly on privacy? Wouldnâ(TM)t many hacks be mitigated by virtue of the same code that blocks tracking, ads, and fingerprinting?

    Worth a shot at least.

    --

    - I don't need to go outside, my CRT tan'll do me just fine.
  26. Les Privat Surabaya by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    we must be careful from any malware.
    Les privat Surabaya

  27. Good on them, BUT. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    MS deserves credit for this accomplishment. Even though their browser keeps coming in last on exploitability, malware and phishing protection is really important to users.

    However, the result only states recall. What about precision? False positives can completely undermine a feature like this, as we've seen with cert warning click-throughs. Worse, false positives poison the well for all browsers by training users, while bad recall can be fixed. It would be a shame if, in a race to beat tests like this, all the browser companies put recall ahead of precision.

    Are false positives for phishing and malware a problem, or is my browser, Chrome, just really good about not having them?

  28. NSS is an extortion racket by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hah. I have to work with NSS (not for browsers, but for another security area). They're incompetent. Their results are all about how much money you've paid them (and how long you've been on top; they like to rotate to make it look like they're doing something).

    For an example, one time they were attempting to test our stuff, but for some reason no traffic was getting through anything. Our guy had to point out that all the lights on the switch were flashing like crazy. Yeah, turns out they had turned off spanning tree and looped their network, but couldn't figure out how to troubleshoot a broadcast storm. This is Networking 101 level stuff. You think they do any better on the higher level stuff?

    No idea why these morons get any respect, except that security is hard and most customers just want a rubber-stamp to cover their ass.

  29. only half the story by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Assuming the summary and study are accurate, a big assumption, they only tested the false negative rate, not the false positive rate. How many non-malware sites were blocked? That might indicate how much better Edge is than a red brick.

  30. Sure... by XSportSeeker · · Score: 2

    You know also a good way of blocking most of those? Using ad blockers and other privacy oriented plugins, most of which Edge does not support.

    And then, people should know that these tests are always giving different results because the stats change all the time... here:
    https://tech.slashdot.org/stor...

    Here:
    https://tech.slashdot.org/stor...

    Just keep using whatever you like and feel more comfortable with, all browsers have their own vulnerabilities and risks.

    1. Re:Sure... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's almost like you're implying Edge doesn't support ad blockers but of course it does. Not as many as the other browsers but it's about quality, not quantity surely. Is there any specific extension you think would help, say, Firefox, that Edge does not support?

  31. Not the least bit one sided by Trax3001BBS · · Score: 1

    computerworld is pro windows, a tangent from the IBM PC is god "cover a variety of enterprise IT topics (with a concentration on Windows, Mobile and Apple/Enterprise)" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    Were taking their word Edge is best as one can't prove them wrong anymore. Best most have is EICAR to test malware ability of any program https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... vx.netlux.org and their database of malware was forced down very early and my source of test files.

    I take any test from computerworld as one sided, I've known the publication since my Amiga days.

  32. Back on Firefox by cerberusss · · Score: 1

    I see Firefox didn't do so well in this test. However, I'm back nowadays on Firefox (from Safari) on both my Mac and the media PC that's running Windows 10. Linux only runs on my servers, which don't usuall run a GUI.

    Seriously, you may want to give it another shot. The current beta has the new user interface, which is very sleek. Also, the're revamping the plugin architecture. Although it sucks for existing plugins, I have no doubt a more simple plugin arch is greatly going to benefit stability.

    Plus they've got this multi-process thing fully operational now, and although it's a behind-the-scenes thing, my experience so far is pretty good.

    Give it a shot, I'd say.

    --
    8 of 13 people found this answer helpful. Did you?
    1. Re:Back on Firefox by KiloByte · · Score: 1

      [Firefox] The current beta has the new user interface, which is very sleek.

      WTF? The only way to say anything good about the new interface is to compare it with Australis, which is a disaster of Gnome3 or Metro proportions. Anyone who cares the slightest bit about usability uses appropriate extensions and/or Pale Moon (although the latter has other downsides).

      --
      The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
  33. Inverse correlations because ... by CaptainDork · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ... Edge is the least-used browser and attackers aren't going to expend much energy going after it.

