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Microsoft Edge, anyone? (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by cujo@sh.itjust.works to c/linux@lemmy.ml

I recently discovered that you can get Microsoft Edge for Linux (🤢🤮) and am curious... does anyone here use Edge for Linux, or have you ever? What was your reasoning for using it?

EDIT: Well, you all have provided some interesting perspectives I hadn't ever considered. Including one which means I'll have to install Edge, so... thanks, I guess. 😂

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[-] empireOfLove@lemmy.one 58 points 1 year ago

Probably a godsend if you're a web dev. No more rebooting or running a second PC/VM for compatibility checking.

[-] mvirts@lemmy.world 29 points 1 year ago

Na, edge users don't file bug reports 😂

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[-] TheGiantKorean@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago

The only possible use case I can think of, but I'd still want to restrict the thing to its own VM out of paranoia.

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[-] mholiv@lemmy.world 43 points 1 year ago

It has a slightly better privacy policy compared to google chrome while fully supporting progressive web apps on Linux. Edge is also very much so more efficient in terms of system resource utilization. It also has high quality native built in translation which I need. All of this means I use Edge as my PWA browser.

Chromium lacks native translation support. Firefox PWA support is not good. Edge was the least bad option for me. 🤷‍♀️

[-] christophski@feddit.uk 11 points 1 year ago

How is edge more efficient? It's literally chromium

[-] GenderNeutralBro@lemmy.sdf.org 15 points 1 year ago

Chrome is basically Chromium+bloat so this doesn't surprise me.

[-] 30p87@feddit.de 9 points 1 year ago

And Edge is chromium + Microsoft Bloat.

One could argue using it on Windows means only allowing M$ to spy on you, theoretically. Though I would not be surprised if M$ uses a custom version of Chromium including Google trackers, so the opposite of degoogled chromium.

[-] mholiv@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

With the same amount of tabs with the same sites Edge uses fewer resources. I think Microsoft did some fine tuning or something. It’s not just just me that sees this either.

This is a 2 year old link but it shows the difference. https://www.tomsguide.com/news/chrome-firefox-edge-ram-comparison

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[-] Chewy7324@discuss.tchncs.de 32 points 1 year ago

In my opinion no proprietary browser is worth using.

Chrome isn't better in any way than Edge, as both don't respect it's users privacy and decisions (dark patterns, etc).

[-] GodsKillerKirb@sh.itjust.works 12 points 1 year ago

I agree.

If a browser ain't open source, I ain't gonna use it and neither should anyone else.

[-] DeathByDenim@lemmy.world 31 points 1 year ago

I use Edge daily for work. Everything it Office 365 and there is of course no Outlook client or Word or whatever on Linux. So I use the web version for everything. So I might as well have Edge to do the Microsoft since surely MS must make sure their stuff works on their own browser, right? (right??).

I also use the PWA version of Teams since the native client doesn't really work well and since somewhat recently is also "officially" unsupported.

Anyway, it keeps the MS stuff separate from my normal browsing with Firefox and I've disabled JavaScript in Edge for all non-MS stuff. It works pretty well. Took me some battles to get rid of the Bing sidebar but they finally made that an option you can set.

[-] flubba86@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

This is the reason I use it too.

I first installed it when the Teams web client stopped working properly in Firefox. I installed Edge, and it worked well. Also noticed Teams in Edge allows me to turn on background blur, where that was disabled on Firefox and Chrome in Linux. Then I tried PWAs, and found the Edge support for installing and running PWAs is second to none, so now I run Outlook 365 and Teams as PWAs.

Firefox is still my primary browser, but I don't use Chrome anymore. Edge has become my chromium-based browser of choice. Somehow Microsoft has built a better Chrome than Google does.

[-] gerdesj@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 year ago

Try installing a User Agent switcher into your browsers and then fake your browser ID. FF works fine with Teams, Exchange and M365 - I have been an IT consultant installing or using all of that lot for over two decades.

I too have a favourite browser. It used to be FF up to about 15 years ago (v2 or so) then Google were cool and I went all in on Chrome. I then went Chromium. I actually started out with telnet but that's another story.