    The others are high-profile and coders hammer away at them.

    Not mentioned in the article (and fairly so because of relevancy) is that Edge sucks so hard that Nature abhors it.

    --
    It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
  34. Who gives a shit when you can't install it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    All of the computers in my organization are either running Windows 7 or MacOS. I would prefer the people on Windows use Edge that try to use Windows Explorer like idiots and then complain when nothing works, but no one is going to upgrade all those computers to Windows 10 when they already have Chrome installed.

  35. Really? by Progman3K · · Score: 1

    Browser with no market-share beats out one of the world's most targetted browser?

    How could this be???

    --
    I don't know the meaning of the word 'don't' - J
  36. Translation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    > Microsoft Edge Beats Chrome and Firefox in Malware-Blocking Tests

    Spyware browser 1 beats Spyware browser 2 and Spyware browser 3 in Malware Blocking Tests

  37. Re:Addons = inefficient & inferior vs. hosts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    WARNING: Link redirects to goatse.

  38. Re:The baddies aren't optimising for bypassing edg by vux984 · · Score: 1

    In many respects that is the same advantage linux and osx have over windows. Or pick your favorite hobby os and kernel... virtually no malware affects it.

    It may not tell you much about the quality of that software, but the advantage is still real.

    In other words, doing your banking from a machine running Haiku (based on BeOS) might not be a bad idea...

  39. You anonymous trolls are "slippin'" bad... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    See subject: ... THAT is the worst most LAME bs you've ever, Ever, EVER tried - no joke!" In my estimation (there is no other)? YOUR PERFORMANCE (always amusing for me, you make ME look GOOD after all) is DOWN lately..."

    * THIS is your theme song along w/ China today https://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=11236517&cid=55373679/ lol, just for you (it IS you).

    "YOU CAN'T GET NO - S A T I S F A C T I O N..."

    APK

    P.S.=> Especially vs. "yours truly", me - but I'll tell you what - I get a TON from making utter chumps of you, as after all - YOU MAKE ME LOOK GOOD (yourself? Well...lmao)... apk

    1. Re: You anonymous trolls are "slippin'" bad... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      After all that time why do you still try to peddle your useless host file management software. The technique itself is not useless ( Fravia+ ,may he rest in paece but I fear that he is spinning in is grave, approval in 1997 speaks a lots about it's validity) but your engine does nothing that a small shell script cannot do, nothing!!! And don't use the efficiency argument, we are talking about merging at most 200mb of flat files...

  40. NSS Labs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ie9 is the best:
    https://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/08/16/200209/ie-9-beats-other-browsers-at-blocking-malicious-content

    ie is the best:
    https://tech.slashdot.org/story/10/12/15/1927213/nss-labs-browser-report-says-ie-is-the-best-google-disagrees

    NSS Labs please...

  41. It might be funded by MS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Here are links to some previous study results;

    2013: NSS Labs Test Results Reveal Which Browsers are Most Effective Against Socially Engineered Malware
    https://www.nsslabs.com/company/news/press-releases/nss-labs-test-results-reveal-which-browsers-are-most-effective-against-socially-engineered-malware/

    2016: NSS Labs Tests Leading Web Browsers for Secure End User Experience
    https://www.nsslabs.com/company/news/press-releases/nss-labs-tests-leading-web-browsers-for-secure-end-user-experience/

    and 2010: Study: IE Scores Highest Against Social Malware
    https://rcpmag.com/articles/2010/12/15/ie-scores-highest-against-social-malware.aspx

    Last article particularly mentions:

    Austin, Texas-based NSS Labs is funded by Microsoft but the study does not disclose that information with great clarity. Instead, this statement appears on page 12 of the study: "This private test was contracted by Microsoft's SmartScreen product team as an internal benchmark, leveraging our Live Testing framework."

  42. NSS "Labs" is a by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Microsoft funded shill site

  43. Re:so much butthurt from Chrome & Firefox fanb by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Shut up, you idiot. Edge is a piece of shit and so are those shills at NSS for taking money from M$

  44. Microsoft is a shit stain on the computing world. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The sooner they die the better off we'll be.

  45. Re: Upgrade Frequency? by Monster_user · · Score: 1

    GNU/Linux is constantly being upgraded. Constantly changing and evolving.

    Various different distributions have different release cycles to a achieve a balance suitable for their audience.

    Ubuntu, one of the more popular distributions has a release cycle of every 6 months. (April and October of every year).

    Debian, the parent distribution to Ubuntu, has a less rigid cycle, but is generally about every two years, with one additional year of support for the previous release resulting in 3 years per release.

    The differences in each of these releases are not typically as significant as those between different versions of Windows. In addition, I don't believe a six-month update has resulted in breaking a system in a number of years.

    Though, I did just uninstall Ubuntu WUBI from my desktop. The upgrade from 2012 LTS to 2014 LTS killed the OS, resulting in a kernel panic. Didn't think it worth fixing this time, plan on reinstalling on an SSD by itself. Might be why they dropped support for WUBI in 2014.

    Fortunately, I have not been hit by the same from Microsoft and Windows 10, despite hearing reports that it is now the same story, different brand.

  46. Re:Addons = inefficient & inferior vs. hosts by Luthair · · Score: 1

    Add-ons do have advantages, they can be more selective and block based on paths, they can hide DOM elements and they can block based on context (e.g. 3rd party)

  47. It better be! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Considering EDGE and its underlying platform is a huge malware magnet it better be.....nor that it will matter though

  48. I reading this article with Firefox.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...you insensitive cl$%#(*X{}X{{

    NO CARRIER

  49. No wonder by MoarSauce123 · · Score: 0

    Edge sucks so bad that users don't even turn it on. 100% effective against malware and phishing.

  50. Well these comments are useless. by sabbede · · Score: 1
    I see this headline and I start thinking maybe I should look into the viability of pushing my staff towards using Edge. I don't know why I thought there might be useful information in the comments on an article about a Microsoft program, but I'm half-asleep so I took a look. What a waste of time. 100 people saying they hate Microsoft and that Win10 is spyware.

    Nothing brings out the crybabies, trolls and flamers to chase away any substance like an article about something Microsoft.

  51. Useless? /.ers quoted disagree... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm going to continue using the Host File Engine. Your software is well written, functional. The Host File Engine performs exactly as promised by mmell

    his hosts program is actually pretty good by xenotransplant

    his hosts tool is actually useful for those cases in which one does indeed want to locally block stuff outright while consuming minimum system resources by alexgieg

    (APK's) work, I've flat out said it's good by BronsCon

    I've tried his hosts file generating software. It works by bmo

    APK your posts on this & the hosts file posts, and more, have never been in error &/or bad advice by BlueStrat

    Your premise that hostfiles are a good way to deal with advertising & malvertising is quite valid by JazzLad

    I like your host file system by Karmashock

    (NEED MORE? Ask!)

    * It's recommended/hosted by Malwarebytes' hpHosts!

    APK

    P.S.=> China imitated me http://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/04/26/boffins_supercharge_the_hosts_file_to_save_users_plagued_by_dns_outages/ ... apk

  52. Wrong: You obviously do & so do these /.ers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm going to continue using the Host File Engine. Your software is well written, functional. The Host File Engine performs exactly as promised by mmell

    his hosts program is actually pretty good by xenotransplant

    his hosts tool is actually useful for those cases in which one does indeed want to locally block stuff outright while consuming minimum system resources by alexgieg

    (APK's) work, I've flat out said it's good by BronsCon

    I've tried his hosts file generating software. It works by bmo

    APK your posts on this & the hosts file posts, and more, have never been in error &/or bad advice by BlueStrat

    Your premise that hostfiles are a good way to deal with advertising & malvertising is quite valid by JazzLad

    I like your host file system by Karmashock

    (NEED MORE? Ask!)

    * It's recommended/hosted by Malwarebytes' hpHosts!

    APK

    P.S.=> China imitated me http://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/04/26/boffins_supercharge_the_hosts_file_to_save_users_plagued_by_dns_outages/ ... apk

  53. No single addon does as much & they eat more by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No single addon does nearly as much & they eat FAR more! See subject & https://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=11236647&cid=55372251/?-saysitallwithproofthat'sundeniable,concrete&verifiable.APKP.S.= To each his own... apk