A couple of months ago I finally dumped Chromium and co and went back to FF. Biggest win for me was a slightly less opinionated SSL experience. That needs some explaining:

I run a lot of IT and that means a lot of SSL certs. Mostly I use Lets Encrypt if I can as well as the usual suspects. Sometimes a site does not need SSL at all. Googles browsers are very VERY opinionated about this: "Thou shall not use thy browser password manager with self signed SSL certs". FF has a slightly less opinionated "Thou canst TOFU and thy password manager will work". I spend a lot of time pissing around with uploading CA certs to group policy objects and copying them to /usr/local/share/ca-certificates and getting the machines to trust them. On Arch we use /etc/ca-certifictes etc and so on and so forth. I also have to deal with Teams - FF works better now than Cr browsers

I've returned to FF after a very long time and I don't regret it at all. I run Arch actually!

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[-] astrsk@artemis.camp 27 points 1 year ago

I use Edge on Linux as my user agent in Firefox on Windows just so I can give some engineers a laugh.

[-] Dukeofdummies@kbin.social 27 points 1 year ago

I always use edge whenever I'm making a public presentation with a computer I use. Simply because I never use it. Then autocomplete won't embarrass me if we look something up.

[-] baseless_discourse@mander.xyz 14 points 1 year ago

Why dont use any other browser, like vivaldi, brave, librewolf, ungoogled chromium, that are not made by data hungery big tech like Microsoft.

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[-] BitingChaos@lemmy.world 19 points 1 year ago

I set it up with my work profile for Office 365 stuff.

I've given up the hope that Office will ever come to Linux, so instead I'm just trying to use the web version more.

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[-] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 17 points 1 year ago

I don't use it as its proprietary and spyware

[-] nx2@feddit.de 15 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yo I'll install this bs right now if it allows me to watch Netflix into such in 4k. Anyone tried that?

Edit: Nope that's not a thing

FUCK NETFLIX DISNEY AMAZON AND ALL THE OTHERS

[-] BlinkerFluid@lemmy.one 13 points 1 year ago

Set sail, matey. The actors are on strike anyway. You can afford to hate a corporation or two.

[-] beyond@linkage.ds8.zone 15 points 1 year ago

Nah it's proprietary garbage. If it weren't proprietary it would be an option (although in that case a "deMicrosofted" version would be better). there are free Chromium browsers and free browsers that aren't chromium, this one offers nothing of interest.

[-] gamma@programming.dev 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I have it on Steam Deck since it can be launched with a CLI argument to force a 1280x800 window.

Vivaldi pretends to be Edge when visiting Bing to unlock GPT-4, and prefer that to Edge on my other devices. (Secondary to Firefox, ofc)

[-] PythagoRascal@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago

I currently use Edge for mostly one thing, its "Read aloud" feature.

Because you can use some of the Azure neural voices its currently the best, free, easily accessible text-to-speech available.

It can even do PDFs quite well. Really helps when I'm too unable to focus for reading long texts but can still listen well enough (ADHD).

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[-] wviana@lemmy.eco.br 11 points 1 year ago

Installed to use bingGpt. Never use it. But somethis it get some updates.

[-] downhomechunk@midwest.social 10 points 1 year ago

I use it on snap!

(J/k, I don't)

[-] mutter9355@discuss.tchncs.de 9 points 1 year ago

I use it for my university email, which is an outlook account. Edge is the only browser that doesn't constantly log me out.

[-] palordrolap@kbin.social 13 points 1 year ago

Sounds more like a dirty tactic by Microsoft. As suggested elsewhere for other purposes, try spoofing the user-agent header and see if it still keeps logging you out. The UA header shouldn't have any effect whatsoever, but if it "fixes" the problem, it's yet another case of Microsoft being Microsoft.

(Their excuse will be something like "oh, we don't support other browsers because we can't be sure the software will work properly in them", which skips the fact that 1: it lets you log in using a "bad" browser, which it shouldn't do if it's that dangerous and 2: they're a massive multinational corporation. If they can't put a bit of money towards making things work in the small handful of alien browsers, they're doing it wrong. Probably on purpose.)

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[-] gerdesj@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 year ago

I run an awful lot of MS email for a lot of customers. My own company (literally mine) uses Exchange on prem and I pass all access through HA Proxy. My customers mostly use M365 but one is still on GroupWise (I have known GroupWise for roughly 25 years)

I've seen browsers come and go. My first one was telnet on a VAX through a X.25 PAD and a string of connections via the US (I'm UK) to CERN. First graphical browser was Mosaic on Win 95. I think Mosaic became Internet Explorer - MS don't really innovate - they buy it.

Edge is basically Chromium with knobs on. Chromium is Chrome with knobs removed (sort of!) I can exclusively reveal that Firefox works fine with all version of OWA and Exchange on-line, because that is what I personally use and so do many of my staff and customers.

If you have snags with your uni email then there is something specific there and not your browser choice. Edge doesn't do anything special for OWA it's just yet another Google browser.

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[-] Pantherina@feddit.de 9 points 1 year ago

How most comments are either "I use X anyways" or "Edge seems to be a decent browser"

It is not. Has no tracking protection at all and itself tracks you a hell lot.

Its just a browser, no need to be tracked, for what in reverse? The same with Chrome, I dont get it?

Here is some actual MITM traffic analysis. Use Firefox Translate to translate.

https://www.kuketz-blog.de/microsoft-edge-datensendeverhalten-desktop-version-browser-check-teil4/

[-] art@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

I actually trust Microsoft far more than I trust Google. I use Outlook as my main email provider and Edge for when I need something that rejects Firefox.

Besides trust, Edge just feels snappier on Linux than Chrome. Chrome is so bloaty theses days.

[-] Jayb151@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

I'll say this, I never used edge before, but it's comparable with a bunch of my work sites so I was kind of forced into using it. It's actually pretty great. Better overall than stock chrome, though I prefer brave or Firefox for non work related stuff.

Once I started using Edge, I was surprised by how well it worked.

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[-] techognito@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

Yes, because I am forced to use M$ Teams.

and it doesn't work in firefox

[-] cupcakezealot 7 points 1 year ago

Just wait until Microsoft releases a .deb of Windows Terminal.

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[-] LeFantome@programming.dev 7 points 1 year ago

I think of myself as a Firefox user but I probably use Edge on Linux more than any other browser.

It runs the video conferencing apps I need to use better than anything else. Firefox does not work at all with some of them.

Obviously, it works well with Outlook and Office 365. I use a number of LMS systems and they all work well with it as well.

Once you start using it, it is just a great browser though honestly. Before I know it, I have opened a bunch of tabs in Edge and there is no reason to open anything else.

[-] TeaEarlGrayHot@lemmy.ca 7 points 1 year ago

I use Edge daily--trying to use mostly non-proprietary software, but when I need to annotate a PDF, Edge just works. It's no drawboard PDF, but it's free and runs on Linux!

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[-] Holzkohlen@feddit.de 7 points 1 year ago

I can't really blame people for using Edge since I using VSCode daily 😞

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[-] Moobythegoldensock@lemm.ee 6 points 1 year ago

As a browser it’s fine, but Microsoft asking me to use it every 0.001 seconds really turns me off it.

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[-] LinuxSBC@lemm.ee 6 points 1 year ago

It has a really good implementation of vertical tabs. Vivaldi and Firefox are somewhat close, but they're not nearly as polished.

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[-] pietervdvn@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 year ago

Yes. I'm mostly developing a website, and testing on another browser is necessary every now and then. But that is my only use reason.

My main browser used to be firefox till tw9 weeks qgo, but it started to be buggy so it's LibreWolf now.

[-] deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I use edge on Ubuntu via the snap.

It lets me use a very specific website that doesn't work in Firefox.

It also lets me play Xbox cloud games on Linux.

Otherwise it's Firefox soon the way.

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this post was submitted on 21 Sep 2023
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